Cycle counting programme in Hamilton

Prioritisation of land transport funding and justification of investment by mode has long favoured easily measured motorised journeys. The collection of data on active transport trips has traditionally been limited to manual counts.

Following on from the 2008 NZTA funded investigation by ViaStrada into methods of continuous cycle counting, this conference paper summarises the literature on the latest methods, count durations, how many sites are needed, and where they should be placed to gain a representative sample of the cycling levels throughout a given network.

This knowledge has been applied in the development of automatic cycle counting programmes for three New Zealand cities of a range of sizes: Christchurch, New Plymouth, and Hamilton. This paper presents the development process, planning, and implementation to date of the programme for Hamilton City.

The topics will be of interest to decision-makers and transportation planners working to quantify the effectiveness of investment in active transport networks.

The paper was presented as a poster, as shown below, at the 2011 Transportation Conference.

Hamilton cycle counting poster: Click on image to open a larger poster