We Are Counting on the Trail
In the summer of 2023, three trail counters were installed along the trail. As some might recall, this was made possible by a grant from the Robert & Marian Graham Community Fund of the Platteville Community Fund. Now, there is over 18 months of data, which helps us give usage statistics for various grants we apply for while we continue to learn about our trail.
The PCA volunteers help our community by maintaining over three miles of the Rountree Branch Trail. As most of you know, it’s unusual to have a linear arboretum like ours because most arboretums loop around a garden-like area. That makes our arboretum unique and makes counting users unique as well.
The three counters were strategically located to best see the user traffic. One is at the east end, by the gazebo near the junction to the Mound View State Trail that goes to Belmont. Another is on the straightaway just north of Mineral Street. The last rests at the Delta 3 trailhead, near the west end.
As for statistics, the data tells us that July is the busiest month with an average of about 200 daily users. January is the least active, clicking about 20 users a day. Overall, the yearly average is about 150 daily users, with various spikes (e.g. Monster Dash 5K; St. Paddy’s Day 5K; the high school community service day; holidays; and cross country runners) and drops for severe weather days and some holidays.
Avid readers of the PCA’s newsletter will recall the 2023 Monster Dash exposed a slight limitation with this technology. These infrared counters send an invisible beam across the trail, and when the ray is broken up by someone crossing by, it’s counted as a user. However, since there’s a social aspect to using the trail, not everyone gets counted. That’s because people normally walk next to each other. After reviewing the Monster Dash data, an educated guess has this happening about 25 percent of the time. So, adding 25 more for every 100 clicks would get closer to the actual number that used the trail. Let’s call it the “25 Percent Bump.” Because the counters are pointing across the trail at a 90-degree angle, it’s just registering the one break of the infrared beam. So, if two or three people are walking next to each other, the counter probably only registers it as one user.
Here are some interesting statistics about the Rountree Branch Trail:
For 2024, the overall traffic of the counters has the Gazebo (41 percent of traffic) leading the way, with Mineral (36 percent) in second, and Delta 3 (23 percent) with the least number of users. The Gazebo’s 2023 traffic was still a leading 37 percent, but it grew this past year.
The busiest days of 2024 for each counter breaks down like this:
Gazebo: June 6th (989 clicks); August 23rd (461); September 2nd (420)
Mineral: September 2nd (336); March 3rd (312); October 19th (303)
Delta 3: March 16th (375); May 4th (348); June 30th (270)
We know that Labor Day was September 2nd, so that explains the numbers for that day. March 16th was a St. Paddy’s Day 5K where over 200 people participated. Our Monster Dash was Saturday, October 19th, so that explains the third-most Mineral numbers.
However, a count of 989 is a huge number, so let’s explore the June 6th glitch. After looking at it by the hour, we probably had some school-age children bussed to the trail to enjoy their lunch. The standout numbers are from 12 noon to 1 PM (159 clicks) and 1 PM to 2 PM (181), which totals 340 clicks in just two hours. Imagine kids running around the gazebo area during that time. It’s not a true count of the trail usage. Those two hours alone surpass every day of the Mineral counter in 2024, and would be the 3rd highest daily total for the Delta 3 counter. So, it’s the anomaly of the year.
Looking back on the 18 months of trail data history, the busiest months were July 2023 and May 2024. July 2023 logged 14,283 clicks, which averages 461 per day. Using the “25 percent Bump,” that month probably averaged over 575 daily users. May 2024 found the second-most users with 13,606 clicks, which is an average of 439 per day (or about 548 daily users).
Reviewing the counts for all three counters, here are the busiest days of 2024 for each month: January 4th (164); February 25th (771); March 3rd (694); April 14th (785); May 5th (774); June 6th (1,307) and 30th (889); July 6th (736); August 23rd (676); September 2nd (883); October 19th (616); November 8th (285); December 8th (385).
We must remember that some below-freezing days come to our trail. So, the least used day was January 15, 2024, where there were just two clicks at Mineral, which probably means just one person braved the day on the trail.
As noted earlier, the Delta 3 counter sees the least traffic. However, for two days in 2024 the Delta 3 trailhead was the busiest counter on the trail: March 16th (375) and May 4th (348).
Looking ahead, remember that the data always shows less than the actual usage. So, it’s probable that our busiest day in July (the 6th), which totaled 736 clicks, was much busier. Using the 25 Percent Bump, then July 6th probably had over 900 users.
The bottom line is people like the trail and it gets used a lot.
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