Can you count and are you free Oct. 5, 6, or 7th?
Then you can volunteer to participate in the 2010 Washington Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project.
The state wants to count bicyclists and pedestrians at specific locations year after year to estimate demand, measure the success of investments and design future projects.
Cities seeking volunteers comprise Bellevue, Bellingham, Bothell, Bremerton, Burien, Duvall, Ellensburg, Everett, Ferndale, Issaquah, Kelso, Kent, Kirkland, Longview, Lynden, Mercer Island, Mountlake Terrace, Oak Harbor, Olympia, Redmond, Richland, Seattle, Shoreline, Spokane, Tacoma, Tukwila, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Yakima.
Contacts
To participate, contact state bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Ian Macek (email maceki@wsdot.wa.gov) or Cascade Bicycle Club's Teesa Greegor (email teesa.greegor@cascadebicycleclub.org).
Last year, 250 volunteers participated in the count. The state says that using volunteers to count bikers and walkers is more accurate than using mechanical counters or sensors.
Bellevue count
Although organizers say volunteers should be prepared for rain or shine, I did my counting last year from the comfort of a desk in an office.
The city of Bellevue saved tapes from traffic monitors at certain locations around town and downloaded them into computers. All the volunteers had to do was drink free coffee and keep track of the pedestrians and bicyclists crossing landmarks showing on the screen. If you weren't sure, you simply rolled back the scene a few seconds and recounted.
The results from 2010 will be matched to reports from 2008 and 2009. It will be interesting to watch the statewide trends, as well as changes on the local levels.
Downward trend
Although it's difficult to spot trends between two years, the number of bicyclists counted at the same locations was down in 2009. The 2009 report attributes the difference to particularly nasty weather on the count day in 2009.
Just for the record, I was assigned to watch two hours of traffic at a busy downtown Bellevue location with no bike lanes. Not surprisingly, I counted only three bikes during my watch. It was the lowest count of all the stations in the city that day.
For more information about signing up, see the bicycle and pedestrian count page for Washington state Department of Transportation.
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