Let’s Count Everyone

This past fall, the PCA received a grant for trail counter equipment. The Robert & Marian Graham Community Fund of the Platteville Community Fund awarded $2,715 for the purchase of three infrared trail counters and accessories needed for the installation along the Rountree Branch Trail. By the end of June, all three trail counters were installed and counting.

The counters were strategically placed along the trail: at the Delta 3 trailhead, just north of the Mineral Street junction, and near the gazebo. For now, we just have the month of July to report. The charts should speak for themselves, but here are the highlights:

• Sunday is the most used day of the week, while Wednesday is the least.

• The Gazebo sees the most traffic, and the Delta 3 area counted the least amount for the month.

• The dips in July usage usually correlate to one of three things: heat; bad weather; or holiday.

• The Mineral Street junction outperformed the gazebo on only five days in July.

• July 28th and 29th are the only two days the gazebo came in third.

• July 29th is the only day that Delta 3 ranked 1st (beating Mineral Street & gazebo by 1 and 4 counts, respectively).

• July 12th was the smallest count total combined with only 176.

• The most used day was July 9th (with 679 counts combined).

• On July 17th, the gazebo counted its highest daily number (343).

• July 30th was the highest day for both Mineral Street (237) and Delta 3 (187).

• Mornings have the busiest hours: 8 AM for the gazebo; 10 AM for Delta 3; and 11 AM for Mineral Street.

Trail counters are a big step for the PCA. This technology not only eliminates asking volunteers to take time to sit on the trail and count on specific days and times, but the data will help us with future grants and promotion of the trail.