Remember the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail counter installed at Willard Street almost one year ago in Feb. 2022? New data released by Bike Walk Greenville — a local group that advocates for safe pedestrian and cyclist travel — gives us new insight into who is traveling on the trail, where they were headed, and why.
The stats — which comes from a product called StreetLight Data — tracks anonymous cell phone data from trail users.
How does it work?
The data tracks if the cell phone starts or finishes a ride or walk at home or a place of work, depending on where the user appears to spend evenings, weekends, and weekday working hours.
By the numbers
- 656,467 trail users were counted, with an estimated average of 1,995 users per day on foot or by bike.
- 89% of people on foot and ~74% of people on bikes do not start their trip from home — meaning the majority of trail users prefer to drive or take transit to use the trail. A high number of tourists were counted in this number.
- ~18% of bicycle trail users and 10% of walkers and runners can access the trail from their home.
- 9.7% of all trail trips were for commuting for work in 2022.
- ~9% of trail users can commute to work by bike and less than 1% can commute to work on foot.
Bike Walk Greenville identifies that 9.7% as an important figure in the report because the number is high compared to a study by the League of American Bicyclists, which reported just 0.22% of people commute by bike in SC.
What will the data be used for?
Bike Walk Greenville says it will do further analysis of the information to aid its advocacy efforts.
The organization says it expects these numbers to rise when the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail Green Line expansion along Laurens Road opens due to the density along the extension of places to live, work, and shop.
