Memorandum

Lawrence-Douglas County

Metropolitan Planning Organization (L-DC MPO)

TO:	David L. Corliss, Lawrence City Manager
FROM:	Bart Rudolph, L-DC MPO Transportation Planner
CC:	Scott McCullough, Planning and Development Services Director Todd Girdler, L-DC MPO Senior Transportation Planner
DATE:	July 24, 2009
RE:	National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPD) Training

The Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization (L-DC MPO) has been coordinating with the Mid-America Regional Council and the St. Joseph MPO to develop a 1-day training program that educates communities on how to collect data on bicycling and walking using a consistent methodology that will assist with estimating demand and usage. Consistent counts of bicyclists and pedestrians could be used to track the region’s progress on increasing non-motorized mode share, leverage additional federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects, evaluate projects, and improve travel demand modeling. The L-DC MPO will also begin analysis on correlations between bicycle and pedestrian activity and local characteristics. This information will be useful at all levels of planning and help strengthen our bid to raise our Bicycle Friendly Community designation from the bronze to at the silver or gold level.

Attendees of the training on August 7, 2009 will learn the methodology of the NBPD, acquire the tools needed to complete a count, hear about best practices from around the county and then conduct a count in September. The entire KC region will be conducting their counts simultaneously with the Douglas County region during the week of September 8-12, 2009.

As a result, Lawrence will be in the forefront of collecting this data and will be part of a larger nationwide effort to establish a national database of bicycle and pedestrian count and survey data generated by consistent methods and practices.

Representatives from the MPO, Planning and Public Works Departments will attend this training along with staff from the Douglas County Public Works Department and KU volunteers who will assist in the organization and execution of the regional count.