Slick Electronic Bike Counter Installed on Hawthorne Bridge

How many people bike over the Hawthorne bridge every day? Now anyone walking, biking, or driving past will be able to see. Thanks to a $20,000 grant from Cycle Oregon, the city installed an electronic bike counter on the bridge yesterday.

When I stopped by yesterday afternoon, a crew was putting down the cords that will count bikes as they zip past. So it's not functional yet, but here's what the counter looks like (bigger photo below the cut):

I've seen these counters in other countries, but this is the first in the US. The counters are made by a Canadian company called Eco-Counter and the point of them—besides being interesting to wonks—is to raise visibility of the sheer number of people who are biking. The last city bike count tallied by over 8,000 people biking across the Hawthorne during a normal day.