My Tuesday afternoon was spent counting bikes and pedestrians going through the Belmont bike lanes. There are worse things than sitting on the grass on a sunny September afternoon, watching bicycles go by. I have to admit being disappointed by the actual number of bike commuters, since I’d expected to see many more during that two-hour window—but it was still nice to know there’s more out there than I see on a typical commute.
Some pictures from the exciting life of a civic volunteer. Here’s hoping that my afternoon will help bring some bicycle and pedestrian support for Nashville.
Count sheet
Cell phone self-portrait
more counting
Red shoes
The Batavus counts
Let's Go Ride a Bike 
An inscrutable Mona-Lisa Smile! ;-)
What has happened to ‘the smile’ I had a glimpse of? :-(
technical difficulties! It’s back.
You are such a good citizen! I love the cell phone self portrait (a defining mark of our generation) and the red shoes against the green grass. How many cyclists did you count (or is that privileged info)? :)
Thank goodness ‘The Smile’ is back on. Certainly it would warm the cockles of many male hearts!
Have a nice day , you and Dottie!;-)
I was tooling along on a cycle path (MUP?) in Iowa City, IA the other day and noticed a counting gizzmo mounted on one of the posts along the pathway. I made sure to go past it several times :-D
Aaron
I drove to work friday because my bike was in the shop. I instinctively wanted to watch out for other cyclists to see how many i would encounter during the drive.
I was quite surprised at how few I saw (no more than 15 total), I would have thought it was a lot more. I also noticed something quite interesting: all but one of them stuck exclusively to the sidewalk.
I think I saw someone doing this on the Mount Vernon Trail–a major bike commute artery–on Thursday. Sad thing? It was our first day of cold, wet, “dreary” (but I love it!) weather. Why couldn’t they have counted in July (which was by all accounts the nicest weather this otherwise weather-cursed area has ever seen)?
Are those the same kind of red shoes that you can click your heels three times when you wanna go home?
:)
Hey! I’m curious to know who you’re doing the bike count for? Is this a count for local town planners trying to gauge improvements, or for advocates getting a sense of numbers and needs? Or does this complement your blog’s fine task of “bikespotting”?
I have a habit of counting bikes on my way to and from work. I can certainly see a correlation between the number of bikes, and the weather.
I, however, don’t have the sense to come in out of the rain, when it comes to bicycling!
[…] for its first ever bike count, there’s still time to sign up if you’d like to volunteer; Nashville just did it. Fellow cyclist Russell Crowe braves the traffic on Sunset Boulevard; note BOA and Chateau Marmot […]
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Sounds interesting. Is there a special survey going on in Nashville?