For the third consecutive year, we are excited to announce that we are partnering with the League of American Bicyclists once again to host the annual Bikes Count Data Competition! The 2023 data competition is open for submissions now through May 4th, and a winner will be announced later in May, during National Bike Month. 

Are you looking to use bike data to make an impact in your community? Have you been putting off analyzing and communicating that messy Excel sheet on your desktop? Do you have some bike data that never really got used or made a splash? Send us your data!

Through a competitive application process, one lucky winner will receive from us:

• expert cleaning and analysis of your data from our data services team to extract key trends and insights;
• custom branded infographics, graphs, social media cards and other communication tools with your data;
• best-practice training on analyzing and communicating bike data;
• … and more!

The competition is open to U.S.-based organizations with any kind of bike data, including bike advocacy organizations, municipalities, regional councils, neighborhood associations, as well as schools, universities, and businesses that participate in the Bicycle Friendly America program. From automated count data to GPS traces, survey data to manual counts, we want to see it! 

The League and Eco-Counter originally joined forces to host the first-ever Bikes Count Data Competition in 2021, awarding both the City of Charlottesville, VA, and the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance in Boise, ID. Last year, Lincoln-Lancaster County in Nebraska and a joint project involving Madison Bikes and Bike Fitchburg in Wisconsin were selected as winners of the 2022 ‘Bikes Count’ competition. As winners, these organizations received support and assistance from Eco-Counter to get the most out of their cycling data and to use those insights for meaningful, bike-friendly change in their community – this year it’s your chance to receive the same support!

Check out our recent blog posts presenting the results achieved with bike data in Lincoln-Lancaster County and Madison/Fitchburg Wisconsin and view the infographics below!

Infographics created to highlight key results of Lincoln dataset

How to apply

To apply for the 2023 competition, fill out an application at the link below. The application isn’t too long. We just want to hear a little bit about your organization, what kind of data you have, and (most importantly) how this data will make a difference in your community. 2023 applications are due by 5 pm ET on Thursday, May 4. The winner will be announced in late May! Contact bfa@bikeleague.org with any questions.