Testing Inductive-Loop Bicycle Counters on Shared Roadways

Inductive loops are commonly used for bicycle detection both on- and off- street, but until recently, few such detectors are able to differentiate between bicycles and motor vehicles. For this reason, automated bicycle counting is usually confined to off-street locations. With bicycle use increasing around the world, particularly on shared roadway facilities such as bicycle boulevards, there is a growing need to detect bicycles in on-street traffic conditions. This study tests the accuracy of the Eco-Counter Zelt, an off-the-shelf inductive-loop technology that is designed to count bicycles in mixed traffic, and compares this accuracy to that of similar inductive loop technology for detection on separated bicycle facilities. The results show that the Zelt inductive loop technology is capable of differentiating bicycles from motor vehicles and does count bicycles in traffic with reasonable accuracy, but an individual bicycle may be undetected or counted more than once. Overall, there was a 3 percent undercount for the counter on the separated path and a 4 percent overcount for the counter on the shared roadway. The results show that refinements in inductive loop detector/counter software and set up have made it possible to distinguish bicycles from motor vehicles; however, care must be taken in installation, calibration, and maintenance to ensure that the counters are and continue to be accurate.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract only provided on the DVD.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Nordback, Krista
  • Piatkowski, Daniel
  • Janson, Bruce N
  • Marshall, Wesley
  • Krizek, Kevin J
  • Main, Debbi
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
• Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Pagination: 2p
• Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accuracy; Bicycle travel; Bicycles; Loop detectors; Traffic counts; Vehicle mix
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01342000
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-4226
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 15 2011 11:29AM