Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) - Institute For Physical Infrastructure and Transportation

Meeting Agendas & Minutes

Coordination and Community Engagement Subcommittee

Meeting (May 13nd, 2024):

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
- Evaluate counting technologies
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Identify potential partnerships
- Establish methods/frequency/documentation of communication
- Site selection
- Other?
Committee timeline
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
Questions?

Attendees:

UW-Milwaukee: Yang Li, Xiao Qin

TAC: Michelle Brokaw, Matt Gast, Andrew Levy, Amber Yan, Andi Bill

Agenda:

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
- Evaluate counting technologies
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
  - None identified by committee
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Identify potential partnerships
  - Partners
    - MPO/RPC/WisDOT conference October 2024 – Dave Mack
    - LTAP Local Technical Assistance Program – Andi Bill
    - City of Madison – Renee Callaway
    - City of Milwaukee – Mike Amsden
    - DNR trail counts – Andi Bill
    - UW Madison Campus Transportation – Chuck Strawser
    - Wisconsin Chapter of APBP – quarterly meetings
  - Informed
    - Wisconsin Bike Fed – Jake Newborn
    - WiNDAC – Ethan Severson
  - Resources
    - MNDOT
    - TXDOT
    - NCDOT
- Establish methods/frequency/documentation of communication
  - Conferences and meetings identified previously
  - Concern about emails not drawing attention
  - Recommendation to focus on using website
  - Recommendation to include sign-up for updates option on website
  - Consider establishing an annual meeting for partners that are conducting counts (hold in late winter/early spring like February, before count season begins)
- Site selection
  - Guidance provided regarding locations (copied below)
  - Also consider special events
    - Hank Aaron State Trail 5K, candle light walk (short-term)
  - STH 26 (shared use path on Janesville to Watertown segment)
  - La Crosse near downtown
  - National Ave (permanent)
  - Lake Dr. Shorewood (temporary)
  - Recommend reviewing count locations within WisDOT’s GIS Resources for equity and appropriate stratification
- Other?
Committee timeline
- Research team to setup project milestones
  - Project website launch
  - Counter purchase
  - Presentations
  - Next subcommittee meeting in July
    - Updates and prep for August 19 TRCC meeting
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
- Monthly updates to Amber Yan – Bullet points
  - Amber will pass updates on to TAC
- Quarterly official updates to Mike Schwendau
Questions?
- Request for project description for introductory email to potential partners

Permanent Count

Downtown zones • Urban neighborhood commercial streets

Major parks • Mixed residential/industrial sectors

Temporary Count

# of counts: 30 to 50

Count periods: aligned with the dates specified in the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPDP)
- May and/or September
- July and January
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, from 4-6pm; 12-2pm on Saturdays

Technical Support Subcommittee

Meeting (May 23nd, 2024):

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
- Evaluate counting technologies
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Provide recommendations/guidance on count devices
- Establish protocols & QA/QC for data collection
- Site selection
- Count timing
- Provide strategies for handling data anomalies
- Other?
Committee timeline
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
Questions?

