Estimating Annual Average Daily Bicyclists Error and Accuracy

Cities around the United States are investing in bicycle infrastructure, and to secure additional transportation funding, cities are reporting bicycle use and safety improvements. Data on bicyclist traffic volume is necessary for performing safety studies and reporting facility use. Meeting the need for data, available manual bicycle counting programs count cyclists for a few hours per year at designated locations. A key issue in the design of counting programs is determining the timing and frequency of counts needed to obtain a reliable estimate of annual average daily bicyclists (AADB). In particular, in which days of the week, hours of the day, and months of the year should counts be collected? And, most important to program cost, how many hours should be counted? This study used continuous bicycle counts from Boulder, Colorado, to estimate AADB and analyze the estimation errors that would be expected from various bicycle-counting scenarios. AADB average estimation errors were found to range from 15% with 4 weeks of continuous count data to 54% when only 1 h of data was collected per year. The study found that the most cost-effective length for short-term bicycle counts is one full week when automated counting-devices specifically calibrated for bicycle-counting are used. Seasons with higher bicycle volumes have less variation in bicycle counts and thus more accurate estimates.