PHILADELPHIA – City officials and partners announced today that in-street permanent bicycle counters have been installed in the bike lanes on Spruce and Pine Streets, near 12th Street. These are the first in-street bicycle counters in the region.
“The data from these counters will help OTIS better understand trends in transportation cycling and also improve the usefulness of the short term counts done by our partners at DVRPC,” said Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives for OTIS Christopher Puchalsky. “Good data is a necessary condition for both project prioritization and project selection.”
Bicycle counters are electronic devices that detect the number of bicycles passing over a specific location during a certain period of time. Gathering data on bicycle numbers helps City staff and planning partners to monitor seasonal and time-of-day trends, particularly on high-use corridors like Spruce and Pine Streets. With those counts on hand, the City can make decisions about traffic flow and infrastructure improvements.
“Unlike the other permanent counters on our region’s trails, these in-street counters are the first of their kind in a bike lane on a city street,” said DVRPC Executive Director, Barry Seymour. “This is a great new source of data because we’re able to monitor the levels of biking on each street, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.”
There has been an increase in bike ridership due to COVID-19 as more Philadelphians seek ways to safely travel and recreate while practicing social distancing. With unexpected shifts in travel patterns, planners will now be able to see how trends change over time during planned or unplanned circumstances.
“The Streets Department is proud to be a partner in this milestone to the city’s bike infrastructure,” said Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams. “Installing the region’s first in-street bicycle counters is an investment in modernizing the city’s bike lanes and improving safe bicycle mobility.”
The bicycle counters were installed in partnership with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), the Philadelphia Streets Department, and the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure & Sustainability (OTIS). OTIS coordinated communications with the property owners to install the counters which are located in the street and public right-of-way. The Streets Department crews worked with DVRPC technicians to install the devices, and DVRPC provided the equipment and will house and share the data in their website. Click here to view the data map.
Resources for Media:
- Photos of installation of bicycle counters (photo credit: DVRPC)