A tandem effort is underway to put facts and figures behind the love of cycling in Canada's Capital Region. With the support of the National Capital Commission, the City of Ottawa and corporate partner TELUS, Citizens for Safe Cycling is collecting detailed data on current cycling trends to pave the way for smart cycling investments for the future.

"Having detailed, year-over-year data from key cycling corridors helps us to advocatefor and justify continuous improvements in support of area cyclists.' -- Z. Krstulich, President, Citizens for Safe Cycling

The Cycling Trends Analysis Project (CTAP) sees electronic counters installed at key cycling corridors to collect data on cycling patterns into and out of downtown Ottawa. Three sites are now active, following a pilot project on the Alexandra Bridge from June to December 2009.

The results of CTAP could inform future decisions on cycling investments on the Capital Pathway network on both sides of the Ottawa River.

Cycling is a key component in the overall transportation mix for several reasons. Gathering '24/7' count data will provide a first good view of cycling in the shoulder seasons (spring/fall) and will allow for cycling trend data to be extrapolated into total trips/year. The first phase of this project will run for three years with three counter sites. Citizens for Safe Cycling hopes to expand the project to eight bike counter sites across the region.

Representatives of Citizens for Safe Cycling will be at the Bike to Work Week Celebration Station on the NCC pathway near the War Museum on Tuesday, June 8 between 7:30 and 9 am. The stop point for cyclists will have free coffee, tea, water and resources. Cyclists will also be invited to share information pertaining to their bicycle commute to work. For more information on Bike to Work Week events please visit www.ottawa.ca/b2ww.

Quick Facts:

• A total of 200,000 cyclists crossed the Alexandra Bridge between mid-June and December of 2009, with an average of 1,750 cyclists crossing each (summer) weekday.
• This spring, over 75,000 cyclists have already been counted across the three operational CTAP sites.
• The CTAP counters can determine average cycling levels along a particular route to within +/-3%. By comparison, once-per-season sampling can only track trends to within +/-50%.

Want to see the results so far?

• CTAP Weekly Data to May 30, 2010 (50K PDF)
  
• CTAP Daily Data to May 30, 2010 (43K PDF)
  

Press release in English and French.

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