Volunteers armed with clipboards and clickers will be on street corners in Minneapolis and St. Paul this week to count the number of bicyclists and pedestrians who pass by.
The goal, city leaders say, is to gain accurate data that will be used to understand the impact of non-motorized travel on streets, sidewalks and paths, and use the data to plan future infrastructure and safety improvements.
This will be the first time that St. Paul will take a count. Data collectors will be stationed at 30 locations throughout the city from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday.
In Minneapolis, this will be the seventh year that the city will partner with Transit for Livable Communities to conduct its Bicycle and Pedestrian Count. Volunteers will be stationed at 30 locations to count the number of bicyclists and at 23 places to count the number of people who travel on foot.
Unlike St. Paul, the count in Minneapolis will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Some data also will be collected at a few locations during daytime hours.
For the record, previous counts in Minneapolis have shown that the number of bicyclists has increased 56 percent from 2007 to 2012. The busiest on-street intersection is 15th Avenue SE. just north of University Avenue with 4,310 bicycle trips a day. The busiest off-street location was the upper level of the Washington Avenue Bridge on the University of Minnesota campus with 7,370 daily trips.
The top places for walking were on Nicollet Mall north of 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis with 20,320 pedestrians followed by Washington Avenue SE. west of Union Street with 19,990 walkers.
The counts in Minneapolis and St. Paul coincide with a national effort to get better day on the number of bicyclists and pedestrians. Counts also will be taken this week and next in cities in cities throughout the country, and data forwarded to the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project.
