Forecasting Bicycle and Pedestrian Usage and Research Data Collection Equipment (TTI No. P2009330)

During recent years, community leaders and transportation professionals in the Austin area have increased their interest in pedestrian and bicycle travel. Advocacy groups, task forces, bicycling clubs, and volunteer organizations encourage governmental agencies to do more to improve safety and accommodations for these vulnerable users. The sentiments have been upheld by the Federal Highway Administration with policy statements supporting livability concepts which include bicycle and pedestrian transportation improvements. With all of the attention on these forms of non-motorized transportation in the region, there is a need to know whether the programs are actually increasing the number of people who bike and walk. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) hired the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to help them find the answer to these and other questions. The project's scope of work includes the following tasks: 1. Research bicycle and pedestrian monitoring programs in order to recommend an appropriate method to collect data, 2. Collect existing bicycle and pedestrian traffic counts in the five-county Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area while testing data collection equipment, 3. Forecast potential use from bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, 4. Integrate the sketch planning tool into the CAMPO transportation planning process, and 5. Complete a final report, executive summary, and data collection training. This document comprises the final report for the project and includes the results of each of the above tasks. It is organized by task with additional details provided in the appendix. Best practices and lessons learned from agencies that have pedestrian and bicycle monitoring programs are included. Based on these findings, researchers made recommendations for CAMPO. The tool developed by TTI identifies missing links in the pedestrian and bicycle network. Included in this report are pedestrian and bicycle volume data at 15 locations around the region.