HomeMy WebLinkAboutPackets - Council Packets (503)HONEYBEE/TORTOLITAS TRAILS UPDATE—SEPTEMBER 2017
TRAILS: BUILD, R1 1517,71576 -M
Bicyclists Love the
Honeybee Trails
By Kirk A. Astroth, SDMB Board Member
Over the past several months, the Sonoran
Desert Mountain Bicyclists have been
collecting data on the popularity of these
trails with recreational users.
In addition, in May we held a "legislative day
on the ground" tour of the trails. Two
current and one former state legislator
participated along with representatives of
the biking community, Rancho Vistoso
residents, bike store owners, trail runners,
hunters, both local ranchers who hold
grazing leases on these lands, the Oro Valley
Competitive High School Mountain Bike
Team, an archaeologist, and 5
representatives of the Arizona State Lands
Department.
One of the more populartrail riding apps is
from Strava. They collect a robust database
of users but this is just one of many mapping
apps so their data only represents a
subset of all users. Estimates from the
company are that about 30% of all trail riders
use their app.
In 2016, before the gate was installed on
the WAPA Trail access point, there were a
total of 26,114 rides recorded from 4,200
individual users. Again, only one rider may be
using this mapping program but be riding
with multiple riders so the exact numbers of
users are not clear.
In 2017, after the WAPA trail was closed,
there were only 9,273 rides recorded from
1,971 users.
In total, Strava recorded 33,866 rides from a
total of 4,731 different users.
Where did these riders come from?
Not surprisingly, the largest
number of riders come from Pima
County -2,373 in all. About Soo
riders come from Maricopa County.
But what is surprising is that riders
came from 45 different states plus
the District of Columbia and the
Virgin Islands. And the average
length of their rides is about 10
miles.
In August 2017, SDMB installed a
trail counter on the trail that
counts only bicyclists. The counter is
placed so that no matter where someone
accesses these trails, they get counted when
riding these loops.
We want to get a more accurate count of
how many bicyclists are accessing this
system of trails. In just one week, 26o bikes
were recorded. The highest use time period
was 6:oo PM, followed by Too AM and then
9:oo AM. Wednesday was the most popular
day for use followed by Saturday.
We continue to collect data now that we are
heading into the fall when riding becomes
more popular as the temperatures drop. We
will continue to update the Oro Valley Town
Council periodically with new results. But so
far the data shows that bicyclists love these
trails and represent an economic potential to
the town of Oro Valley.
48
46
44
42
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
13
16
14
12
10
s
6
4
2
Days of the week
From 2017-08-19 to 2017-08-27
Report generated on 2017-09-06 by kirkastroth@gmail.com
www.trafx.net
Daily averages
Mon Tue „ed Thu Fri at Sun
Site Name Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Honeybee Loops 27.0 39.0 48.0 44.0 22 n 42 n n n
uauy Averages 27 39 48 44 22 42 0
Hours of the day
From 2017-08-19 to 2017-08-27
Report generated on 2017-09-06 by kirkastroth@gmail.com
www.trafx.net
Hourly averages
00:00 01:00 01:00 03:00 0:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 05:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 17:00 1100 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:05 20:00 71:00 27:00 23:00
Site Name Average Median STDV Min Max
Honeybee Loops 1.6 0.3 2.7 0.1 8.9
OUTDOOR RECREATION
ECONOMIC BENEFITS Wi
ARIZONA OUTDOOR RECREATION GENERATES:3
$10.6 Billion $3.3 Billion 104,000 $787 Million
consumer spending wages & salaries direct jobs state & local tax revenues
I IMPACT OF MOUNTAIN BIKE EVENTS in Tucson & Southern Arizona