Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
In January 2015, the County has 18 permanently installed bicycle and pedestrian counters on shared-use trails, 10 permanent bicycle-only counters in on-street bike lanes, 6 mobile counters typically used for short term sidewalk counts, and the first real-time bicycle counter on the east coast.
"The reasons for lack of data include: the particular technologies employed; the age and generation of the devices themselves; and extrinsic factors such as damage, interference by insects (!), extreme weather, and vandalism. We work diligently to limit sources of machine downtime, and systematic and random error."
Arlington's automatic counters have been installed over more than five years. If the time period of your query includes dates before a particular counter was installed, any results will not include bicycle or pedestrian activity prior to installation. To see where, see: http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/biking-in-arlington/counting-bikes-to-plan-for-bikes/about-the-counters/
Weather from weather underground also available here.
Date Inventory Completed: 7/11/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
The mission of the Department of Environmental Services (DES) Tis to bring strategic focus to transportation, the environment, capital investment, and continuing operations and maintenance. The Fresh AIRE program - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions – is the County’s climate action program for government operations and community activity.
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
The data is used for phone applications and internet users to track pedestrian congestion and use currently and across time.
Who else uses the data?
Citizens, policy makers
Who do they sell the data to?
Unknown
Method
What is the data collection method?
Sensor
What is the type of data collected?
Digital
If designed, who created the questions?
What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)?
Counts of use
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
Pedestrian and Bike Counts
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
April 2014 to present
Is data collected and available periodically?
Yes, continuously
Historical data available monthly
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Dashboard is “live”. Any delay is not mentioned.
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
Pedestrians and Bikers in Arlington county
Accessibility
- How is the data accessed?
Data for individual counters can be exported to Microsoft Excel, directly from the Counter Dashboard and from http://webservices.commuterpage.com/counters.cfc?wsdl
Web services documentation: http://www.bikearlington.com/tasks/sites/bike/assets/File/bikearlington_web_services.pdf
- Is it open data?
Yes
Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
Free
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? No
Explanation: The data could be of potential use (like how foot traffic is used by SentriLock). Yet, time and geographical coverage is lacking.