Counters monitoring usage patterns at trails across Northwest Indiana have shown the trails are being used all year. Northwest Indiana trail czar Mitch Barloga wants to deploy more of the devices.
At $3,000 apiece, the local share for municipalities and counties would be $600.
“There’s still this myth out there that not many people use our trails,” Barloga said, but the devices send data that disproves the myth.
“Once in a while, and we have had warm days in January and February, people do go out there and use that bike,” so plow the trails, he urged.
At Thursday’s meeting of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, Transportation Committee Chair Kevin Breitzke recapped Barloga’s presentation at a recent committee meeting.
“Trails do bring in a significant amount of economic impact,” Barloga said, as well as increasing property values. “They’re very strong economic generators.”
That helps trails more than pay for themselves. But making that point to policymakers and the public is easier when there’s data readily available to back up assertions.
An older generation of trail counters was more cumbersome, Barloga said. About 20 of them were deployed. They had to be removed and taken back to the office to download data from them. They were routinely vandalized, and there were other issues as well. “Maybe not Mothra, but we had some pretty big bugs in there,” he said.
The new generation can upload data via Bluetooth, so the counters can remain in place as long as the battery lasts.
“A million people have used these trails that have been installed to date,” Barloga said.
The counters help staff understand usage patterns, including the time of day and time of year when trails are most popular.
“You’ve got all sorts of data sets you can look at and create reports on,” Barloga said.
He pulled up data from one of the trails for the committee. On Sunday, June 15, “we had over 13,000 people out on the trail,” he said.
That can help guide decisions not just on where trails are needed but also to monitor maintenance needs.
“Parks are a popular destination for exercise or what have you,” Barloga said. Wicker Park in Highland and Fairgrounds Park in Valparaiso are highly popular.
Early morning, before work hours, and after work are popular times on the trails.
NIRPC hopes to create a dashboard on its website for trail usage data, Barloga said.
Planning, Marketing and Grants Planner David Wright at Gary Public Transportation Co. noticed that while the counters are deployed from Hammond to LaPorte, there’s a dearth of them in Gary.
“We put out a wish list. The city of Gary didn’t bite this time,” Barloga said, meaning under the previous administration.
“If I had my druthers, we’d have 101,” he said, across Northwest Indiana. Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Park would be good to add to the network as well.
Shirley Heinze Land Trust paid for one of the existing markers, setting a precedent for nonprofits to do so.
Municipalities that can’t afford to buy trail counters could ask service clubs or other nonprofits to purchase them, providing the local share of $600 each, Breitzke said.
Private sector sponsors help fund the bike trail map, so they might also be willing to chip in toward a counter, Barloga said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
