Bicycle and Pedestrian Counts in the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California: Results from Automated Counts in 2013-2014
Although ~17% of all trips in the Los Angeles region are made by foot or bike, and 40% of all roadway fatalities in Los Angeles County are people walking or riding bicycles, historically, traffic monitoring has focused exclusively on cars.
Bicycle and pedestrian counts enable these modes to be considered on equal footing with driving, and enable robust understanding of costs, benefits, behavior, and more. In 2014, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) loaned counting devices to the cities of South El Monte, El Monte, San Gabriel, and Monterey Park to automatically count the levels of walking and cycling at selected locations. These four cities are among the five San Gabriel Valley cities who recently adopted the 2014 San Gabriel Valley Regional Bike Plan, which was funded by DPH. (The fifth city is Baldwin Park.) The resulting data provide an understanding of the number of people walking and cycling in these cities, and the distribution of that activity. These data are crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of walking and cycling infrastructure and safety investments in the San Gabriel Valley. In addition, conducting counts, collecting and sharing the data contributes to a growing body of bicycle and pedestrian count data in the Los Angeles region.
