Today Newcastle Cycleways Movement conducted a survey of bikes around the city for two hours, from 8am till 10am. I counted bikes at a corner in Adamstown and counted a total of 114 bikes, 78 were ridden by men and 36 by women. The weather was perfect for bike riding, not a cloud and only a light breeze at times. The last time I participated in this survey in October of last year I counted 92 bikes at the same corner on an overcast and slightly drizzly Tuesday morning from 7am till 9am.
I think it is important to get this data so we can see how many bikes are being ridden and the effectiveness of any cycling specific strategies that are being put into place locally can be numerically evaluated. Such surveys are also done nationally here and we also use the data from them to compare with the figures that are just collected locally. More information here.