Why are bicycles counted?
Today, Mika and Mia were cycling together. It was a great, sunny Sunday and the streets were full of strollers. Mia and Mika had picked this day for their trip on purpose, because the weather was really nice. It had rained last Saturday. With the rain, cycling would not have been as fun.
On their trip, they passed a strange pillar.
“It says how many bicycles have passed by here today,” Mika observed.
Mia watched how the number increased by one when a cyclist passed by.
“That actually works,” she realized. “Today, six hundred cyclists have passed by already.”
“That’s a lot,” Mika thought. “I wonder why they are counted.”
When the two were back home in the evening, they looked it up. What are the countings used for? For example, to investigate how many people do not ride their bike because the weather is bad!
Half of the cyclists do not ride on a rainy day, Mia read aloud in surprise. Like her and Mika on the rainy Saturday. In this case, the people either go on their trips some other time or they use the tram, the bus or their car.
“Cycling also isn’t fun when it’s too hot,” Mika thought. And that is true!
On a very hot day, fewer cyclists are on the streets. About as many as on a cool, grey autumn day.
Of course, not only the current weather is important. The weather forecast matters as well. If it is supposed to rain in the afternoon, there are already fewer cyclists in the morning.
“If you ride your bike to school in the morning, you have to ride it back home in the afternoon, too,” Mia considered.
“That’s true. Look here.” Mika had found a map of all the spots with bicycle counting stations in Leipzig. “Do all of these have those pillars?,” Mia wondered.
She had passed by some of those spots before and had not noticed a pillar then. The counting stations are actually hidden in the ground, Mika read. You can still see them, because they come with funny diamond-shaped seams in the ground.
Maybe you can find some as well?
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Text & Translation: Marja Gerike, Illustration: Patrizia Schoch