Does anyone know where Spokes take the count at 'Forrest Road'? I seem to remember suggesting last year that the lack of southbound travellers there may be to do with the fact that the road is one-way in a northbound direction, although I'm guessing that this is taken into account ;)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Edinburgh bike commuting hits new high
(51 posts)-
Posted 9 years ago #
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At the southern end of George IV Bridge, at the traffic signals prior to the split to Bristo Place/from Forrest Road.
Traffic traveling from Forrest Road to Bristo Place isn't counted.
Robert
Posted 9 years ago # -
That would make sense. That is certainly the route that I would be heading if cycling back to mine from Waverley or New Town direction, although it is quite a hilly approach.
Posted 9 years ago # -
When I cycle to Princes St or George St, coming from Nicolson Street, I often go through Gifford Pk, Meadows, Forrest St and Mound (yeehaah!) northwards, but South Bridge southwards to avoid the Mound (huff, puff).
Posted 9 years ago # -
Personally, I really like the Scotsman photo, there is a very handsome tam o'shanter bunnet and amidst his gang people wearing a basque beret I was given and other berets for cycling in.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Some things you can never make up.
"
You missed me
12:26 PM on 12/05/2016
Tuesday was national cycling day - people were being encouraged to commute by bike.
It was nationwide. Spokes are becoming a bit of a joke now.I'm a cyclist.
"
Posted 9 years ago # -
@ ChDot, is that our friend the little tsar of roseburn?
Posted 9 years ago # -
"is that our friend the little tsar of roseburn?"
That would make 'sense'!
Posted 9 years ago # -
It's a sufficient level of knowledge. Depending on where you check national bike to work day/week appears to be in June or September. Strava might have been encouraging commuters to log their ride but certainly not encouraging new cyclists to start riding.
Posted 9 years ago # -
It probably would be a bad idea to do a count on national bike to work day, if that's what it was (I can't imagine such a thing has any significant effect but without measuring it, it's a fair criticism?)
Posted 9 years ago # -
At the same time though it would seem odd if Spokes changed from their standard second Tuesday in May slot as then the data would become less comparable.
Posted 9 years ago # -
10th May was a Strava "Global bike to work day":
http://www.strava.com/challenges/bike-to-workPosted 9 years ago # -
I'm pretty sure Spokes try to choose the most representative day for their survey e.g. one that is not skewed because of the start or end of week, etc.
I doubt that the volunteers at Spokes keep their eye on every Strava challenge, nor the countless "cycle commute" challenges that seem to keep popping up.
So, my guess is it was an unfortunate coincidence that the survey fell on the Strava bike to work day.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Good weather much more likely to be a factor than Strava.
Posted 9 years ago # -
There's a cycle count in November. Last year's was during driving wind and heavy rain. This of course affected the count.
http://www.spokes.org.uk/2015/11/cycling-and-driving-in-the-rain/
However you just have to have cycled in Edinburgh for a couple of decades to notice the increase in the numbers.
Posted 9 years ago # -
I'm not suggesting that Spokes should ave changed their count day, merely suggesting that the Strava thing could be what the person was referring to.
I think it is very sensible of Spokes to do their counts on the same days each year, given that they only have limited resources to do them.Posted 9 years ago # -
To be honest, the Strava challenge is just a smokescreen from the EEN commenters. Every year there will be some event, activity, factor that affects cycling numbers on that particular day, that's why you have to be careful interpreting individual years and need to look at the overall trend over several years which should average out such factors.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Or just look at the aggregate numbers from the electronic counters. How often are they released?
Posted 9 years ago # -
My own stats:-
The Facebook page linking to Evening News article has received 1000 likes.
It's been shared 29 times.
It's reached 4,655Posted 9 years ago # -
Looking at the MMW bike counter data (http://www.bicyclecounter.dk/BicycleCounter/BC_Historical.jsp, check all years and period 1/1 to 31/12), some observations:
- No obvious trend over the 2 years, numbers are pretty much the same as 2 years ago
- Strong weekly signal, with numbers on weekdays about twice the weekend numbers, could suggests that it's mostly utility cycling, not leisure.
- No strong seasonal cycle (around 1500-2000 per day in winter, 1700-2300 in summer on weekdays) shows that people don't just cycle in summer
- Very little week-to-week and day-to-day variation (except weekend) could mean that weather isn't a big factor either. Cursory look at some individual months gives the impression that numbers are fairly constant during the week but vary a lot on weekends, which would make sense if there is mostly utility cycling on weekdays and leisure at weekends.
- The strongest time of the year is September-October, presumably students at the beginning of the academic year. But this peak is only a few hundreds, and there isn't a strong dip during holidays, so it doesn't look like students dominate the overall statistics.
- There is a clear drop between Christmas and New Year, but still about 500 per day.
Posted 9 years ago # -
.. oh, and the MMW bike counter doesn's show any kind of peak on Tuesday 10 May. Values are similar to all other weekdays in May.
Posted 9 years ago #
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