City’s First Bicycle and Pedestrian Traffic Counter Installed on Bayfront Parkway

The City of Pensacola’s first non-motorized continuous traffic counter was installed this week on the multi-use trail adjacent to Bayfront Parkway, which will monitor multi-modal traffic including bicyclists and pedestrians. Installed by the Florida Department of Transportation to expand its Statewide Non-Motorized Traffic Monitoring Program, the continuous traffic counter will allow the city and state to gain a better understanding of local multi-modal traffic.

The installation consists of a combination of an overhead infrared unit and two piezo-electric sensors. This setup allows the device to distinguish between pedestrians, bicycles and other kinds of non-motorized vehicles. Data is collected 24 hours a day, seven days a week, following national guidelines for submission to the Federal Highway Administration. Data reports are then uploaded and available through the GIS map on a monthly basis. The traffic counter does not have cameras, and it does not collect any personal identifying information.

The FDOT Transportation Data and Analytics Office began the development of a Statewide Non-Motorized Traffic Monitoring Program in May 2018, with a need to provide non-motorized bicycle and pedestrian volume counts, supporting statistics and information to new and existing data customers. TDA intends to develop the NMTMP similar to the Motorized Traffic Monitoring Program, allowing data to be used for the same types of analyses such as safety studies, planning and programming of non-motorized facilities, road and trail maintenance and enhancements, and more.

Statewide, FDOT TDA currently manages 24 non-motorized continuous counters. Pensacola's new continuous counter at Bayfront Parkway will be the 25th counter within the state of Florida and the first one in Escambia County.

For more information about the Non-Motorized Traffic Monitoring Program, visit FDOT’s website. A map of count locations can be found here.

Non-motorized traffic counter at Bayfront Parkway

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