Eco-Totem

A bit beyond our borders, but if you should happen to be peddling over the Fremont Bridge, you may get a gander of the thing pictured at right. It’s taking a gander of you, too:

[Last week], the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Seattle Department of Transportation unveiled the new bicycle counter totem now installed at the north end of the Fremont Bridge. The totem, which is more than seven feet tall, has a digital display of the number of bicyclists that have crossed that day, and a graphic indication of the number of cyclists since the beginning of the year.

Chuck Ayers, Executive Director of the Cascade Bicycle Club explained, “The location on the Fremont Bridge is ideal because this is the busiest bridge for bike traffic in the city and the state, and there is a good mix of commute and recreational trips through the area. We are delighted to help bring a bike counter to Seattle to show that bicycling counts here.”

The new device, called an Eco-Totem, will count bicyclists 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This data will supplement the spot counts already being taken three times each quarter at 50 locations around the city. Analysis of the data from both sources will help identify with greater accuracy the various factors, such as weather, nearby construction projects, or holidays, that influence people’s decisions to make their trips by bicycle. The data will be downloaded once a day, so the first data will be available on the Web site on Friday morning, with a link provided from SDOT’s site.

Both the Cascade Bicycle Club and the City of Seattle are working to increase the number of trips made by bicycle for environmental and health benefits in addition to managing traffic congestion and parking as the city continues to grow. SDOT Director Peter Hahn said, “Our goal as stated in the 2007 Seattle Bicycle Master Plan has been to triple the number of bicyclists between 2007 and 2017. This new bike counter will help promote bicycling and will let us better measure the progress we’re making.”

The Cascade Bicycle Club acquired the Eco-Totem and gave it to the city. The funding, $30,000 for purchase, installation, and first year’s maintenance was provided by the Mark and Susan Torrance Foundation.