Cycling and Walking Survey

[G3CWI]

I have suggested to our Local Authority that they might seek to do some sort of baseline survey of cycling and walking levels so that they can make objective measurements to see the effect of measures that they implement. Is anyone aware of where this has been done in the past, how it was done and if the data was used for anything?

 

[sheddy]

Can the strava heat map (others may be available) be used by local authorities to reveal any useful data ?

 

[G3CWI]

Can the strava heat map (others may be available) be used by local authorities to reveal any useful data ?

I suspect that people using bikes for shopping mostly don’t use strava but the heat maps might have some utility.

 

[Debade]

We are in the process of doing that in WA state. Here is the link. I am guessing you will be able to navigate https://bikepedcount.wsdot.wa.gov
If you have a problem opening, let me know and I will try again.

 

[mjr]

https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=140418 has some detail on how to do surveys.

There's also existing datasets like the Active People Survey and Active Lives Survey, the Census Travel to Work data and the DfT traffic counts, which are all wrong in different ways but can give you an idea if what you think you're seeing is likely.

 

[G3CWI]

Thanks for your responses. If the Council responds I now have something to pass to them.

 

[G3CWI]

A development. Having copied my email to local Councillors, someone from Strategic Transport has responded to to tell me that they have baseline information:

"As part of our Active Travel budget, we have a rolling programme of data collection for walking and cycling activity at a number of locations on the transport network, including Middlewood Way in Macclesfield. We also analyse open source data from the Active Lives Adult Survey and Active Lives Children and Young People Survey, as well as from apps such as Strava. "

I actually interpret this to say that they don't, in fact, have any viable baseline data. The open source data appears to be related to the whole Borough, Strava is unlikely to catch much utility cycling and the only survey data they have relates to a shared use path that does not connect to the town centre in any meaningful way. I feel an FOI request coming on although I have asked for more details.

 

[G3CWI]

FOI request filed. I will report back.