A newly installed bicycle counter at the intersection of Country Club Road and Third Street will automatically count cyclists 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The City of Tucson and Pima Association of Governments purchased three counters. Two are mobile tube counters and the third is a permanent counter installed at the bicycle crossing on Third Street.
Tom Thivener, the city’s outgoing bicycle and pedestrian program manager, said they put the counter at Third Street and Country Club Road for several reasons.
“We wanted to put it on a bikeway that gets a fair bit of use that we knew is likely to experience changes especially as Third Street gets extended further east,” he said.
He added that they could have tried to put the counter at Third and Campbell, but it would have been harder to get all cyclists because the road is so wide, there is not one 10-foot area through which all cyclists would pass.
The bicycle crossing at Country Club collects all the cyclists in a narrow area, which will allow them to get a more accurate count.
Thivener said the regions’ bike planners will work together to create a schedule for the two mobile bike counters and rotate them throughout the region.
The counters have been in the works for some time. Here’s the link to the first story.
¡BIG BROTHER!
Wow! How much did this cost to install and how much are the counters.
The counter cost about $3k and the city’s crews put in the wiring in the ground.
Thanks for posting this. I wondered what that was. I saw it being installed and since then thought it must have to do w/ the crossing light.
I note the comments about the cost of bike counters. I’ve no opinion on whether the benefit justifies the cost.
But, I also note (in the first photo in this post) that a bollard is missing/destroyed at that location. It seems that bollards at this location (and at the University/Stone crossing also) are often in such terrible condition. I assume it’s from cars crashing into them due to very poor driving.
What’s the cost of that? I’m guessing the annual cost of constantly replacing these bollards is more than a few thousand dollars.
I think your assumption is correct, Alan.
And here is my US $.02 on the topic: I think that a lot of people drive too fast. So, when Mr. Bollard pops into view, they can’t stop or swerve in time.