A bicycle counter donated by Cycle Oregon will visibly show the number of people on bikes who ride past it on the Hawthorne Bridge.
A crowd of people gathered on the Hawthorne Bridge last Wednesday to see Portland’s first-in-the-U.S. visual bicycle counter.
Cycle Oregon donated the counter as a tool to collect data on the number of bikes in a location over a period of time and display the data in real-time for the public to see.
Bike counters are used in cities worldwide working to raise awareness of the positive impact bicycling has on traffic congestion, air quality and personal health.
Increasing the number of people who bicycle is a long-range goal of the city to reduce congestion and air pollution, improve personal health and save Portlanders money by making a low-cost transportation option attractive and safe.
A visual bike counter raises public awareness of these goals and highlights the city’s progress in reaching them, officials said.
