This post is about my experience in the most recent Pedal Poll (2024). You can read a related post called Reflections from the first Pedal Poll in 2021.
Pedal Poll 2024
In the last two years, I volunteered to count traffic on Dundas St in Downtown London. In the first week of June 2024, I was one of the many volunteers across Canada counting traffic for the Pedal Poll 2024 National Survey that occurs annually since 2021. This year, my shift was from 7a.m. to 9a.m. between Clarence and Richmond. The survey included four different categories and my final count after the two hours was:
- Pedestrian: 232
- Cyclist: 63
- Personal motorized vehicle: 341
- Oversized vehicle: 22
That is close to a 50/50 split between active (i.e. primarily human powered) and motorized transportation with the latter still being the majority of trips. The City Planning office was only a few meters away from where I was counting and it was a nice surprise to see how many people working there were cyclists. From one of them, I learned that there is an automated counter for multiple modes, just one block west from where I was with publicly available data. Currently, it is the only one in the city that counts six different modes and the data is available in daily intervals since January 19, 2024. Daily averages are as follow:
- Pedestrian: 2,878
- Cyclist: 136
- Car: 3,370
- Bus: 2
- Motorcycle: 22
- Trucks: 29
This set of data points has a much longer timeframe and shows a bigger gap between cyclists and pedestrians or drivers. I believe the winter months have something to do with that. However, those numbers are slightly closer to a 50/50 split with active transportation having a higher percentage relative to my two-hour observation.
Initial Reflections from a Traffic Count
From a mobility justice perspective, one would evaluate how much resources are employed to move people, prioritizing and allocating more resources for those who face barriers to full participation in society. You probably saw the image below illustrating the difference between equality and equity.
Yes, this is exactly what I’m talking about here. Equity is not about distributing the same amount of resources for everyone, we want to distribute resources in a way that provides equal opportunities and access. There are several variations of this cartoon addressing other issues but we will keep things simple here (for now).
Considering that we have a 50/50 split. From an equality perspective, resources allocated for active and motorized transportation on Dundas St. should also be close to a 50/50 split. From an equity perspective, resources allocated for active transportation should be higher, given that wealthier and more privileged people are overrepresented in motorized transportation.
Mobility Equity on Dundas Street?
To understand if Dundas Street is a good example of mobility equity, we need to explore how much resources are dedicated for active and motorized transportation. Here are a few more specific questions:
- How much space is allocated for each mode?
- What are the capital costs to build the infrastructure for those modes?
- What are the operating costs dedicated to each mode (e.g. wear and tear, signage, and winter maintenance)?
This is obviously a very simplified analysis, Dundas St. doesn’t exist isolated from the rest of the city and road network. Nevertheless, a small scale experiment is a helpful starting point to think about what mobility justice looks like in practice. Setting the stage for bigger questions about the differences in how road networks and transportation systems are used and by whom.
Beyond Numbers or Simply Different Numbers
Counting traffic is a method for those who see mobility as the physical act of travelling from point A to B. “Observing” traffic, however, adds a perspective of mobility as a social practice which includes information about the trip itself attached to the sociocultural constructs of a particular individual. For a literature review encompassing both meanings see the article summarized in the blog post Conceptualizing Mobility Inequalities.
A human observer can get a more nuanced insight on the motivations, why people are moving and what else they might be doing as they move. In the two hours I was watching the street on Dundas, I saw people praying, taking pictures, drinking coffee, eating, window shopping, reading, resting, dog-walking, chatting, and waiting. All those things were part of their travel experience. Even though I wasn’t able to observe people in motorized transportation due to their speed and lack of visibility, it was obvious that there was little to no direct interaction with the street.
A clear distinction to me was that for many pedestrians, Dundas St. was either a destination or at least there was some interaction on the street. Illustrating the many organic placemaking activities that happens daily in healthy city centres. For drivers however, they are just passing through. That challenges the argument that we can’t allocate transportation resources more equitably because we have to prioritize drivers to have a healthy economy.
Up to 40% of motor traffic in city centers is passing through with no intention of stopping—damaging their social and commercial heart. – Melissa Bruntlett
A Few Additional Comments
The first hour (7-8 A.M.) car traffic was relatively higher. My guess is that they are commuters heading somewhere else. In the second hour (8-9 A.M.) arguably business hours, there was a huge spike in pedestrian activity.
This is in line with my previous counting for Pedal Poll in 2023 during working hours (2-4 p.m.) when pedestrian traffic was more than four times higher than car traffic.
I didn’t have any instrument to measure speed and my general perception was that motorized vehicles were going at a low and safe speed. Maybe people are getting used to drive slow on Dundas or maybe the 20km/h signs in every intersection are making a difference. I have a hunch that it’s probably both and a few other things. Opportunities for future research.
Another pattern I noticed, based on observation I have done over the years, are the “hubs” or what Kevin Lynch would call nodes. Places that serve as attractors and Dundas St. has quite a few of those in different times of the day and for different reasons:
- Covent Garden Market
- Market Alley
- Fanshawe Downtown Campus
- Tim Hortons
- And a couple of narrow alleys between buildings
Mobility Justice – A Bigger Picture
Earlier in this post, I shared a few quantitative metrics that can be included in a planning process to take mobility justice into consideration.
The questions below have a more exploratory and qualitative nature. They might not be easily measured and they are relevant to to challenge some of the assumptions we make in transportation planning and push us to think about alternatives and new pathways:
- Whose mobilities are we making easier?
- Who feels comfortable riding a bicycle? Why?
- What are we measuring and how? Vehicles? People? Speed? Flow? Satisfaction? Belonging? Costs? Economic activity?
- How mobility justice fits in the criteria to build transportation infrastructure? (this certainly goes hand in hand with what we measure)
In your opinion, what other metrics or questions should we be asking if we take Mobility Justice seriously?
Luis Patricio 