Using traffic cameras and  volunteer interviewers, city staff recently counted many of the pedestrians and bicyclists traversing Bellevue on a typical weekday.

Intended to be an annual event, the tally will help planners recommend transportation  improvements for pedestrians and cyclists each year.

From 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 758 pedestrians were counted using traffic video cameras at four intersections leading in and out of downtown. During that same period, 367 cyclists were tallied at 13 locations throughout the city, including bike trails.
 
In addition to the traffic counts, volunteers conducted  interviews with 53 pedestrians and nine bicyclists at the intersection of 108th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Fourth Street downtown on Thursday, Oct. 1. The interviews showed:

• A wide majority of pedestrians (66 percent) and bicyclists (77 percent) were commuting to work;
• The median length of a pedestrian trip was a mile; the median length for bicyclists was nine miles, including parts of their trip made by transit; and
• The most frequent response by pedestrians when asked what improvement they would like was "shorter waits at crosswalks" (15 percent); 55 percent of the cyclists said they wanted bike lanes to be added to city streets.

Three new "mid-block crossings" intended to make walking downtown more convenient are already slated for development downtown in 2010.

The city's recently adopted ped-bike plan calls for 144 miles of new bikeways citywide, including new downtown bike lanes on 108th and 112th avenues, Main Street and Northeast 12th Street, though no timeline has been set for these projects.

Pedestrian & Bicycle Count 

Pedestrian-Bicycle Plan

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