I've posted about this before but now I've got some pictures. The idea is to count the number of bikes passing by various locations in the city and then project the results on a nearby structure, - usually in the evening.

The counting is automated and there's an animation that shows on the projection when a cyclist passes. A bike appears and dollar signs fall from the sky as the counter ticks up.

I don't have any video of the animation but do have a couple of pics of the projection:











Tonight the counter will be set up at Target Field (Minnesota Twins baseball stadium) and the counts will be displayed on the scoreboard Pre and Post game. "TC", the team mascot will also be riding a bike over the counter.

One problem discovered: Some of the bicycling paths where the counter has been set up run parallel to a street. Often you'll see cyclists on the streets as opposed to the path and they don't get counted.

I think they already have that in Denmark. I don't know how they count at the intersection but maybe somebody from there can help?

There are some permanent installations. This one is "mobile". Pneumatic tubes are used to sense a cyclist passing by. The same company that supplied them to us apparently has sensors that can distinguish between cars and bikes.

Very cool. 2000+ cyclists in a single location in one day is pretty impressive.

Thanks for sharing, it's a great idea. I'm proud of my town.

It sounds like a lot but it adds up pretty fast. The picture with the 2029 total on it was taken while I was there. In fact, I think the top of my head might be featured in the lower right portion of it.

There was less than 2000 when I got there when they were warming the projector up. There was over 2040 by the time I left but it didn't seem like many cyclists were going by. Just one or two here and there. This was on a Saturday night in a location chosen more for its visibility rather than the number of bikes utilizing it. It's on my commute actually but I wouldn't say it's a super busy spot as far as commuters go. And again, a lot of cyclists choose the street vs the bike path in that particular spot.

Ironically because the display was off to the side of the path and above their heads, few of the people riding by noticed. Lots of pedestrians saw it though and were intrigued enough to ask questions.

Me too

I guess it's hard to get a sense of how many cyclists use a particular path while riding the path oneself. Many days, I can count on one hand how many other cyclists I see while on my commute (more when I take the trails, less when I take the streets). When I saw that number, I thought that in order to achieve the same in my city, I'd have to spend an hour riding circles over the sensor, but maybe not. Of course, Minneapolis/St. Paul is about 3X more populous than Edmonton. (Though, Minneapolis by itself has only half the population of Edmonton...is that right? 400K vs. 800K?)

That's about right. The entire metro area has a few million people but Minneapolis itself is a tad under 400,000. I don't know what percentage of commuters to Minneapolis live outside the city limits but there's pretty good access from the Western burbs and East from St. Paul

Where were those pictures taken? Coffman and the Mill City Museum?

Mill City Museum and Wiesman actually. This is a picture that shows more of Weisman.




TC has already been counted on a newish segment of the bike path that runs under the baseball stadium.