In pretty much every job I’ve had since 1996, I’ve counted what you clicked on the Internet. What you click on, where you go, for how long — analytics, as the Web geeks call them — are critical components to understanding life on the Internet and making the experience improved. Meanwhile, the rest of your movements in life go mostly unmeasured and the experience, often, unimproved. We make the biggest, best efforts to measure, it turns out, when it comes to figuring out how to sell you more stuff.
This pedestrian count map from the Downtown Seattle Association represents a kind of fantasy situation for me: behavior measurements of a key offline activity (walking!) in relation to geographic points. If only it were real-time — and measuring Capitol Hill.
I haven’t put my finger on exactly what it is I want to know about pedestrian movement on the Hill. It could help us figure out where we need crosswalks, for one. But I’ll admit I also just kind of want to know. For now, we’ll have to rely on anecdotes. Pretty sure the busiest Cap Hill corners I contribute the most to are the following:
- 15th at Republican
- Broadway at Pine
- Broadway at John
You?
Super gigantic tip of the hat to Karen at www.phyzzyoga.com for sharing the map site with me
i’m somewhat ashamed to admit this but my wife and i sat on our lawn one day and counted how many people walked by, what direction they were going, if they had dogs, cats, bikes, etc. i think we did a car tally too.
we live at 16th/e harrison which is a very busy pedestrian area. we gathered a lot of data. this is only a small rollup of it:
http://cencini.blogspot.com/2008/06/16th-ave-e-e-harrison-st
once the weather gets warmer, we may try again.
i should also mention the intersection/traffic circle at 16th/e harrison has been a bit problematic lately – there have been two accidents recently and people seem to be driving awfully fast through there despite the very heavy bike and pedestrian traffic. the traffic circle there is probably the worst place to cross – people pull g’s driving through there and we hear skids and honks a few times an hour it seems. it’s sadly terrifying.
Great data. To geek out a bit, look at two similar intersections: 4th & Pine and 7th & Pike. In Spring 08 they register nearly the same foot traffic in daily totals. In Summer 08 however 7th & Pike drops to roughly half the traffic. (And folks hit up 6th & Pine even more in Summer than Spring so it doesn’t seem to be cruise shippers staying close by the water.) Why the big seasonal variance? What’s the story?
Top Cap Hill intersections for me: 15th & E Harrison, 12th & Madison.
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For better or worse, most of my favorite Hill spots seem to be at or near 10th and Pike.
Only other exception is Vivace, so I guess I’ll add Broadway & Harrison and Broadway & Thomas.
I wonder if we can get our hands on all that info that is being gathered to determine whether or not to put a crosswalk on the Olive/Denny corridor?
I used to cross those intersections so much that I had the stop lights timed to the millisecond.
Now that I live in the boondocks of Miller Park, I guess 19th and Republican is my #1 intersection. I also must walk by Andrew Cencini’s house at least once a day, but his count occurred before I moved :)
This would be a great project for an UW urban planning student. (I was one many years ago.)
I think it has to do with the convention season – 7th and Pike is closer to the convention center and there are more conferences and conventions in the spring than in the summer.
12th & Pike
11th & Pike
Pike & Boylston
Broadway & Denny
Ahhh, Lindsay, good call! Duh!
Pike & Pine at Bellevue
The Bellevue and Olive trapazoid
Pine & Broadway