COLUMBIA, S.C. — The City of Columbia is looking for volunteers to help with bicyclist & pedestrian counts throughout the city.
By counting pedestrians and bicyclists, officials say volunteers help to ensure that all of the City’s residents count as transit riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists are often not accounted for in traffic studies, which are used to make important decisions about the city's landscape.
City officials say they target key intersections and crossings for pedestrian and bicyclist counts. These are locations which are heavily used, and at many of these locations pedestrians and/or bicyclists have been injured or killed.
By collecting data routinely, on weekdays and weekends, the city says it is able to provide valuable and robust feedback to the many agencies that plan for local roadways.
The survey will help the city better understand who uses the city’s roadways – streets and sidewalks included – and how they use them. A greater understanding of people’s behavior, as well as new data, will help to influence people-oriented planning and policy that inspires walkable, bikeable, and livable transportation design, according to city officials.
In counting, volunteers are also taking part in a national effort: The National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project.
Eight time slots are available for volunteering, and each of the locations must be counted once on a weekday and once on a Saturday. Surveyors can select from a list of count locations, and will count pedestrians and cyclists at one location for two hours.
- Tuesday, September 7: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Wednesday, September 8: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Thursday, September 9: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Saturday, September 11: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, September 14: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Wednesday, September 15: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Thursday, September 16: 7:30-9:30 a.m.
- Saturday, September 18: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
To volunteer, sign up here: https://bit.ly/2021FallCounts.
If you have questions regarding the routine bicyclist & pedestrian count efforts, contact the Planning and Development Services Department at 803-545-3181.
For information on the city’s planning efforts, including the Walk Bike Columbia Pedestrian & Bicycle Master Plan, and the Walkable 29203 Pedestrian Master Plan, visit https://columbiasc.gov/planning-preservation/city-plans.
