Bourg-en-Bresse

Background of the project

Engaged in a proactive bicycle development policy, the City of Bourg-en-Bresse has adopted a bicycle plan covering the entire municipal mandate (2020—2026).
In this context, the community wanted objectify attendance of several bicycle developments already completed, in order to better understand their real uses and their coherence at the network level.

The choice of a six-month rental aimed to cover a sufficiently representative period, including:

• spring and summer,
• different weather conditions,
• high and low attendance levels.

The idea was to have a sufficiently long period, with varied weather conditions, to have usable data with high points and low points.

Instrumented sites

The meters were installed on several structuring urban axes, including bike paths and lanes:

• Allée de Challes
• Avenue de Marboz
• Maginot Avenue East and West (bike lanes)
• Boulevard Charles de Gaulle
• Boulevard Édouard Herriot East and West (bike lanes)
• Mail Underpass

These sites make it possible to observe various configurations of cycling facilities in dense urban areas.

The Kiomda service

Kiomda supported the City of Bourg-en-Bresse via the rental of counting boxes over a period of six months, including:

• the supply of equipment,
• installation support,
• access to attendance data.

The boxes were chosen for their compact size, their discretion in urban areas and their ease of deployment on existing sites.

They are practical boxes that are fairly easy to install, lightweight and blend well into the urban setting.

Uses and recipients of data

Counting data is primarily intended for:

• To the municipality, to assess the relevance of the developments carried out,
• To theagglomeration, in addition to the counts carried out on intermunicipal greenways,
• Occasionally to cycling users and associations, during exchange meetings.

The data is mainly used to judge the relevance of the adjustments made, with a long-term vision at the level of the mandate.

Initial benefits and lessons

At this stage of the project, the community is still in a observation phase. However, the data confirms a first essential point:

At least we know there are cyclists.

The results will gradually feed into the evaluation of existing facilities and future trade-offs in terms of cycling continuity.

Feedback and areas for improvement

The City of Bourg-en-Bresse highlights some constraints related to urban configurations, which may limit the possibilities of installing counters on certain axes.

The configuration of the equipment sometimes complicates the installation: you need support and avoid road traffic in the background. This eliminates some sites where we would have liked to have been able to rely on.

Several recently developed major boulevards could therefore not be equipped, due to a lack of suitable supports. The community evokes the interest, in the long term, of more flexible or complementary solutions to cover all urban configurations.

Overall assessment

The Kiomda solution is considered relevant for exploratory urban use, with a score of 7/10, taking into account:

• the ease of installation,
• the discretion of the equipment,
• and the still necessary perspective on the reliability of data in certain specific configurations.

There are pluses and minuses, but the tool is adapted to this type of assessment process.”