To assist in understanding the level and trends in use of bicycle facilities in Melbourne, VicRoads recently installed automatic counting equipment at selected locations on the Melbourne bicycle network. This comprises inductive loops and recording equipment. While the inductive loops have been installed at 17 sites, the permanent recording equipment has been limited to a subset of 12 of those. The automatic counters provide 15 minute aggregate two-way counts of the number of bicycles using the facility. While this data will provide important insight into aggregate use it will leave important questions unanswered. To what degree are these facilities being used for transportation as opposed to recreation ? Where are people travelling to and from ? What are the socio-demographic characteristics of users ? How important are the facilities in cyclists travel decisions ? The project reported here was established to help answer these questions by learning more about the users of Melbourne's off-road bicycle paths. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214666.
Samenvatting