Here’s something interesting I found out yesterday from a Washington State Department of Transportation employee: a bike/pedestrian counter has been installed along the Children of the Sun Trail that runs paralell with the North Spokane Corridor to see how many people are using it. Big deal right?

What’s cool about this counter though is that it detects metal in spokes and shoe heels. Just to make sure it’s picking up the right stuff though, an infrared sensor was included that can sense body heat. This helps to ensure that what it is sensing is indeed human. And no, it won’t count animals, unless they’re riding a bike or wearing shoes, so the hope is that this will give some pretty accurate counts that can be used in the future for furthering the bicycle/pedestrian cause.

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