Today I took part in something called the Pedal Poll, which is a countrywide initiative to count how many people are biking, walking, driving, or using a motorized vehicle across a specific time and place. I counted 993 cyclists in the span of 2 hours. I think I would have gotten that other 7 to get over 1000 if I hadn't accidentally closed the app and had to restart it.

To take part in this little endeavour, I:

• signed up on this website;
• followed the instructions to download an application;
• booked a location that I would count at;

When the day arrived, I biked down to the location (in my case, the Martin Goodman Trail at Colborne Lodge) and set up a camp chair and started counting. Two hours of counting people is actually a significant amount of time (when was the last time you did the same thing for 2 hours?). I managed to burn through a few episodes of the Revolutions podcast, and it was a nice experience. The weather was great (a bit colder down by the lake) and I was able to sit in the sun, count on my phone, and make note of over 1,000 pedestrians and cyclists who passed by me in the span of two hours.

I learned about the Pedal Poll from a new friend who is actually going to be working with the data that is collected. Hopefully, I'll be able to report back on what comes of it and what we can see in terms of cycling growth, popularity, and other forms of transportation across various locations in Canada.

Taking part in this also made me reflect on the fact that data really does drive a lot of decisions, and without it, it makes it very difficult to persuade people that a proposed change or suggestion to the city makes sense; at least, all of this should be true. There is no shortage of people denouncing groups of people different from them (here, car drivers and cyclists), making sweeping claims without actually having backed up stats.

It's a beautiful thing that we can collectively contribute in a way like the Pedal Poll. It's a simple ask, but it empowers people to make a small contribution as they can.