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish a baseline for bicycle/pedestrian facility use
- Exposure/risk
- Before/after studies
  - Safety
  - Willingness to use a facility after improvements are made
- Estimate growth
  - Due to development (land use changes)
    - Could this be incorporated into the TIA process?
  - Cultural changes
- Predict changes due to weather/season/time of day/day of week
- Look at origin/destination trends
  - Identifying existing land uses that could lead to higher walking origins/destinations to determine where to get counts (incorporate into site selection)
  - Others?
Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
  - Is this starting as a SE pilot? Would we take the experience from the pilot and apply it statewide? UWM said yes.
  - WisDOT has a system for conducting traffic counts that could potentially be transferred to bike/ped counts.
  - Programming bike/ped counts would require money allocated. This could be a challenge.
  - Can we incorporate data from existing count stations? Kevin knows of locations in Madison. Brian suggested using crowdsourced data.
    - UWM has another project funded by TSCC exploring the use of crowdsourced data (Strava and Streetlight). They will try to integrate this data together and create a standardized database.
- Evaluate counting technologies
  - Mio Vision – $150 per lane for 48 hour count
    - These cameras have the ability to count bikes/pedestrians, can count bicyclists and pedestrians separately
    - Not sure how they count scooters
    - More interested in the type of technology than specific technology providers. Could be the computer vision based or can be infrared or radio.
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
  - Gather feedback regarding what a guide should contain
  - Create technical recommendations to develop a full guide
- Establish database for count data including temporary, permanent and crowdsourced counts
  - More of a focus in the data management group
  - Suggest contacting Rob Aurit to request somebody from the data management section attend TAC meetings for the data management sub committee.
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
  - Goal is to use count data statewide
    - Important to look at rural areas because this makes up a large part of Wisconsin’s geography. In particular, WisDOT would like to see counts in small towns on state highways.
    - Do we have a list of towns with certain populations? This probably exists somewhere.
      - Who can track this down? Could potentially talk to Andrew Levy, Mark Niedzwiecki, or Tony Good.
      - It might not be worth looking at this unless it’s going to be a factor in how we expand the data
        
        Maybe use number of lanes or building type?
        
        Consider using population density
        
        Account for different types of facilities when choosing sites to do counts at
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Provide recommendations/guidance on count devices
  - UWM is currently looking at:
    - 2 Eco Counter Mobile Multi units (for temporary counts)
    - 1-2 Viva sensors (for permanent counts with automated counting and classification capacity)
    - 1 Axis camera (for permanent counts and will be utilized to test our in-house algorithm for counting and classification)
  - WisDOT has previously asked consultants to decide which technology to use as long as they collect the required counts
    - WisDOT could tell consultants about lessons learned
  - Brent has seen the following technology used: Mio Vision cameras, Count Cam cameras, TADI has in-house cameras, OD Data has in-house cameras
    - Any of these options would be more effective than sending out a staff member to do counts
- Establish protocols & QA/QC for data collection
  - Cameras need lighting systems built in or there needs to be lighting available
  - Temporary count duration should probably be a minimum of 1 week (including weekends)
  - Consider special events
    - Could be good to get counts during large events but probably want to compare it to counts outside of the event times
    - A challenge with QA/QC with infrared is aligning it with movements that people actually make
- Site selection
  - Select for safety, urban, rural, etc.
  - Different facility types
- Count timing
- Provide strategies for handling data anomalies
- Other?
Committee timeline
- Research team to setup project milestones
  - Project website launch
  - Counter purchase
  - Presentations
  - Next subcommittee meeting end of June
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
- Monthly updates to Amber Yan – Bullet points
  - Amber will pass updates on to TAC
- Quarterly official updates to Mike Schwendau
Questions?
- What literature review have UWM done or plan to do as part of this project?
Follow-up:
- Send FHWA Talking Traffic Webinar on Micromobility Data Gathering and Reporting Specification Updates from Brent to TAC
- UWM to summarize some of the information from the literature review

Site selection guidance:

Permanent Count
- Downtown zones
- Urban neighborhood commercial streets
- Major parks
- Mixed residential/industrial sectors
Temporary Count
- # of counts: 30 to 50
- Count periods: aligned with the dates specified in the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPDP)
  - May and/or September
  - July and January
  - Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, from 4-6pm; 12-2pm on Saturdays

Data Management Subcommittee

Meeting (May 23rd, 2024):

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
- Evaluate counting technologies
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Create clear list of data to be collected
- Procedures/protocols for data collection
- Work with UWM to establish an IPIT website
  - Future data sharing
  - Visualization
  - Update the progress of the project and communicate with the TAC
- Establish methodologies for processing data
- Other?
Committee timeline
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
Questions?

