Cyclists to be counted Digest Delray man accused of taking thousands in coins
Palm Beach County agency to use $20K grant to collect data on bicycle riders and walkers
Getting better sidewalks and bike lanes on local roads could be as simple as counting how many pedestrians and cyclists are using those roads.
So the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, the county’s transportation planning agency, is going to start doing just that in the fall.
With a $20,000 federal grant, the agency is buying new technology to put on county roads to get a better idea of where people are walking and biking and whether roads should be improved to accommodate them.
“We have some [sidewalks and bike lanes] that just end,” said Franchesca Taylor, the county transportation agency’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. “Is that logical? We could make the case that we should have more connections.”
The concept isn’t all that different from what Palm Beach County does with cars. Every year, it counts how many vehicles are on the roads, collecting data to see how much traffic there is and whether improvements are needed. Those traffic counts also help determine if road improvements are needed as new developments are built.
Bike and pedestrian data could also factor into whether developers should be required to make roads more bike and pedestrian friendly, Taylor said.
To count pedestrians, the agency will use lasers beamed across sidewalks. As walkers cross sidewalks and break the laser beam, they will be counted. To count cyclists, the agency will use rubber tubing — similar to those used to count cars — that are placed across roads.
As more communities request that roads be narrowed, the information the county transportation agency collects on walkers and cyclists could justify those requests, Taylor said.
Robert Sabin, president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club, said it’s a “good pilot project.”
“We have very little data now about pedes- trian- and bike-traffic patterns,” he said. “Let’s figure out how many people are riding bikes in Palm Beach County.”
The transportation agency has so far identified 12 sites in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Jupiter, Lake Worth and Belle Glade where it will first add the technology. Those sites will expand as the agency moves the portable technology around. By the end of the year, the agency hopes to have pedestrian and bike data at about 100 locations.
This interest in people’s walking and biking patterns come as the county and cities place a greater emphasis on having “complete streets,” putting other road users on equal footing with drivers by making it easy to cross roads, walk to shops, bike to work or catch a bus.
The county transportation agency would like cities to eventually buy and put up permanent bike and pedestrian counters so it can have a better, long-term picture of pedestrian and bike activity at various locations.
“We don’t want to promote the idea that travel by car is a more valuable form of transportation than the others,” Taylor said. “We have to back that up with data.”
Fingerprints left on pieces of paper helped identify a man who stole about $3,000 worth of coins, according to a Delray Beach police arrest report.
A woman reported the theft Wednesday. She got home and noticed coins from two large jars and class rings missing from her locked bedroom, the woman told police.
A crime scene investigator found fingerprints on several small pieces of paper left behind in the change jars.
Investigators on Thursday matched the fingerprints to Christian Cricco, 24, of Delray Beach, according to the report.
Investigators told the woman the name of the suspect, and she identified Cricco as her roommate’s boyfriend. She added that she locks her bedroom door when she leaves home and said there was no reason for Cricco’s fingerprints to be in her room.
Police searched a pawn database and discovered at a Boca Raton pawn shop that Cricco had pawned three Clemson University class rings, including one that belonged to the woman’s father, and a 1929 Bishopville High School ring handed down to her from the woman’s grandmother, according to the report.
Investigators interviewed Cricco, who said he intended to return the items to the woman. He also described himself as a drug addict and said he recently relapsed, according to the report.
Cricco told investigators he took the coins to a counting machine at a Delray Beach Publix where he got cash. The woman told police she had about $3,000 worth of change in the two jars.
Cricco was booked into Palm Beach County Jail on Thursday. He faces burglary, grand theft, dealing in stolen property and fraud charges. He was being held on $35,000 bail.