Five best practices for successfully monitoring park visitation with count data
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Monitoring visitor volumes is a valuable tool for planning, managing, and renovating a park system. Accurate knowledge of trail and facility usage can help make informed operational decisions, improve maintenance, and justify future investments.
If you want to implement a counting system in a park, follow these best practices to get the most out of your data:
1. Define your goals Think about exactly what you want to accomplish with your count data. For example, do you want to identify trends in visitor flows over time, determine usage patterns, measure the impact of renovations, or find out which facilities are being used the most?
2. Identify key sites to place the counters Choose the busiest or most representative locations in the park to place the counters, such as trailheads, feeder trails, visitor centers, etc.
3. Use automated counts to extrapolate manual counts Continuous automated counts can be used to extrapolate data from short-term manual counts. This method allows you to cover a larger area with fewer automatic counters.
4. Consider how you'll share the data Do you need to communicate with administrators, other departments, or the public? Websites and reports are effective ways to raise awareness, strengthen messaging, and share data.
5. Mix qualitative and quantitative data to gain better insights. While automated count data reveals baselines and trends, manual observations and surveys gather data on demographics and behaviour. This continuous quality data can be used to improve park maintenance and management, justify new funding, write better grant applications, and more.
Case study: How the Presidio Trust integrated automated counters into the design of a new park in San Francisco, CA
When the highway to the Golden Gate Bridge that ran through the Presidio of San Francisco was replaced by the Presidio Parkway tunnels, the Presidio Trust had the opportunity to create an entirely new public park. To ensure it was tailored to the public's needs, the organization took an innovative approach to figuring out what activities and attractions to include and invested in an automated counting system to measure the park's success from day one.
The Presidio Tunnel Tops project launched an international competition in 2014 to imagine what the new park could look like and to select a team to work with the public to design it. The Bay Area community helped select the winning team, and thousands of people shared their ideas for what landscapes, experiences and activities would make Presidio Tunnel Tops a place where everyone feels welcome.
The new park, scheduled to open July 17, 2022, spans 14 acres in the heart of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. There will be overlooks, hiking trails, picnic areas and gathering spaces with stunning views of the bridge and the city, surrounded by gardens and meadows with 180 different native plants, as well as a transit center and visitor center with food options, a pavilion and a campfire area.
With so many attractions, there's no doubt that Presidio Tunnel Tops will be a big success - but how big exactly?
Having used automatic counters in its parks to make operational decisions for more than 12 years, the Presidio Trust knows from its own experience how helpful counting systems can be in monitoring attendance and making decisions. That's why automated counters will play a strategic role in the new park, according to Tanya Cusenza, marketing manager for the Presidio Trust:
- The counting system will allow us to understand the number of visitors to the new park, as well as seasonal and visitation patterns. This data will help us determine the best ways to manage and market Presidio Tunnel Tops.
During the design phase, a total of nine PYRO People counters from Eco-Counter were integrated into the park design. These counters use an infrared sensor to detect people's body heat as they walk by - so no photos are taken and the count data is completely anonymous - and identify direction. They'll be installed at various entry points to the park to determine where visitors enter and exit the park.
The count data will be combined with other sources of information such as surveys, observational data, focus groups, web analytics and online reviews. Tanya explains that this holistic data system allows park management to understand and respond to visitor demographics, awareness, visitation motivation, likelihood to recommend Presidio Park to a friend or family member, and barriers to visitation.
Eco-Counter can help you plan and implement a customized counting system - from setting goals to installing the counters to analyzing and sharing the data. Call 1-866-518-4404 or visit eco-counter.com to learn more.