The diamonds in this chart show the most likely annualized traffic volume, in thousands. The blue bar shows the range of possibilities, based on counts made in the past fifteen months. (Click to enlarge)
The bicycle & pedestrian counts have been completed for the fall of 2013. Of the six locations counted, two showed the highest counts ever recorded while the remaining four were within norms. In total, the counts for the six locations were up 79% over the same time period in 2012. The two sites with record highs were Notre Dame Avenue, just south of the Notre Dame campus and a corresponding site just north of campus: Juniper Road. The increased usage might be explained by the increase in student housing to the south, and the much improved bike routes to the north. Also Juniper Road now sports striped bike lanes, where it was formerly a narrow road with only gravel shoulders.
Using standard adjustment factors provided by the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPD), the counts have been annualized and show that Notre Dame Avenue would have 119,000 cyclists per year, Riverside Drive/Trail is second busiest at 100,000 followed by Juniper Road at 71,000 per year.
The traffic count project is a cooperative effort with volunteers from the Bike Michiana Coalition, the City of South Bend, Indiana University at South Bend, and Bike the Bend. The basic assumptions of the methodology are that, in order to estimate existing and future bicycle and pedestrian demand and activity, agencies nationwide need to conduct counts in a consistent manner similar to those being used by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and other groups for motor vehicle models.
The Michiana counts also show data on gender, pedestrian traffic, bicycle helmet usage, and bikes riding against traffic. The BMC is happy to share this information with interested parties.