Agenda:

Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish a baseline for bicycle/pedestrian facility use
- Exposure/risk
- Before/after studies
  - Safety
  - Willingness to use a facility after improvements are made
- Estimate growth
- Predict changes due to weather/season/time of day/day of week
- Look at origin/destination trends
- Others?
Overview of goals/purpose of project
- Establish permanent and temporary count locations
- Evaluate counting technologies
- Create Wisconsin Non-Motorist Counting Guide
  - Who is the audience
  - Intent is not to develop a full guide with this project but eventually could apply to all audiences interested in a count program
  - Change language to “recommendations”
  - Need to be clear about methods (such as distance counts were taken from a crosswalk)
- Meet other needs identified by TAC
  - Tie into WisDOT turning movement count databases/project
Project timeline
- Receive recommendations from TAC by June 2024
- Complete data collection by September 2025
  - Full report should be ready by September 2025, count data will be collected by June/July 2025
  - Will report to TRCC meeting quarterly
  - Presentation will be given at governor’s office of highway safety conference 2025
Committee goals/tasks
- Create clear list of data to be collected
  - Bikes/pedestrians/other micromobility
    - Combined
    - Separated
  - Dates/times
  - Location
  - Weather
  - Infrastructure type (sidewalk, shared-use path, bike lane, etc.)
  - Other infrastructure qualities
    - RRFB
      - Whether or not it was being used?
    - High vis crosswalk markings
  - Type of count
    - Screenline
    - Intersection
    - Trail
    - Midblock crossings
    - Include test locations where intersections and midblock are counted near each other
      - Potentially where safety changes are going to be made
      - Where streets are going to be pedestrianized
    - Pedestrian level of stress and bike level of stress
    - School zones
    - Transit
    - Safe Systems Approach excel worksheet
      - Different from systemic safety approach
    - For manual/video counts – bike/ped characteristics
      - Concerns about privacy issues
      - Age
      - Disability status
    - Other site conditions:
      - AADT
        
        Could we use context classification?
      - Dimension of intersection
        
        Length of crosswalk
      - Signals
      - Curb extensions
      - Walk signal available?
      - Building setbacks? Other obstructions near the intersection?
    - Bob provided list of data to be collected – see last page of this document
- Procedures/protocols for data collection
  - UWM is looking at potentially crowdsourcing data
  - Permanent sites:
  - Temporary sites:
    - 2-week counts are recommended
      - Counters might not be able to store this much data
      - 20-30 locations need to be counted, might not have enough time to achieve this
      - Manual checks are limited to a short number of hours
    - What geographic spread are we looking for?
    - WisDOT and SEWRPC use Eco Counter Pyro Box which uses infrared
      - Boxes are moved to a different location ever two weeks
  - UWM is planning on ordering Eco Counter Mobile Multi Units, Viva sensors and Axis camera
- Site selection
  - Select for safety, urban, rural, etc.
  - Different facility types
- Work with UWM to establish an IPIT website
  - Future data sharing
    - To be used for sharing data as well as uploading data
      - Users will be certified
    - It should be possible to download data
      - Excel spreadsheet
      - Shapefile
    - Visualization
      - Map
    - Update the progress of the project and communicate with the TAC
- Establish methodologies for processing data
- Other?
  - Suggested locations for count sites
    - UW-Stevens Point – includes a signalized and unsignalized crossing, they are currently exploring a road diet, connect with David Meurett for additional information
Committee timeline
- Research team to setup project milestones
  - Project website launch
  - Counter purchase
  - Presentations
  - Next subcommittee meeting end of June
Discuss how the subcommittees will report progress and the way they work with (expectations from) research team
- Monthly updates to Amber Yan – Bullet points
  - Amber will pass updates on to TAC
- Quarterly official updates to Mike Schwendau
Questions?

Data to be Collected

Location ID
Count ID
ID
Organization performing count
Location name
City
WisDOT region
Year
Types of data collected during session
State FIPS code
County FIPS code
Station ID
Roadway classification
Direction of route
Location relative to roadway
Direction of movement
Facility type
Type of count represented in data row
Method of counting
Latitude
Longitude
Month
Date
Duration
Interval
Day of week
Time of week
Time of day
Weather
Precipitation
Total user count during count period
Total hours counted
Users/hour
Hour to week expansion factors
Hour to week average expansion factor
Week to year expansion factor
Estimated annual user volume
Notes

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