Counting Bikes

A month or so ago, we signed up to count bikes for PDOT so they can update their traffic information and tell the purse string holders how many more people are riding bikes this year than last, so we can have more trails, bike blvds n stuff.

Our first mission was at the corner of Russell and Williams, quite the hot commuting spot.  We set up at 3:50pm and from 4:00-6:00 we kept track of who went where, men vs women and helmets vs no helmets.  It was definitely a two person job.

In two hours, we counted 531 cyclists. About 20% were without helmets and about 38% were women.  One of the cyclists was an ex of mine, who stopped to chat, during the busiest stream of the time period.  I actually enjoyed the challenge of keeping up conversation while trying to keep track of all the bikes.  We have another intersection to count out near U of P that probably won't see quite as much traffic, but I'll be interested to see the numbers.