Another year begins! First and foremost, on behalf of the entire Eco-Counter team, we’d like to wish you all the best in this exciting new chapter.

Before we launch into 2025, let’s take a moment to look back at 2024, a year in which active transportation and micromobility data remained top of mind for many organizations and individuals. With the world’s rapid advancement and the uncertainty that comes with it, getting back to facts and objective, verifiable data is more important than ever.

Despite the boom in recent years, global policies now need to accelerate the development of walking and cycling to avoid a plateau effect.

In natural areas, the challenge remains to find the right balance between visitation and environmental protection, thereby meeting the objectives of combating climate change and preserving biodiversity.

Find out in this article what we’ve learned from 2024, and how data can help answer these key questions!

Active Transportation, Tourism, and Natural Areas: Our Highlights from 2024

Active Transportation

Looking at active transportation, we explored the role of data in the safety of vulnerable users, infrastructure sizing and traffic analysis.

Globally, the Eco-Counter Index (published in early 2024 based on 2023 data) shows that trends in bicycle usage differ according to country: cycling continues to grow in some countries, while it remains at 2019 levels in others.

• In the 14 countries analyzed, cycling trends are stable between 2022 and 2023: +1% increase in weekday traffic, and -1% on weekends.
• The countries with the largest increases in bicycle traffic between 2022 and 2023 are: Canada (+10%), Belgium (+4%), Poland, Austria (+2%), and France (+2%).
• In France, the Vélo & Territoires bulletin gives more recent trends, but notes a similar trend in the December 2024 bulletin: ridership in 2023 is equivalent to that in 2022, with urban use holding steady (+1%), while in suburban and rural areas it is slightly down (-3% respectively).

Natural Areas

For the management of natural areas, we highlighted the role of data in the preservation of flora and fauna, visitor education and awareness, and the enhancement of the visitor experience in a natural environment.

It was also important for us to spotlight the recruitment challenges facing park rangers. This stems from the fact that, in 2022, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) set an ambitious target of conserving and effectively managing at least 30% of the Earth’s land and sea surface by 2030.

We were therefore proud to participate in the visitor monitoring and management in protected and recreational areas program at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, which involved 10 international PhD students supervised by a network of universities and companies. As a partner, we shared our expertise and business tools to work on the challenges of balancing access to nature with the preservation of flora and fauna.

Tourism

Finally, in terms of tourism management, the Olympic Games prompted us to think about the impacts of such a grand sporting event, but also, more generally, to reflect on the economic benefits and the preparation of a tourist season, or even the real-time measurment or prediciton of visitor numbers.

In bicycle tourism, we also produced the EuroVelo Usage Barometer for the fourth year, in partnership with the ECF (the European Cyclists’ Federation) to analyze trends on the European cycle tourism network based on a representative sample of 540 count sites. Key figures include:

• Stabilization of bicycle traffic on the EuroVelo network (+0.6% compared with 2023). While urban and rural areas show a slight increase, suburban areas are experiencing a drop in traffic.
• Some routes, such as EuroVelo 1 (Atlantic coast), stand out with a notable 6% increase.

Our 2024 World Tour: Some Iconic Projects

In 2024, our team continued to travel to the four corners of the world to support our customers on over 3000 different projects. From US to Canada, from Poland to France, we had the privilege of collaborating with passionate organizations and individuals, all driven by the same desire: to better understand and manage their networks for the benefit of all!

This year was particularly rich in innovative projects. We accompanied metropolises in their transition to more sustainable mobility, helped natural parks preserve their ecosystems while remaining accessible, and supported tourist destinations in their quest for more responsible tourism.

Join us as we take a look at some of this year’s outstanding examples!

The largest: Land Hessen

Without doubt one of the largest projects we’ve had the good fortune to lead: the installation of 500 counters for the Land of Hessen in Germany! The project began in 2022 and continued until 2024, with the aim of obtaining bicycle traffic data for the entire state. After a successful roll-out that mobilized our German teams this year, we’re looking forward to discovering the rich insights on the data next year!

