The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) bicycle and pedestrian data collection program is a collaborative program with state and local agencies to collect bicycle and pedestrian traffic counts throughout the State of Minnesota. The general goal is to inform transportation planning, engineering, and management. The data is being collected following the same principles and using approaches similar to those used in vehicular traffic data collection. State and local agencies, engineering consultants, and others can use these data for many purposes, including pre-post analysis of projects, performance management, evaluation of polices such as Complete Streets, safety and crash analyses. The bicycle and pedestrian data collection program focuses on collection of traffic volume data, not turning movement data. This document is a draft and is part of an ongoing research program. The final manual is expected to be published in spring 2016. This document supplements the 2013 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Monitoring Guide (TMG) and the 2014 National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 797 Guidebook on Pedestrian and Bicycle Data Collection. These documents present state-of-the-art practices and provide guidance on monitoring alternative modes of transportation. The FHWA established the first set of guidelines of the smart means and practices for bicycle and pedestrian data collection in the 2013 TMG. Minnesota is putting these new guidelines to use in this manual. Collection of bicycle and pedestrian data is currently in its infancy in Minnesota and throughout the United States. However there is use for this data and a lot to be learned about these modes of transportation. Potential uses of bicycle and pedestrian count data include: * Determine baseline volumes of bicycle and pedestrian activity * Track changes in bicycle and pedestrian activity levels by time of day, day of week, season, and under various weather conditions * Track bicycle and pedestrian related performance measures * Inform the public about bicycle and pedestrian activity and trends * Prioritize bicycle and pedestrian projects * Conduct risk or exposure analysis * Inform Road Safety Audits * Inform Intersection Control Evaluations * Evaluate the effects of new infrastructure on pedestrian and bicycle activity * Measure facility usage * Model transportation networks and estimate annual volumes * Identify variations in activity based on location or facility type and calculate context-specific expansion factors * Develop models to predict future bicycle and pedestrian volumes at different locations MnDOT is currently developing plans for state-wide bicycle and pedestrian monitoring at a number of locations throughout Minnesota. The approach will be based on the bicycle and pedestrian counting methods put forth in this manual and involves establishment of permanent, continuous monitoring stations at a limited number of locations throughout the state along with a larger number of short duration monitoring locations. The purposes of the permanent monitoring stations are to track trends in traffic over time, to provide insight into exposure to risk for safety analyses, to identify patterns in traffic that can be used to interpret and extrapolate short duration counts into annual traffic estimates, and to develop performance indicators to track progress relative to MnDOT goals and objectives. The purposes of short duration monitoring are to document variations in traffic volumes on different types of roads, to provide broad geographic coverage across the state, and to assist with evaluation of transportation investments and innovative safety treatments. MnDOT Central Office will manage the deployment and data collection from the continuous monitoring installations. Local agencies and MnDOT District offices will conduct and manage short duration counts with technical assistance from MnDOT Central Office. This manual describes the manner in which bicycle and pedestrian data is collected and recorded. It provides information on count types, site selection, and basic calculation and analytic techniques. The following subjects are addressed for each type of data collection technology: * Site Design * System Installation * System Calibration * Data Collection * Maintenance and Troubleshooting None of these subjects is meant to be covered exhaustively, rather this manual provides an overview and a list of references that may be consulted for more in depth information. Additions and changes may be made to this manual as new equipment and methods for bicycle and pedestrian data collection become available. (Author/publisher)
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