Washington State Pedestrian and Bicycle Miles Traveled Project

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is a foundational metric of motor vehicle travel, used throughout the country for the purposes of funding, design, planning, and the study of motor vehicle use from safety and health to economic impacts. No equivalent metric is in common use for bicyclists and pedestrians. The lack of such a metric imposes severe limitations on how these modes are understood, funded, and included in design and planning. To rectify this situation, such a metric can be created. We propose to investigate how to create a pedestrian and bicycle miles traveled (PMT and BMT) metric on the state level and apply the method to the state of Washington. The state of Washington was chosen because Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) collects bicycle and pedestrian counts on roads and paths in more than 30 cities around the state, the widest ranging non-motorized state data collection program in the country and because the state has specific interest in creating, funding, and using such a measure. The project proposes to investigate multiple methods and compare the results. While PMT and BMT could be computed from national survey data such as National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and the American Community Survey (ACS), such estimates do not provide facility-level data needed for planning, design, safety studies, and policy decisions, and have been shown to underestimate PMT and BMT. Another approach would be more similar to VMT estimates, which are based on a system of automated permanent and short-duration count stations. Applying this approach to non-motorized travel, count data could be used to estimate PMT and BMT. PMT and BMT computed from counts can provide a performance metric for pedestrian and bicyclist traffic on facilities throughout the state. Other methods will also be investigated. The methods will be compared and evaluated.

• Record URL:
  http://trec.pdx.edu/research/project/708

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $92556.00
• Contract Numbers:

  NITC 708

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Washington State Department of Transportation

  Transportation Building
  Olympia, WA  United States  98504

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Institute for Transportation and Communities

  Portland State University
  P.O. Box 751
  Portland, OR  United States  97207
• Project Managers:

  Hagedorn, Hau

• Performing Organizations:

  National Institute for Transportation and Communities

  Portland State University
  P.O. Box 751
  Portland, OR  United States  97207
• Principal Investigators:

  Nordback, Krista

• Start Date: 20140101
• Expected Completion Date: 20150630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
• Source Data: RiP Project 35802

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle travel; Data collection; Economic impacts; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Motor vehicles; Nonmotorized transportation; Pedestrian traffic; Travel surveys; Vehicle miles of travel
• Geographic Terms: Washington (State)
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01501102
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Institute for Transportation and Communities
• Contract Numbers: NITC 708
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 11 2013 1:01AM