A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Numbers 19-33 and 19-34, regarding bicycle count data

C I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E Community Development Department IRAM FAROOQ Assistant City Manager for Community Development SANDRA CLARKE Deputy Director Chief of Administration KHALIL MOGASSABI Deputy Director Chief of Planning 344 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 Voice: [phone removed] Fax: [phone removed] TTY: [phone removed] www.cambridgema.gov TO: Louis DePasquale, City Manager FROM: Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager for Community Development Joseph Barr, Director of Traffic, Parking and Transportation SUBJECT: Awaiting Report #19-33 and 19-34 regarding Bicycle Count Data DATE: May 30, 2019 With respect to the above-referenced Awaiting Reports, we report the following: This spring, the City is starting the 2020 Bicycle Plan Update process; city staff have been working on a more precise schedule and anticipate an informational open house in June 2019. Staff have been working on a graphical analysis of the various bike counts currently available to the City. This analysis will be available online by the end of June and will provide informational background for the 2020 Bicycle Plan Update that is expected to be complete by December, 2020. The bicycle count information currently available includes A) citywide bicycle counts, B) project-specific counts, and C) EcoTotem counts as detailed below. A) Citywide Counts Biennial Bicycle Counts, 2002-2018 The citywide bike counts conducted in the fall of 2018 were deemed not to be valid for the biennial comparison, as inclement weather precluded bicycle counts during comparable dates and times. We are planning to conduct supplemental counts in 2019.

Cambridge Bicycle Count Volumes by Intersection As can be seen in the graph above, there is variation by intersection, some of which is due to construction activities at the time of the counts. The 2015 Cambridge Bicycle Plan analyzed the impact of construction on people’s route choices, and this issue continues to represent a challenge to getting fully comparable counts from year to year at all locations. B) Project Specific Counts Before/after bicycle counts are included in the analysis and evaluation of most of our roadway projects and results are posted on our website under the project pages. Below are several examples.

1. Western Avenue 2. Cambridge Street Bicycle Safety Improvement Project 3. Brattle Street

C) Eco-Totem Counts In 2015, the City installed a permanent ‘Eco-Totem’ bicycle count station on Broadway in Kendall Square. The EcoTotem counts people on bike via in-ground loop detectors and displays the daily and cumulative totals on the street monitor for commuters to view. The system also captures weather data for analytical purposes. Information and data regarding the EcoTotem bicycle counts are publicly available, both on the EcoTotem site and through the Open Data portal. Almost 1.5 million trips have been captured in this location. Here is a graph of the Broadway Eco-Totem bike counts from January 2016 through March 2019: Eco-Totem counts by month, January 2016 – March 2019 This graph shows the variation in use throughout the year (as expected, the numbers are lower during the colder weather months); we can also see that there was a change in use pattern that correlates with construction on the Longfellow Bridge, with 2017 seeing reduced volumes of riders. Access to and across the bridge during the time of construction was problematic for many

people. Once the bridge reopened fully in May 2018, numbers were seen to rise again, mostly reaching or surpassing previous years. Since the EcoTotem counts are taken 24 hours per day year-round, they have been used to help us extrapolate from the more limited citywide or project specific counts that are conducted during peak hours. This has helped us to develop crash rates for our Vision Zero analyses and transportation planning efforts. The EcoTotem data can also be used as a baseline to gauge weather and seasonal impacts, thereby enabling us to extrapolate from data that may be taken during various times of the year. An EcoTotem display is valuable both for collecting data and for communicating with the public. The units cost approximately $30,000 installed. While they do not provide the communication benefits, the tools being installed to count all modes of traffic at signalized intersections are more practical and yield more comprehensive data. These units will be installed soon using casino mitigation funds and will provide continuous count data for all users passing through selected intersections. These units will be installed at key locations along the Mass Ave corridor, as well as Cambridge Street and Concord Ave. While the data cannot be displayed onsite, access will be available via the Open Data Portal. At the moment, the EcoTotem and other automatic technologies do not reliably differentiate between bicycles and other personal micromobility devices, so we will have to monitor the progress on the technology to determine when and how that is possible. In the interim, we will identify them through our manual counting program. The Future of Mobility Study that is currently underway will also help study strategies for collecting micromobility data.