Three state entities recently spearheaded an effort to install in-street permanent bicycle counters in Philadelphia to help city staffers monitor seasonal and time-of-day trends via data collection.
The electronic devices have been installed in the bike lanes on Spruce and Pine Streets, near 12th Street, in conjunction with the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability (OTIS), the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), and the Philadelphia Streets Department.
The counters detect the number of bicycles passing over a specific location during a certain period of time. The data counts help the city make decisions about traffic flow and infrastructure improvements. And they are the first of their kind in a bike lane on a city street, serving as a new source of data because of the ability to monitor biking levels on each street, 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The initiative also assists OTIS in gaining greater insight into transportation cycling while also enhancing the usefulness of the short term counts done by DVRP, officials said, noting there has been an increase in bike ridership in the wake of the pandemic, with more Philadelphians looking for methods to safely travel and recreate while practicing social distancing.
The city maintains installing the region’s first in-street bicycle counters is an investment in modernizing its bike lanes and improving safe bicycle mobility.