Trail Counter Reports
LCTA has installed infra-red (IR) counting devices on several trails
within Linn County to determine usage. The results are shown in the following
plots of daily counts. The counters are read frequently by LCTA supports
and the data are interpolated to allocate the counts on a daily basis.
The consistency of the daily counts demonstrates the validity of the data.
If two people are walking or biking side-by-side, only one count is recorded.
Testing has demonstrated an approximately 10 percent undercount but the
amount will vary depending on the type of trail traffic. However the data
presented here does not contain an undercount correction. This represents
a conservative estimate of trail usage. Gaps in the plot data are periods
where data were not available due to battery failure or other problems.
The following table summarizes trail usage during 2005 through 2007.
In contrast to the peak season, the usage for the fall and winter months
with cold and snow is also shown. The total weekly usage measured on all
10 counters for the period May through August 2006 is 20,466 and the total
counts for the four month period from May 1 to September 1, 2006 is 359,610.
|
| Average Weekly Count |
| Trail |
June-July |
Sept-Dec |
| 2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
| CRT Sokol Park |
3,608 |
3,497 |
3,629 |
1,215 |
1,096 |
1,820* |
| Cedar Lake Trail |
1,835 |
2,078 |
2,269 |
891 |
871 |
907 |
| CRT McCloud Pl. |
4,883 |
4,203 |
5,296 |
1,639 |
1,424 |
1,521 |
| CVNT Boyson Rd. |
2,575 |
2,794 |
3,446 |
1,039* |
1,026 |
1,133 |
| CVNT County Home Rd. |
1,537 |
1,913 |
2,322 |
601* |
712* |
748* |
| CVNT Lafayette |
- |
1,042 |
1,041 |
404* |
379* |
408* |
| CVNT Center Point |
648 |
913 |
725 |
406* |
282* |
215* |
| Marion Trail, Boyson Rd. |
2,964 |
3,811 |
3,650 |
1,461 |
1,721 |
1,375 |
| Sac & Fox Trail, East Post Rd. |
1,702 |
1,755 |
2,142 |
982 |
1,346* |
1,249* |
| Sac & Fox Trail, Cole St. |
1,028 |
698 |
753 |
440 |
346* |
468* |
| . | * Counts for Sept-Nov only |
|
|
The Cedar River Trail (CRT) is a North-South hard surfaced trail through
Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha. The Cedar Lake Trail is a small loop trail near
the middle of the CRT. The CRT connects to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail (CVNT)
which continues to the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. The four counters on the CVNT
are at mile 0 (Boyson), mile 3 (County Home Rd.), Mile 7 (Lafayette) and Mile 13
(Center Point). The trail is hard surfaced to County Home Rd. so the
counter at County Home Rd. indicates the number of users that continue
onto the crushed limestone surface. Lafayette is a popular turn-around
point for many CVNT users. It is interesting to observe the traffic
reductions as the distance from central Cedar Rapids increases, however
a significant number of users continue beyond the hard surface. Other
unconnected trails which have crushed limestone surfaces are the Marion
Trail and the Sac and Fox Trail. The counters are at the two ends of
the Sac and Fox trail.
You
may report counter readings by e-mailing the count, date, time,
and location to trailcount@linncountytrails.org.
The count may be
read from the top of one of the trail counter posts. |
The following graph shows the average weekly counts for each month of 2007.
It also shows the relative traffic on each of the trails since all trails are shown on the same graph.
The graphs shown below are from data being collected in 2007.
Data are available for:
Current year(2007)
2006
2005
2004
Sokol Park, near Czech Village SW on the Cedar River Trail
Cedar Lake Loop, near the northwest corner
McCloud Place NE, near 32nd Street along the Cedar River Trail
Boyson Road Hiawatha, at the trailhead of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Hiawatha
CVNT, at County Home Road (mile 3)
CVNT, at Lafayette (mile 7)
CVNT, at Center Point (mile 13)
Boyson Trail, at Boyson Road, Marion
Sac & Fox Trail, at East Post Road
Sac & Fox Trail, at Cole Street
|
