Disclaimer, I work for the City of Edina, and made these charts for a presentation to the Edina Transportation Commission.
Here we can see how different facilities were used for biking and walking in Edina in 2014. These counts were over a full 24 hours (some places were up to 48 hours, but their data represents the average of the two days).
Amazing effect the schools have on walking and biking, especially around middle and high schools.
One thing to note is that the counts nearer to middle and high schools were significantly affected by the schools. Why the elementary schools did not see such a large bump is possible for several reasons:
- Sports teams, there are a lot of sports teams who might run by the camera a few times on a day. These people were using the facilities as built, so they were counted, but as there are not may elementary school cross-country teams, that is at least partially a factor in the higher counts around these schools.
- Older children might be seen as more able to walk when they are within the walking zone, whereas younger kids might be seen as needing an adult to walk/drive them.
- There are fewer high/middle schools. These might have higher concentrations of students.
- Release times might make it more difficult for parents with jobs to pick up their children from a high school or middle school, whereas some elementary schools release at nearly 4:00.
Finally, the green stars indicate either poor weather, or camera failure, where a full 24 hours was not recorded or valid data. However, cameras failed and rain came late in the evening (after 9 PM) or early in the morning (recording fine by 5:30 AM), when there were few pedestrians or bicyclists throughout the city, even during better weather.
You can see the whole presentation here, close to the 30 minute mark. OR you can stay tuned for more future Charts of the Day! (And the first Chart, Year-to-Year Comparisons).