On a sunny and but crisp Thursday morning, a cyclist flies by on the Galloping Goose trail near Royal Roads, earning a studious tick on Brynne CroyB次元官网网址檚 chart.

For two hours, the Capital Regional District volunteer watched carefully where the cyclists came from and where theyB次元官网网址檙e headed B次元官网网址� most veer into the university, some stick to the trail and a few share Sooke Road with morning commuters.

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a pretty constant flow. ThereB次元官网网址檚 a lot of (cycling) traffic off the Goose into Royal Roads,B次元官网网址� said Croy, 29, with her own bike propped up nearby.

ItB次元官网网址檚 all part of the largest cycling survey ever conducted in the Greater Victoria. Counters hit 31 locations over three days this week in an attempt to gauge how many cyclists are out there, where are they going, and what cycling infrastructure theyB次元官网网址檇 like to see.

In turn, that survey will feed into the larger Origin-Destination Household Travel Survey, where a research company will seek to interview 6,000 households across the region and the southern Cowichan Valley to get a measure of their travel habits. The CRD says the travel survey will help it plan roadways, trails and bike lanes.

Croy is among a small army of volunteers out early in the morning and late afternoon to catch commuting cyclists. She herself is part of a B次元官网网址渃ar-free family.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淚 want to make sure efforts like this are supported. I want to make sure cycling infrastructure is present,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淚 love my bike. I like being present in the environment, at seeing things at a human pace.B次元官网网址�

The cycling survey will help focus priorities for the CRDB次元官网网址檚 cycling master plan, which rolled out earlier this year. The plan envisions increasing cycling to at least 15 per cent of all travel modes region-wide, up from about three per cent now.

B次元官网网址淲e need strong data to show where the (cycling) growth is,B次元官网网址� said CRD research planner Sue Hallatt. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e got ad hoc data from municipalities and cycling advocates have done counts, but now itB次元官网网址檚 time to pull it all together for a baseline.B次元官网网址�

Bike survey volunteers are also conducting short on-the-spot interviews with cyclists. Most plan their routes away from heavy traffic and most rides are relatively short, about 10 minutes, Hallatt said.

B次元官网网址淭heir No. 1 request would be more bike lanes. No. 2 is more secure bike lockups,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淲e heard a lot how they loved the Goose, how they love their regional trails.B次元官网网址�

The cycling master plan calls for $275 million worth of new bike lanes, including 360 kilometres of separated on-street lanes. With the Goose, the Lochside trail and the E&N rail-trail as the backbone, the CRD wants all regional municipalities interconnected through bike lane networks.

Langford, for one, has already embarked on its B次元官网网址渟pider bike plan,B次元官网网址� a series of bike and walking trails connecting the city, the Goose and the E&N rail-trail. Langford built a pilot road separated lane on Millstream Road.

Hallatt said cycling advocates often quote cycling statistics and trends from other bike-friendly cities, such as Portland, Ore., and Copenhagen, Denmark, to argue the merits of funding cycling infrastructure.

B次元官网网址淲e need to start quoting ourselves, we need to know our own data and this is the start of that,B次元官网网址� Hallatt said. B次元官网网址淎ll this data is a snapshot of peoplesB次元官网网址� experience cycling in the region in October 2011, and next year we will see if there is any difference.B次元官网网址�

editor@goldstreamgazette.com