Take photos of your school bike racks to help measure how often bike racks are used before and after the Cycle Safe program. Please follow the steps below to ensure photos are taken in a consistent and reliable way. Download a link of your Cycle Safe Bike Rack Tracking form.
Timing
- Take photos on 3 separate weekdays before Cycle Safe is implemented and 3 separate weekdays after implementation.
- Choose days that are not rainy (avoid rain or heavy snow).
- Take photos at approximately the same time each day, ideally: During the school day (e.g., between 9:00–11:00 a.m.), when bikes are most likely to be parked
- Try to use similar days of the week for before and after (e.g., Tuesday–Thursday).
How to Take the Photos
- Stand in a position where the entire bike rack is visible in one photo.
- Take the photo from the same angle and distance each day if possible.
- Make sure all bikes locked to the rack can be clearly seen.
- Do not include students’ faces in the photo. If students are nearby, wait until the area is clear or take the photo from behind.
What to Record
- Take one photo per rack per day (if there are multiple racks, photograph each one). If there are bikes parked on other parts of the school (e.g., fences, lights, etc), you should take pictures of those as well.
- Name or label each photo with (e.g., SchoolName_Before_Day1_RackA.jpg):
- School name
- Date
- “Before” or “After” Cycle Safe
- Rack number (if more than one)
Additional Notes
- If a planned photo day becomes rainy, skip it and select the next non‑rainy school day.
- Photos will be used only for program evaluation to count the number of bikes parked and assess changes over time.