Wisconsin Pedestrian and Bicycle Count Database and Expansion Factor Development

This project developed a preliminary structure for the Wisconsin Pedestrian and Bicyclist Count Database, which is intended to compile existing and future pedestrian and bicyclist counts into a consistent format. Well-documented pedestrian and bicyclist count data are important for quantifying pedestrian and bicyclist exposure for active transportation planning, prioritization, and safety analyses. After creating the Wisconsin Pedestrian and Bicyclist Count Database structure, we populated the statewide database with 1,486 unique pedestrian counts at 721 unique locations, 1,452 unique bicyclist counts at 697 unique locations, and 29 unique trail user counts at 29 unique locations.

Section 1 of the report describes the content of the Wisconsin Pedestrian and Bicyclist Count Database. Section 2 describes how we developed expansion factors that can be used to convert short-term counts (typically collected for durations of less than one day) to annual pedestrian or bicycle volume estimates. Section 3 presents a practical, statewide application of the pedestrian volume model. We first identify Wisconsin State Highway System segments with the largest absolute numbers of reported pedestrian and bicyclist crashes. Then we use pedestrian volume model estimates to calculate pedestrian crash rates on these segments. This allows us to estimate the relative risk of pedestrian crashes on selected segments of the state highway system.