CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM

Department:	Planning and Development Services		Commission Meeting Date:  November 15, 2016
Staff Contact:	Ashley Myers, Transportation Planner
Recommendations/Options/Action Requested:
Accept the 2016 annual Bicycle & Pedestrian counts.
Executive Summary:		Bicycle & Pedestrian Counts have been conducted in Lawrence annually since 2009. In September 2016, the MPO staff coordinated counts at 32 locations throughout our community. The locations were counted by 35 volunteers who manually observed bicyclists and pedestrians. The National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPDP) provides a nationally recognized methodology for documenting bicycle and pedestrian activity. Count locations included bicycle and pedestrian activity areas or corridors (downtown, near schools, parks, etc.) and locations near proposed major bicycle or pedestrian improvements or recently built improvements. The count would not have been possible without the help of volunteers from our community and we thank them for their time! Transportation planners and engineers use the data collected on bicycling and walking to assist City and Regional Leaders with estimating usage and demand for bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The counts are also used to track the region’s progress on increasing the use of non-motorized transportation, strengthen grant applications to leverage additional federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects, evaluate existing projects (before and after counts), and help determine the location of future investments.
Strategic Goal Area:		Non-motorized Transportation
Fiscal Impact (Amount/Source):		The fiscal impact to the City is $0.00.
Attachments:		The bicycle & pedestrian count summary report is available at https://lawrenceks.org/mpo/bikepedcount.