Cameras keep count on downtown streets

The Downtown Victoria Business Association has unveiled a new tool for number crunchers who happen to be people watchers.

The new website downtownvictoria.ca, which offers information on downtown Victoria — including a commercial census, the number of residential projects and their units, and hotels and the number of units — is intended for would-be investors.

But it also includes a pedestrian counter for anyone wondering just how many sets of eyes pass by certain parts of the core.

The new website lays out data collected by a series of cameras set up around downtown, and allows anyone to plug in dates and times to see how certain spots fared in terms of pedestrian traffic over the course of an hour, days, months or years.

On Tuesday, for example, 6,218 people were seen passing along Government Street, near Murchie’s, as more than 3.96 million have done since the cameras were installed in 2013.

Over that same time, 1.39 million went by Market Square on Johnson Street. Just 2,346 made that same trip on Tuesday.

There are eight cam- eras, which count bodies using heat-sensing technology and do not identify passersby, installed in the core. They have been operational since Nov. 22, 2013.

The Downtown Victoria Business Association intends to install four more.

General manager Ken Kelly said the counters are an invaluable tool for investors who don’t know the city but may want to open stores, locate an office or develop a property.

“This is an unprecedented, one-stop service which allows potential investors to get insights into downtown Victoria,” Kelly said. “We know this will provide value for potential investors, but also for our commercial realtors and downtown property managers.”

The program has cost the DVBA about $20,000.