One small data study, a few small surprises

Early this summer, I wrote a column about Red Deer's project to count the users of our trails network in certain areas. I suggested that people would be surprised by the numbers, perhaps even me.

Well, I have to admit I am surprised. While the city parks department seems pleased that there are more than 200,000 crossings a year at the CPR pedestrian/bike bridge (based on usage in the three-month study), I actually thought the numbers would be double or triple that — or more.

I had no doubt that the Three Mile Bend off-leash dog park would rank highly on user counts, as would Bower Ponds — which always seems to be busy. And it should surprise no one that trail usage at McKenzie Trails — as pretty a park as any in this town — would count fairly low (more on that later).

It's just that, as good as the numbers appear for trails usage in the city, I expected more.

I really thought that there would be points on our trails network that would peak above 1,000 crossings on some days. The CPR Bridge, for instance, is a major transportation route for non-motorized traffic accessing our city centre, and it was declared “busy” with an average of 560 crossings a day.

(Again with the due notice: I serve on the board of the Central Alberta Regional Trails Society, and am president of Red Deer Association for Bicycle Commuting. My bias is clear and unapologetic, as is my interest in this topic.)

City parks superintendent Trevor Poth reported one interesting item the study uncovered: trails usage is an everyday occurrence, not just a weekend or good-weather thing. There are peaks and surges in places, of course, but the study found that overall, we use our trails pretty well the same every day.

This is probably the most important finding of the trails count study so far. Red Deer rightly regards our trails network that links our city parks as a recreational and active-living gem. It is that, and more.

Our trails system is also a transportation corridor for people moving through the city to take care of the necessary tasks of their daily lives. As such, it is woefully incomplete and will never achieve its potential until it is made so.

We are all very sensitive to the costs of things in local government. Most of all, in no other area than in sustainable non-car transportation.

So, as Poth noted in his talk with Advocate reporter Crystal Rhyno this week, knowing the numbers is vital to planning our spending for repairs, upgrades and expansion of our trails network.

But I would caution planners that trails usage is not a popularity contest. The CPR Bridge is busy because it is useful. The trail to the McKenzie Recreation Area is less busy because it is less useful.

McKenzie Trails is an end-of-the-road destination. Unless you are willing to climb almost straight up the river escarpment trail to reach Garden Heights, there is no place else to go.

Bower Ponds is a nice destination, too, but from there you can easily reach Riverside Meadows, Oriole Park, Fairview, Heritage Ranch, West Park and downtown without having to reverse course. No knock against McKenzie Trails; the numbers there merely reflect usage of visitors for one purpose: to enjoy the park.

A far larger number of people pass the electronic counters at Bower Ponds because they are going somewhere. The same applies to the Devonian Trails near Sunnybrook. I suggest that trail is a transportation link as much or more than anything else — and the numbers reflect that.

Here's a point I want to highlight from this study so far: in the absence of separated bike lanes to make non-car transportation pleasant and safe, our so-called recreational trails are carrying people who choose not to drive to every errand they conduct in their daily lives. Therefor, in order to be useful, the trails need to be linked and networked to the places where people want to go.

In many places, they are not. Along the south bank of the river past the Riverlands construction project the trail is closed and will be for quite some time.

There is a trail in the long-term plan for access from the new roundabout on 67^th Street to the Riverbend Recreation Area, as well as all the new housing developments to the south and east. But it's not complete now, and therefor the existing trails cannot be fully used.

Access from the city's north side across 67^th Street to the whole of the rest of the city is extremely restricted and I see no priority solutions for that in the city's long-term plans. It's a barrier many would-be cyclists and pedestrians choose not to cross.

All these things affect usage, which is not accounted for (yet) by the city's otherwise very good study.

In 2013, filmmaker Andreas Mol Dalsgaard produced a watershed documentary titled The Human Scale. You can find it on Netflix and it's worth a watch. It's premise, proved by actual experience in several cities, is that planners hugely underestimate the benefits of trails and bike lanes — when they are networked to places where people actually want to go in their daily lives.

That, I think, is the biggest surprise when we continue our study that we have yet to discover.