The most versatile: Acadia National Park

A stunning natural landmark, Acadia National Park in Maine uses their trail counters in a wide variety of creative ways. From protecting peregrine falcons during nesting season, to reviving vegetation on mountain summits, to monitoring the results of a new parking reservation system, Acadia shows that data can sometimes be magically versatile! If you’re curious how they figured it out, see the full case study here.

The closest to home: Mount Royal Park

Just a stone’s throw from the offices of Eco-Counter Inc (our Canadian subsidiary), Mount Royal Park is the city’s green lung! We had the chance to chat with the park’s managers, who taught us how data is used for both day-to-day and long-term management. Resource allocation, monitoring of summer and winter practices, and planning: find the full case study here!

The most original: a Roman statue counting cyclists on Lake Chiemsee

In Seebruck, Germany, on the shores of Lake Chiem, we were delighted to install the most original cyclist counter! Designed by ironworker Robert Meyer in collaboration with the local Roman Museum, the statue recalls the region’s rich Roman past, while incorporating our Eco-DISPLAY Compact, which displays the number of cyclists on a route in real time. With a record 1,960 cyclists in a single day, this initiative combines heritage and innovation – find out more here.

Most instructive: managing overcrowding in Poland’s Tabular Mountains National Park

Poland’s Tabular Mountains National Park, made famous by The Chronicles of Narnia, faces the challenge of overcrowding. Faced with rising visitor numbers and risks to the ecosystem, a study led by Mateusz Rogowski of Adam Mickiewicz University put measures in place to manage overtourism. Using PYRO counters, the analysis showed that 50% of visitors were concentrated on two trails. In response, a system of quotas and reservations was put in place, limiting capacity to 300 visitors per hour.

The results are convincing: visitor satisfaction improved (dissatisfaction fell from 53% to 19%) and visitor numbers were now more evenly distributed across the park – a result that testifies to the power of data when it is collected in the right way and used to support concrete actions! Click here for the full study.

Finally, the coldest: bicycle development in Trondheim, Norway

And a little something for the future… We were in Trondheim, Norway in November 2024 to interview the city’s teams about how they use data to develop cycling in this Norwegian city with a frigid climate… Goals, issues, results, you’ll know it all very soon, in video!

And since choosing means we have to left out other great case studies… Find all our case studies published this year on our blog, and in our “Resources” section!

Our Innovations

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t share our trade secrets with you: how we help our customers achieve their goals. Here are some of the innovations we’re particularly proud of from 2024!

MULTI ^Evo: our new and improved classic counter

The MULTI Evo brings the innovations of our Evo range to our MULTI counter, capable of counting and differentiating between pedestrians and cyclists. It’s suited to both natural and urban environments. It counts and differentiates between pedestrians, scooters and cyclists, and gives real insights to the distribution of users.

 CITIX-AI ^Evo: our advanced multi-modal counter

CITIX-AI Evo is the latest counter in our range which uses artificial intelligence to count pedestrians, cyclists and five classes of vehicle, while identifying their direction and speed. Perfect for complex intersections or multimodal areas, it helps to understand flows, usage conflicts, and the impact of road developments. It is, of course, “Privacy-by-design” and fully GDPR compliant.

 PYRO ^Nano: small but mighty

Specially designed for natural areas, the PYRO Nano is an all-terrain, ultra-discreet counter. Mounted on a trunk or branch, it blends into the background while detecting visitors up to 13 feet (4 meters) away. Perfect for monitoring the number of visitors to natural sites without disturbing the wildlife (or the walkers!).

 VisitorFlow: see further, understand better

Innovation in combining data: our VisitorFlow solution! By combining count and floating data, managers can now answer the questions: Where do visitors come from? Where do they go? How long do they stay?

 Data validation: peace of mind for your analyses

Collecting data is all well and good, but it has to be reliable! We’re committed to providing real data that’s 100% validated, so you can make the right decisions.

It was therefore essential to propose a simple, ergonomic and robust method for obtaining reliable data. We therefore worked with our team of Data experts to provide a scientific method that makes it easy to identify data anomalies and correct them if necessary, all now directly integrated into our Eco-Visio solution!

And that’s our quick overview of our year in 2024!

The Eco-Counter team wishes you all the best for the year ahead, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store. And of course, we look forward to working with you on all your projects to develop active transportation and preserve natural areas in 2025!