A good idea from MASSBUG:
Tuesday 8th August is the next ABS Census which will be counting how many people ride to work.
Now is the time to work on any of your friends not yet cycling to work. Talk about petrol prices, public transport fare increases, health & fitness benefits and climate change. Offer buddying. Start extra bike buses.
MASSBUG also offers some posters to help encourage people to ride:
Why does it matter?
According to the Bureau of Stats:
Information about workplace addresses helps us to understand the journeys people make to travel to work…
This information, when combined with information on how people get to work and the availability and use of cars, is used to plan for roads and public transport.
Daytime populations of particular areas are also estimated from this information so that services can be located where people will be during the day, rather than where they live.
When it comes to planning I'm sure this is not the only source of such information, but it's still pretty important.
OK, so let's get in early and make 8 August an extra Ride to Work Day – or maybe we should call it "Ride and Be Counted Day"?
[via VeloSydney]
I see your point Peter, but I think those who deal with statistics for planning purposes are probably used to balancing the inconsistencies that inevitably arise when you compare numbers from different sources. For any given strategic plan, the census numbers would be only one of those sources.
Actually, I'm more interested in the idea of census day becoming an extra, informal Ride to Work Day. I reckon there are plenty of fair-weather cycling commuters who may not usually ride to work in winter but might just be tempted out in order to make their number "count" in the census. But the point is really the same as for Ride to Work Day – a one day trial on the bike might be enough to get a few more people to commit to year-round bike commuting.
And the time of year is not a trivial point: of all possible transit choices, travel by cycle (whether pedal or motorised) is probably the most influenced by prevailing weather conditions. As the census is always taken in August—one of the coldest and (in southern states at least) wettest months—it could actually underestimate the usage of two-wheeled transport across the whole year. But you've got to accept that the nature of the census is that it's a snapshot.
Finally, although I know their heart's in the right place, I don't agree with the suggestion at VeloSydney that you get your friends to say they rode to work on their census form. If I can paraphrase your comment, what is the point of making the numbers look good artificially? To do so is to condemn the national statistics to "damn lies" status – and that's no use to anyone.
Comments
I like the idea, but is this a good idea realistically?
From a planning point of view, road use are likely to be based on metering systems set up by VicRoads, which counts cars, so overlaying a distorted cycling percentage would both (a) over estimate the scope of bike commuting and (b) over estimate the total number of people movements.
The outcome might be (a) a general undermining of attempts to increase cycling - e.g. making the numbers look "fair" when they are actually "crap", and (b) simply mining out public transport use numbers, not cars.
What do you reckon?