On November 22nd, UCLA revealed to the world something new and the first of it’s kind on a college campus – an automated bike counter.
As many of you who 1) go to school here 2) walk to school without being blindfolded, may know, there are tons of students that bike to campus everyday. You may see them zooming past you on Gayley as you curse yourself for not finding faster transportation to get to class, but you’re not the only one that’s counting bikes. The new automated machine is situated by Strathmore and Gayley, and uses a magnetic detection system to count the bikes that pass by. As this location on Strathmore is a hot spot for many of the bikers coming from the nearby apartments, it’s a great scale of how many cyclists that are biking their way to campus.
Why might we need this maching, you may ask? Well, let me tell you! Having a concrete number of bikers that go by over the past year will make it easier to petition for more bike lanes around campus and thereby make biking a safer alternative to driving to school.
The counter was funded by UCLA’s Green Initiative Fund, and will also let bikers know that they are welcomed and encouraged to continue what they are doing on campus. Beginning tomorrow, November 25, the bike numbers will appear online and be available for the public to view. The counter was inaugurated by it’s first biker, Professor Donald Shoup, who teaches at the Public Affairs buildling.
Not only is biking part of a larger, ongoing effort to “go green” at UCLA, but it also will encourage students to live a more active and healthy lifestyle.