Every day about 400,000 cyclists use Amsterdam's bike lanes. The city is becoming increasingly crowded, and with the growing popularity of bicycles come new challenges in terms of mobility and traffic safety. To better understand these complex bicycle flows, the City of Amsterdam chose the Signum bicycle counter from MultiSensors. This innovative technology provides reliable, continuous data collection that allows Amsterdam to take targeted measures to improve traffic safety and address bottlenecks on bicycle paths.

Ewald Dijkstra, senior mobility research advisor at the City of Amsterdam, explains: "Although we have extensive data on car traffic thanks to cameras and sensors, until recently we had a much less complete picture of bicycle mobility. Traditional methods, such as bicycle loops and temporary counts, provided only snapshots. During peak hours and bicycle congestion, the data were often inaccurate because cyclists were standing still at the loops. In addition, temporary count loops are vulnerable to long-term use, which limits their suitability for continuous measurement.With increasing pressure on bike lanes and the rise of faster bicycles, such as e-bikes and speed pedelecs, there is a growing need for a reliable system that can measure bicycle flows year-round and provide insight into relative crowding. "Our existing resources were not adequate to provide these detailed insights, which are essential to ensure the safety and flow of cyclists," Dijkstra said.

To address this challenge, Amsterdam chose the Signum bike counter from MultiSensors. The Signum bicycle counter is a smart telradar that measures bicycle intensity and speed 24/7 at strategic locations in the city. This system offers over 90% reliability, even during rush hour and bicycle congestion, and collects data in full AVG compliance by anonymizing and presenting it at an aggregate level.

The Signum counter provides a robust alternative to traditional measurement methods, such as manual counts or temporary systems. Installation by MultiSensors was efficient, and the municipality can access the data through a user-friendly dashboard. This dashboard allows decision makers to get a detailed overview of traffic intensity for each measurement point, which helps with data-driven decision-making.

MultiSensors not only provided the installation of the Signum bike counters, but also ensured that the municipality had easy access to the collected data through a clear and user-friendly dashboard. "Thanks to this system, we always have access to the data, without having to worry about it any further," says Dijkstra. "For each measuring point we can accurately see what the traffic intensity is, and the system provides us with an AVG-compliant solution by aggregating data in five-minute time blocks, which is important at busy locations."

Dijkstra recommends that other municipalities facing similar mobility challenges adopt short measurement intervals for bicycle data, allowing for detailed and AVG-compliant snapshots. A continuous measurement strategy is strongly recommended, as it reflects relative crowding on bike lanes year-round and is not sensitive to temporary influences such as weather or events.

The Signum bike counter provides the City of Amsterdam with a reliable bicycle mobility solution. This investment in high-quality traffic data allows policy makers to make bike lanes safer and more efficient. With its proven accuracy and ease of use, the Signum bike counter provides a sustainable answer to the challenges of urban bicycle mobility and serves as an inspiring example for other cities.