To address short-term monitoring needs, the City of Ottawa initiated a study to develop a balanced, cost-effective monitoring approach that could be used to track walking and cycling activity on a year-to-year basis, building on and, where necessary, augmenting existing data collection systems. 

To develop an effective short-term approach for the City’s pedestrian and cyclist activity, Morrison Hershfield:

• Reviewed state-of-the-art literature and conducted phone interviews with other Canadian municipalities to gain insight into different approaches currently in use
• Examined the data currently collected by the City and assessed the issues and challenges associated with using this data to monitor walking and cycling trends on an area-wide basis
• Evaluated the appropriateness of previous techniques developed to monitor cycling and pedestrian activity in the City of Ottawa
• Refined existing monitoring approaches and/or proposed new approaches in consultation with members of the Cycling Advisory Committee and project steering committee
• Applied the proposed methodology(ies) to recent traffic count data to establish pedestrian and cyclist trends

Morrison Hershfield identified limitations of the current process and developed recommendations to support a reliable, low-cost monitoring program consistent with the goals set out by the City.  Morrison Hershfield facilitated better use of existing traffic count information by incorporating the data into an activity index that could be used to monitor pedestrian and cyclist trends.  Customized queries were also established to effectively manipulate data and significantly streamline the development process. 

Using the techniques developed by Morrison Hershfield, the City will be at the forefront of North American efforts to monitor pedestrian and cyclist trends in urban areas.