Broadway Eco-Totem Bicycle Counter

In 2015, Cambridge installed a permanent "Eco-Totem" bicycle count station on Broadway in Kendall Square. The Eco-Totem (made by the Montreal-based company Eco-Counter) counts cyclists via in-ground loop detectors. It also displays daily and cumulative count totals and captures weather data to use for analytical purposes. The data can be used in many ways:

• To publicly show how many people are bicycling and make a statement that “bicyclists count”

• The 24/7 data can be used to analyze daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal patterns. This can be used to help extrapolate data from other counts

• The data assist with determining crash rate analyses 

Here’s how you can see what’s happening:

• GET COUNTED! Ride in the bike lane on either side of Broadway and watch the number increase!
• Check out the official Eco-Totem website for a quick, easy way to look at trends over time.
• Download the complete dataset from the counter through our Open Data Portal and do your own analyses! Counts are automatically transferred to the Open Data Portal on a daily basis.

Fun Facts

Did you know that over 1.5 million counts have been made so far? Or that on February 14, 2016 - the coldest day in over 80 years - we still counted 53 rides? Here’s a 2016 summary of the data showing a few of the ways it can be visualized.

For More Information

For more information, please contact cddat344@cambridgema.gov.