Broadly speaking, cities tend to have better data on vehicular traffic than on pedestrian and bicycle traffic. This is because road design has traditionally prioritized the movement of cars, above all else. So it has felt right to bias traffic counts. But there are lots of places where pedestrians and cyclists greatly outnumber vehicles.
For example, I was on Queens Quay yesterday visiting my mom and, if you've ever been to Toronto's waterfront in the summer, you'll know that it has one of the busiest bike lanes/trails in the city — if not the busiest. But if you ask ChatGPT just how busy it is, it will more or less say, "I don't know. Really busy?" And that's because we don't have real-time usage data. We have estimates. And the same is true of pedestrian counts.
(If you're aware of a great dataset, please share it in the comment section below.)
But this is starting to change with the advent of AI traffic monitoring solutions that can handle multi-modal environments. Meaning they're capable of counting everything from pedestrians and scooters to cyclists and trucks. This is what cities need to make better decisions. And as this new tech becomes more widespread, I think it's going to show us just how much we've been missing.
Cover photo by Joshua Chua on Unsplash
https://videopress.com/v/FLw4IuBH?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
I love cycling. And I have been using Toronto's bike share system to get around over the last few weeks (both for work and personal stuff). There's no better way to get around when the city is busy. But it was also a reminder that we have a lot of work to do when it comes to cycling infrastructure.
Here are a few observations:
The Bike Share mobile app has got to be the worst app that I have ever used. First of all, it's called PBSC. I think this was a deliberate choice so that it's impossible to remember and impossible to locate on your phone. Because once you do find it, it's an awful experience.
I struggled to make it from downtown up to midtown a few days ago. Can I blame the Bike Share bike instead of my lack of physical conditioning? I can't see the majority of people wanting to do this sort of ride. This is where e-bikes and e-scooters come in.
Many of the bikes have something wrong with them.
We don't have enough bike lanes and bike-friendly streets. I know that some you don't want to hear this. But it's the truth. There are a lot of streets in Toronto where it is terrifying to be on a bicycle. This is true even in the center of the city.
