Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Bicycling

DOT Posts East River Bridge Bike Counts, But Not as Open Data

1:28 PM EDT on August 26, 2016

DOT has posted detailed bike counts from the four East River bridges from April through July of this year, a promising new step in making its data on bicycling publicly available. The data was released as monthly PDFs that include bike counts on each bridge, cumulative precipitation, and temperature ranges for each day.

asfd
The increasingly crowded Queensboro Bridge north outer roadway. Image via Streetfilms

It's the first time DOT has published such granular information. But the release would be better if the counts were published as a feed on the city's open data portal, which would make it much easier to analyze the information.

DOT has been counting bicyclists on the Manhattan, Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Queensboro bridges since the 1980s, but only since 2014 has it deployed automated counters to collect a more robust data set. The city used to only count bicyclists a few days out of each month. Now it counts every day.

Last year's "screenline" bike counts (which include the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal and the Hudson River Greenway at 50th Street, in addition to the bridges) were not released until this past May. Not only will the timely release of data speed up public access, but the greater detail in these spreadsheets can also lead to a better understanding of how factors like temperature or precipitation affect cycling rates.

To measure changes in cycling volumes, DOT uses counts from weekdays without precipitation, to ensure that it is comparing apples to apples. Using this method, the new counts show that the number of cyclists riding over the bridges increased by 7.9, 7.2, 10.3 percent respectively in April, June, and July, compared to the same months the previous year. In May, the count decreased 3.7 percent.

The data that gets discarded for the purposes of measuring bike count trends could still be useful. You could assess how variables like temperature or rain affect cycling levels, for instance. That analysis -- or any other analysis, really, like tracking trends on individual bridges -- would be a lot easier if the bike counts were published on the open data portal.

Currently, a search of the portal for bike counts only turns up a batch of 2014 counts from Manhattan streets and greenways posted by the Department of City Planning. We have an inquiry in with DOT about whether the agency plans to post these monthly bike counts on the open data portal.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Friday’s Headlines: Yes He Said Yes He Will Yes Edition

That headline above is a reference to the last line of James Joyce's Ulysses, which we won't pretend to have read. But we have that ... and other news.

September 22, 2023

Madness: Port Authority Will Spend $8M to ‘Study’ Widening Outerbridge Crossing

Will this $8.3 million find out anything we don't know about induced demand?

September 22, 2023

Study: How Low-Income People Really Use Micromobility

Shared bikes and scooters are meeting low-income people's basic mobility needs — but they're not being subsidized like it.

September 22, 2023

School Bus Driver Hits Cyclist, Injures 3, On Major Brooklyn School Bike Route

The crash happened on the route of the weekly Bergen bike bus.

September 21, 2023

City of Yes Yes Yes! Adams Calls for Elimination of Parking Mandates on ALL New Housing

Mayor Adams today announced the historic end to one of the city’s most antiquated — and despised — zoning laws requiring the construction of parking with every new development.

September 21, 2023
See all posts