This dataset comes from the Burrard Bridge Lane Reallocation Trial and provides a summary of the data collected between June 2009 and December 2010.
Measuring Bicycles and Pedestrians
On the Burrard Bridge, and at several other locations in the city, bicycles are counted using permanently installed detection equipment. Bicycles are counted using wire loops fixed to the bike lanes which detect the metal wheels passing over the loops. They are designed and built to ignore the effects of larger metal objects such as cars and trucks. We have checked and calibrated this equipment using counts done by staff on site. Pedestrian count data is collected in a similar manner. The pedestrian detectors respond to changes in heat rather than to metal. The count data was downloaded regularly and was updated monthly.
We also have portable bike counting tools which utilize pneumatic hoses, like similar equipment used to count vehicles. These are used on bike routes throughout the city and have been used on Pacific Street to count cyclists in the protected bike lanes connecting to the Burrard Bridge.
We have provided estimates of the number of cyclists who would have used the Burrard Bridge without the protected lanes. We have found that it is possible to estimate the number of cyclist on one bicycle route by measuring the cyclists using another route. The number of cyclist using a route on a given day is affected by season, weather, day of the week and other factors, but collectively the cyclists using one route appear to make their decisions in the same way as the cyclists using another route. We found that this lead to patterns of use that are very similar. In statistical terms, the usage patterns are strongly correlated. We have been using measurements of the Ontario Bike Route to estimate the number of cyclists who would have used the Burrard Bridge had we made no changes.