If you're walking, driving, or better yet, cycling down Bloor Street West in the coming days, you'll likely notice some fancy new fixtures the city has installed along the thoroughfare's edge.

New high-tech cyclist counters have now appeared in zones popular with those on two wheels, which should help to finally put to rest the arguments about whether people actually use bike lanes and whether the city should keep adding more of them to its ever-growing network.

Bicycle counter installed on the Bloor bike lanes (finally!)
by u/furniture_centaur in toronto

Residents near High Park have already started spotting the shiny modern-looking posts, which were just added in both directions near Oakmount Road on Thursday, though the city has since covered them up with plastic, presumably until they are in full working order.

The counters have in-ground loops that take record of people as they travel over them, which the city says will provide useful and accurate year-round cycling data for both the city and the public.

"The public counter displays can encourage people to cycle by showing people cycling that they are not alone," a representative from the city tells blogTO about the new project.

And while there are a number of in-ground counters around Toronto, these ones near Parkside mark the first that show data to the public.

"The city is currently testing [then] and may expand the number of locations in years to come," the city says.

The newly-stationed machines were put in Thursday, and covered in plastic as of Friday. Photo by Fareen Karim.

People are already joking online about how long it will take an SUV to plow through the new units given how often the city's drivers tend to ignore cycling paths, and on the flip side, about cyclists planning to speed past multiple times a day (in different hats, one person quipped) to boost the counter's numbers.