Counting Bicyclists on the Manhattan Bridge!

Since this has been an such amazing year for NYC bike commuting (after all Bicycling Magazine says we're the #1 bike city, right?) two dear friends of Streetfilms (Steven O'Neill & Brooklyn Spoke's Doug Gordon) who frequently ride the Manhattan Bridge bike path joined me this morning to count some bicycles. We spent 20 minutes during the morning rush hour -- specifically, 8:49 a.m. to 9:09 a.m. -- tallying commuters just for the fun of it.

It was a beautiful morning for riding and the numbers didn't disappoint. You'll need to watch the short video to find out the final tally, but the count won't shock anyone who rides regularly in this part of NYC. After all, the Manhattan Bridge has seen bike traffic swell over the last five years, and the advent of Citi Bike in 2013 is helping to keep that growth going.

Last October, NYC DOT tallied 4,004 bikes over this bridge in 12 hours. Of course, our average came out much higher than that because we counted during rush hour. It will be interesting to see what the official 2014 counts yield.