TULSA, Okla. — New technology is giving Tulsans a way to see how many people are using our trails.
The River Parks Authority just implemented a first of it’s kind “trail tracker” near 46th and Riverside on Saturday.
While the idea of counting how many people use a trail isn’t new, this technology is.
“We’ve seen 570 walkers [so far] today,” said Ryan Howell with River Parks.
For years, River Parks Authority has been tracking how many people use a trail with trackers that you may not notice.
Now with new technology, they are sharing that data live with trail goers at 46th and Riverside.
Plus, the system breaks down the type of user unlike past technology.
“It shows you how many people have ran on the River Parks trail that day or bicycled on the River Parks trail and it divides it up based on which side of the trail you’re on,” Howell said.
River Parks chose this location to get the best idea of how many people were actually using the trails…not just the park.
They’ll be able to use the data to get grants for improvements and also for park management.
“If we know that certain areas of the park are seeing more traffic than other areas then we can pay more attention to the bathrooms and the trash in that area and reallocate resources to those heavier track areas,” Howell said.
Nicole Pelteir use the trail multiple times a day to walk her dogs, jog, bike and roller blade.
She says the live tracker is fun, interactive, and neat to watch.
“That’s the best idea I have heard in a long time," Peltier said. "But yeah I am surprised there’s that many people every day.”
When I explained this live data would help them get grants for upgrades, she was even more thrilled about this technology.
“I mean you ask somebody like me this is why I live here so yeah I am a huge fan of improvement and keeping it good high quality," Peltier said.
Howell says they would like to have more of these live trail trackers across town.
They are going to see how this one spot works before applying for grants to add more.
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