You’ve seen the now iconic red bridge in Calgary. You’ve probably even taken a photo on it. But have you ever thought about how many people travel across the Peace Bridge each day?
In April 2014, The City installed an automatic data counter at the Peace Bridge to collect information on the number of trips being made across it each day on foot or by bike. With a year’s worth of data now available, we can take a look at some of the trends we’ve seen this past year.
Over the last 12 months, nearly 1.4 million crossings have been made by people walking and cycling across the Peace Bridge. That works out to be an average count of more than 3,800 a day.
The graph below compares the total crossings with the maximum daily temperatures to give us an indication of how weather relates to the number of trips made. Based on these results, we know that July and August had the highest pedestrian and cyclists counts while November and December had the lowest number of counts during the year.
We’re also able to look at the number of trips made on bicycle in each season. In winter, the number of trips made on average is down to 25 per cent of the summer volume but are only 38 per cent of the average, which shows us that people still ride on the bridge in the winter months.
These trends allow us to get a better understanding of how many people are biking or walking any day of the year, in all weather conditions. We can use this information to see how people are travelling now and how they will likely travel in the future, so we can better plan Calgary’s transportation system. Click here for more information on the Peace Bridge counter and other ways The City collects data.
Fun Fact: On Canada Day 2014, close to 16,500 pedestrians and 3,400 cyclists crossed the Peace Bridge, the busiest day in the entire year.
Source City of Calgary