The state would simply love your help counting bicycles and pedestrians. This will require placing volunteers on street corners in cities around the state and manually tracking passersby on tally sheets. “Just like motor vehicle counts, counting bicyclists and pedestrians at specific locations will help us to more accurately estimate demand, measure the benefits of investments, and design our projects,” says the Washington State Department of Transportation. “This information will also help us target safety and mobility projects and improve our traffic models.”

18 replies on “War on Cars! War on Cars! War on Cars!”

  1. I think we should require pedestrians to get a license, they clearly are a burden on our roads.

    … I read it on Wikipedia, it’s true.

  2. Come on People – this isn’t Rocket Science. You know exactly what’s going to happen here….

    When the results come out, the “war on cars” people will claim pro-cycling fanatics volunteered to do the counting and inflated the results, while the “war on bikes” people will claim angry drivers volunteered and intentionally under-reported how many bikes went by.

    They use an automated system to do this on highways – an air-hose-activated counting mechanism. Can’t they do this on bike lanes and trails? Or maybe hidden cameras such as those used in the wilderness to record wildlife activity? Then you can review the tape to get a count – AND you have irrefutable proof (you could even see if the same cyclists are riding past over and over again to inflate the count).

  4. To win the “WAR ON CARS!!”™ we must have a clear plan for “VICTORY!!”©

    I suggest throwing a pipe bomb at the next SUV you see driving down the street.

  5. There is no force powerful enough to get me on a bike in traffic without dedicated paths or a physical barrier. So I would not be counted, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like, Seattle politely, to request more bicycle accommodations.

  6. Lame. Measuring car trafic is relatively constant. Most people drive to the same workplace every day, to the same school, or stores. Drivers have a routine that doesn’t change much by weather.

    But the weather can have a dramatic effect on how many people are out and about walking or biking. If they don’t take weather into account for their survey, it will be completely worthless. Measure a street corner on a cold rainy January evening. Measure the same street corner again on a warm sunny July evening. The car traffic would be close. The bike and pedestrian traffic will be dramatically different.

  16. Having people stand on the street corner in the wind and weather to count FOR FREE? Are you shitting me?

    Maybe they’d get a more accurate count if they… you know… paid people to work for them?

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