The City of Chattanooga is on the hunt for a system that will help the city's transportation department - and its citizens - more accurately gauge the number of pedestrians and bicyclists traveling key urban streets, bike lanes and sidewalks.
Private companies can bid, starting today at 2 p.m., for the opportunity to be the vendor to supply the city with 10 electronic counters that will provide transportation officials information they can factor into decisions on bicycle and pedestrian projects.
The data collected from the five pedestrian and five bicyclist counters also would be transmitted to a publicly accessible website, according to a request for qualifications document posted on the city's website.
City transportation director Blythe Bailey said the machines will work similarly to vehicle counters used across the city. They will be used in before-and-after scenarios to track how sidewalks and bike lanes affect transportation activity.
"It's sort of a core function," Bailey said. "Just like we have to know how many cars are on the road and how fast they're going, we have to know how many pedestrians and cyclists are on the road so we can gauge where to put the things we need and how much of an effect the things we do put in have."
Other cities use similar counters, Bailey said. Pedestrian and bicycle counts in Chattanooga have been conducted here "the good-old-fashioned way" for the last several years: by standing on the street with a clipboard.
Chattanooga's bicycle implementation plan has proven to be a polarizing political issue since the city accepted a federal grant for the installation of bike lanes in 2014.
A Times Free Press Election Day poll of 360 voters from Hamilton County showed 44.7 percent of residents favor more bike lanes, while 35 percent oppose more bike lanes. Another 18.9 percent did not favor or oppose more bike lanes.
Local attorney Jerry Summers wrote a letter to local media this month criticizing a road project on Bailey Avenue and M.L. King Boulevard that will reduce vehicular traffic to three lanes and bring bicycle lanes to the street early next year.
He said Monday that he doubts the numbers from counters will justify changes like the Bailey-M.L. King project.
"If they were going to do some counting," Summers said, "they should have done it earlier."
The counters will be movable, and Bailey said the city will decide where to first place them once they arrive.
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.