Bicycle counters are

electronic devices Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and ...

that detect the number of

bicycles A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. ...

passing by a location for a certain period of time. Some advanced counters can also detect the speed, direction, and type of bicycles. These systems are sometimes referred to as bicycle barometers, but the term is misleading because it indicates the measurement of pressure. Most counting stations only consist of sensors, the internal computing device, although some use a display to show the total number of cyclists of the day and the current year. There are counting stations all over the world in over hundreds of cities, for example in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, or

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

. The first bicycle counting station was installed in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

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, in 2002.

Persuasive aspects

Bicycle counters are mainly being installed to assist

city planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

with reliable data on the development of bicycle usage. Bicycle counting stations are said to raise awareness for cycling as a mode of transportation, encourage more people to use their bicycles and give cyclists acknowledgement. There has been no representative study on the impact of bicycle counters on citizens or by-passers, but some early empirical clues that urban visualizations can "become appropriate communication media for sharing, discussing, and co-producing socially relevant data". To increase visibility, bicycle counters are mostly installed at positions with high traffic volume and visibility to a range of road users. They have been called urban visualizations and fulfill certain criteria of

ambient intelligence Ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to environments with electronic devices that are aware of and can recognize the presence of human beings and adapt accordingly. This concept encompasses various technologies in consumer electronics, telecommunic ...

, such as being embedded, context-aware and adaptive. Bicycle counting stations can be described as persuasive technology.

"Through sensing technology, a display can act as a tool that increases the capability to capture a behavior (e.g., measuring residential energy consumption, bicycle use, etc.); through its visual imagery, it can function as a medium that provides useful information, such as behavioral statistics or cause-and-effect relationships; and through its networking ability, it can become a social actor, encouraging community-based feedback and social interaction".

Technical setup

Different techniques are used for detection of bicycles, such as built in induction loops, piezoelectric strips , pneumatic hoses,

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

sensing or cameras. Different setups provide different advantages such as more precise counting, battery life, reduced costs or differentiation between different road users such as cyclists, pedestrians or cars. Independent testing has shown that

pneumatic tubes Pneumatics (from Greek 'wind, breath') is the use of gas or pressurized air in mechanical systems. Pneumatic systems used in industry are commonly powered by compressed air or compressed inert gases. A centrally located and electrically-po ...

can record with over 95% accuracy and piezoelectric sensors reach 99% accuracy. Manufacturers state a 90% precision for induction loops.

Data

Unlike manual counting or other bicycle related interventions or

citizen science The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...

, where citizens manually put in data, bicycle counting stations automatically generate citizen related data. Automatic counting systems are said to be cheaper than manual counting by people. Because of the use of communication technology in the urban context, bicycle counters can be counted as

smart city A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

technology,

urban informatics Urban informatics refers to the study of people creating, applying and using information and communication technology and data in the context of cities and urban environments. It sits at the conjunction of urban science, geomatics, and informati ...

urban computing Urban computing is an interdisciplinary field which pertains to the study and application of computing technology in urban areas. This involves the application of wireless networks, sensors, computational power, and data to improve the quality of de ...

. Most of the organizations who install bicycle counters, provide the number of cyclists as

open data Open data are data that are openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shareable by anyone for any purpose. Open data are generally licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-so ...

Criticism

There has been criticism on the precision of the counting and on the cost of bicycle counters as a waste of tax money (14000-31000€).

Gallery

File:Piezo strips.jpg, Piezoelectic bike counter in Haarlem, the Netherlands File:Bicycle counter.jpg, A bicycle counter in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

with pneumatic hoses to detect the number of cyclists File:Abádszalók (Tiszaderzsi szivattyútelep) Tiszamenti kerékpárút (EuroVelo-11) Kisköre felé 2018-09-09.JPG, Narrowed passage at the Tisza Cycleway in Hungary with cameras to count cyclists File:BikePedCounterSetup 2008.gif, The technical equipment of a bicycle and pedestrian counter next to a cycle path, using an infrared sensor in Burlington

References