in CamRock (Moderator: TheMayor1)

I had an opportunity to install a bike counter at CR3 back in early June. It was located near the kiosk at the lead out trail. Check out the chart below for some results. Black bars are total riders by the hour, red bars are total for the day. The blue line is cumulative rainfall  - note the drop in riders for days we had rain (although still some riding, tsk, tsk). Basically, the park saw an average of about 30 riders per day with well over 100 on June 6 and 7. I'm guessing this might be a result of the WORS race the previous weekend.  I'm sure there other interesting details that can be teased out of the data. For example, the last black bar (far right of graph) was one of the largest. I was out there with a bunch of colleagues on a bike outing. The parking lot was full.

There may be opportunity to install one or more of these devices at other trail systems if there's an interest. Perhaps the data could be used to show state or county officials how much the trails are being used. Maybe certain days/times are more popular that others. Are some trails getting used all the time while others barely at all? Does a local ad campaign spike ridership in a certain area? I'm sure there are a bunch of other cool things to look at.

Anyone interested in getting the raw data can PM me and I'll email over an Excel spreadsheet.

I had an opportunity to install a bike counter at CR3 back in early June. It was located near the kiosk at the lead out trail. Check out the chart below for some results. Black bars are total riders by the hour, red bars are total for the day. The blue line is cumulative rainfall  - note the drop in riders for days we had rain (although still some riding, tsk, tsk). Basically, the park saw an average of about 30 riders per day with well over 100 on June 6 and 7. I'm guessing this might be a result of the WORS race the previous weekend.  I'm sure there other interesting details that can be teased out of the data. For example, the last black bar (far right of graph) was one of the largest. I was out there with a bunch of colleagues on a bike outing. The parking lot was full.

There may be opportunity to install one or more of these devices at other trail systems if there's an interest. Perhaps the data could be used to show state or county officials how much the trails are being used. Maybe certain days/times are more popular that others. Are some trails getting used all the time while others barely at all? Does a local ad campaign spike ridership in a certain area? I'm sure there are a bunch of other cool things to look at.

Anyone interested in getting the raw data can PM me and I'll email over an Excel spreadsheet.

Thank you. Very interesting.

Aaron and I got the city of Middleton trail counter data Aug - Nov 2013. The final report had less data but it was very intersting. The city had electromechanical counters in various places and hired or staffed someone on the public properties. It was a total surprise to know around 28 people used the bike park many days, and there was a huge spike when weather got better and surrounding times when we did improvements and construction.

The Sept data spiked many times the other months yet the report showed it was less than 1/2 what the counter we saw by dirt jumps so they might have had other counters, means, trail cams or the guy we know was out doing surveys.

My guess is Fitchburg and DNR have similar equipment and could get some use data.

Amazing information Bill! Thanks a ton for gathering this. This will be super helpful in a lot of discussions with Dane County Parks and the local municipalities.

Your gauge confirms what I had at my home guage. Madison said they had 10 1/2 inches of rain in June. We had close to 13 out at CamRock, and are approaching 14 in the last month! Pretty amazing to have the trails open as much as we have. It seemed that they were closed as much as they were open. I wish I had a record of when they were open vs. closed over the last month. If I would have thought of it I would have recorded those dates. It would be interesting to overlay that info.....

Thanks to the Trail Posse and all who have helped out to keep the trails open and get them back in riding shape. There is still more to do to repair some of the damage from all the rain, and those riders...