Cyclists Back DUMBO Digital Bike Counter

• Pictured: Bahij Chancey, center, explains his petition to passing cyclists. Photo by John V. Santore

DUMBO, BROOKLYN — As 5 p.m rolled around on Monday, Bahij Chancey was closing in on his 11th hour counting cyclists and collecting petition signatures by the bike entrance to the Manhattan Bridge.

His totals: nearly 3,400 trips in both directions, and 75 names on the dotted line.

Chancey, a cycling advocate and volunteer leader with Transportation Alternatives, has started a petition calling for the installation of a bike totem at the bridge — a real-time digital display showing the number of cyclists crossing the span.

A bike totem. Image courtesy of Bahij Chancey

The Department of Transportation (DOT) currently estimates daily cycling trips taken in the city, putting out totals in periodic reports.

The agency has also estimated bike traffic on East River bridges for years. Bridge totals have increased from 2,473 daily trips in 2001 to more than 15,000 last year, according to the figures.

Source: DOT (click to enlarge)

Chancey thinks real-time data, not just estimates, should be collected and shared online in an accessible format, as with the city's other open data initiatives.

That would definitively demonstrate how many people commute using bikes, he said, strengthening calls for bike infrastructure improvements.

Chancey also wants biker numbers to be displayed publicly on a bike totem, a technology he said he discovered while studying abroad in Copenhagen.

"I think it's cool to see you're part of a larger community," Chancey said, rather than just focusing on the bikers directly around you. "This makes [bike data] tangible for the public."

Chancey said he bikes from his home in Cobble Hill over the Manhattan Bridge for work, and so he'd like the first totem to go up there. But eventually, he'd like one on every East River bridge.

He said he's found cost estimates running at about $28,000 per totem, plus installation, a sum he said could be funded as a participatory budgeting project or through donated funds.

As of Monday evening, Chancey's online petition had 132 signatures (not including the 75 he had collected in person).

The advocate said he'll deliver the petitions he collects to councilman Stephen Levin, whose district includes DUMBO.

He'll also send them to the DOT, adding that he hopes they'll encourage the city to study and eventually back the totem proposal.