Image courtesy of the City of Long Beach.
For the past five days, those using the 3.1-mile Shoreline Pedestrian/Bicycle Path have been counted as one of the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of healthy-minded, active people on the path each day. The City of Long Beach installed the Eco-Totem on Wednesday, just west of the Belmont Pier, to begin collecting more accurate data on how many people use the path for both bicycling and pedestrian activity.
“We know people enjoy walking and riding on our beach path, and its popularity is increasing,” said Mayor Robert Garcia in a statement. “The new counter is yet another reason for people to enjoy our beautiful coastline and our expanded bike and pedestrian network.”
The city collects data on bicycles and pedestrians through physical counts, which provide a snapshot that assists with tracking and projecting ridership and other activity in certain areas, while the Eco-Totem counter uses sensors to count and distinguish between bicyclists and pedestrians using the path, according to the release.
Screenshot taken from Eco-Totem.
“Making Long Beach a great place to live for all of our residents is a top priority,” said Councilwoman Suzie Price in a statement. “The investments we’ve made, along with our recent ‘Livability’ initiatives, have helped to increase the quality of life for our residents. We can use the data from the beach and bike path to help inform future decisions for infrastructure along our coastline.”
The city described the new counter as a new investment in its “Bikeability,” as well as a continued effort to make Long Beach the best place to live, work and play, alongside its overall “Livability” initiative, which includes “Swimability” and “Walkability.”
“Bicycling, walking and jogging bring people from across the city and region to our beaches,” said Councilmember Jeannine Pearce in a statement. “This new counter is a fun way to get data to ensure that beachgoers have the facilities and safety resources they need while they are here.”
According to the counter, Saturday, October 1 saw 3,555 pedestrians and 2,336 bicyclists use the path, the most the path has been used since the Eco-Totem was installed last Wednesday. The data reflected numbers recorded as of midnight Sunday.
The counter shows the number of pedestrians and bicyclists who use the path daily, as well as year-to-date, according to the release. Those not enjoying the path at the moment can check out the count by clicking here.
The city noted that similar systems are used in hundreds of other cities, including Paris, New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Sydney, Oslo, Budapest and Dublin.
Recently the city was named the Number 10 “Most Bike Friendly City in America” in a survey using data from Zillow.com and featured on Active.com, the largest athletic event website in the United States, according to the release.