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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