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Portland now has another reason it can call itself one of the bike-friendliest cities in the country.

On Wednesday the city installed a bike counter on the Hawthorne Bridge. The counter, the first of its kind in the U.S., according to city officials, will visibly show the number of people on bikes who ride past.

The idea for the counter came together last year, when the Portland Bureau of Transportation awarded with a $20,000 grant. That money was used toward the creation and installation of the counter, which was built by Canada-based company Eco-Counter. Cycle Oregon then donated the counter to the city.

鈥淚t’s an important step to really get a realistic view on bicycle transportation,鈥� said Jerry Norquist, executive director of Cycle Oregon. 鈥淎 lot of money gets spent on counting cars and trucks, but the only way they’ve counted bikes in the past has been to put people out there and have them count for a couple hours.鈥�

The counter will promote biking in general by visibly showing how many people use it as a form of transportation every day, Norquist said.

At the moment, no plans have been made to install counters on any of the city’s other bridges. However, Norquist hopes that each bridge will have one in the future, which would require more grants or possibly the involvement of private businesses.

鈥淚t can really determine what bicycles are contributing to in getting cars off the road,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ithout bicyclists, the bridges would be overcrowded, and we would be in trouble.鈥