The Non-Motorized Count Assurance Tool (NM COAST) is a web application developed to serve as apedestrian and cyclist data storehouse, providing support for ingesting, cleaning, storing, anddownloading data from continuous or short-term counters.
Pedestrian and cyclist data collection is a rapidly evolving field. While the North Carolina Department ofTransportation (NCDOT) and similar agencies nationwide have substantial experience in collecting motorvehicle traffic counts and leveraging current volume or predicted demand data to evaluate infrastructureinvestments, potential pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure is often justified by qualitative analysis or localinterest. Some academic literature on bicycle and pedestrian data collection is available, but a needremains to develop robust, scalable data collection and verification procedures and develop a pedestrianand cyclist data clearinghouse to aggregate high-quality data.
The NC Nonmotorized Volume Data Program (NC NMVDP) started in November 2013 as an effort tocreate a rigorous and reproducible system for counting pedestrian and bicycle traffic across NorthCarolina. The program has progressed through three major phases. In Phase 1, continuous countingsensors were installed in NCDOT Divisions 7 and 9 between September and December 2014. In Phase 2,additional sensors were installed in NCDOT Divisions 5, 8, and 10 between October 2016 and June 2018.Under Phase 1 and 2 of the program, ITRE assisted with the installation and maintenance of countingequipment, as well as providing data management services. Under the memorandums of agreement(MOAs) between NCDOT and the local agencies receiving continuous counting equipment, NCDOTowned the counting equipment until 24 months after the installation date, after which ownership of thecounting equipment transferred to the local agency. After the ownership transfer, NCDOT retains datamanagement responsibilities (currently delegated to ITRE) for the useful life of the counting equipment,but local agencies are responsible for equipment maintenance. Additional agencies or municipalities notincluded in Phase 1 or Phase 2 can also opt in to NCDOT’s data management services. The NC NMVDPhas operated under this Collaborative Agency Model since October 2022. Additional details about thedevelopment of the NMVDP program can be found on the ITRE website.
NM COAST represents an expansion of the existing counting program to develop a vendor-independent data system that can integrate pedestrian and cyclist data from multiple sources, either automated or manual; clean that data to a sufficient level using purely automated methods, and an excellent level ifmanual review is provided; and provide the cleaned data in an easily-accessible format to researchers,government workers, and the general public.
