The City of Vancouver has installed a live counter to show how many people are using one of its designated bike paths, a move critics say smacks of electioneering.
The counter, set up at the south end of the Burrard Bridge, cost about $30,000 plus $1,000 a year in calibration costs and upkeep. Another was installed as part of Science World's outdoor science park, but was not paid for by the city.
Vancouver has been tracking cycling traffic since 2009, but Lon LaClaire, manager of strategic transportation planning for the city, said publicly displaying the figures helps spread the message that biking is a viable option for commuters.
“I get the sense that a lot of people don’t really know how many people are biking on the bikeways,” LaClaire said.
“Often when you see a bikeway you only see a single cyclist biking by, but when you see a total daily count it’s really quite surprising.”
According to the city, more than 6,500 people biked over the Burrard Bridge every day in July, setting a new record of 195,000 crossings in a month. That’s up from 160,000 crossings recorded in July 2013.
About five million cyclists have crossed since counting began five years ago.
The new tally displays use wire loops under the bike paths that act like metal detectors, adding to the totals every time a cyclist passes by. The number then resets daily at midnight.
So far, only the Science World counter is viewable, but LaClaire said the city hopes to unveil the Burrard Bridge counter soon.
The Canadian Taxpayers Association said it’s no surprise that Vision Vancouver is installing a tally now, mere months away from the Nov. 15 municipal election.
“They’ve built their whole reputation around bike lanes,” said Jordan Bateman, the association’s B.C. director. “Having a scoreboard to show how they’re doing is probably a convenient thing for them at election time.”
Bateman said $30,000 may be a drop in the bucket of a major city’s budget, but argued it would still be better used on infrastructure than “political projects.”
“Heck, it could go to other bike lanes,” he said.
Promoting cycling is a key aspect of Vision Vancouver’s much-touted goal of making Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.
The party said it hopes to make cycling, walking and bussing account for the majority of trips taken in the city by that year, and reduce the average distance driven by each resident by 20 per cent from 2007 levels.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Peter Grainger
Correction: A previous version of this story suggested Vancouver paid for the cycling counter outside Science World. Science World paid for that counter.
