It’s April. Where Are DOT’s 2015 Bike Numbers?

bikecount2015
DOT released its 2014 screenline bike count exactly a year ago. The 2015 count has yet to be posted.

More than three months into 2016, DOT has yet to release last year’s screenline bike count, which shows how cycling in the city center has changed over time.

It’s called the screenline count because it measures the number of cyclists who cross key points around the central business district: the East River bridges, on the Hudson River Greenway at 50th Street, and the Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal.

Up until a few years ago, DOT released the bike count in the same year the data was collected, sometimes as early as October. The 2012 count was the first to include winter cycling numbers, and was not released until the following March. Then the 2013 numbers weren’t released until Streetsblog posted an unauthorized copy in July 2014. Last year, DOT released the 2014 count around exactly this time (after a nudge from Streetsblog).

We asked DOT for the 2015 count in January, and the agency said it expected to post the numbers “before Spring 2016.” In response to a follow-up query earlier this month, DOT said the numbers would be released “later this spring.”

With stats going back a few decades, the screenline count provides an excellent trendline of bicycling in the city center. It would be great to see DOT add more metrics to track changes in cycling farther from the Manhattan core. But failing that, just releasing this key indicator on a timely schedule again would be a welcome change.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

It’s April. Where’s the NYC DOT Bike Count From Last Year?

|
Did cycling in New York City continue to rise in 2014? We still don’t know, because NYC DOT has yet to release its annual count. Usually, by this time of year, NYC DOT has released its screenline bike count showing the year-over-year trend in cycling in the city core (specifically, the screenline count measures cyclists on the East […]

3 Big Takeaways From NYC DOT’s 2014 Bike Count [Updated]

|
NYC DOT has posted the 2014 screenline bike count [PDF] (after some prodding from us last week), showing a 4 percent increase over the previous year. Following double-digit percentage growth every year from 2006 to 2010, this marks the fourth consecutive year without an increase of 10 percent or more. The screenline captures bike trips across […]

NYC Bike Counts Jump 35 Percent

|
The rumors were spot on. Yesterday DOT announced a 35 percent increase in commuter cycling. This year, an average of more than 12,500 cyclists were counted crossing DOT’s screenline — a set of checkpoints leading into the Manhattan CBD — up from about 9,300 in 2007. It’s the biggest jump in raw numbers since the […]

Warm Weather Bike Count Flat in 2012, While Winter Counts Grow

|
Earlier this week, DOT released its 2012 bike counts [PDF], including a new dataset — counts from the winter months. The agency has been tallying cyclists in December, January, and February for five years, and this year released the winter counts, in addition to April-through-October counts, for the first time. The data show that warm […]

Spring Bike Counts Show Steady Growth of 14 Percent

|
The growth of cycling in New York City shows no signs of letting up. The Department of Transportation’s latest count of cyclists entering the center of the city posted a 14 percent increase this spring compared to last spring. If the trend holds up for the rest of 2011, it will mark the fifth consecutive year […]