Guests at the Katy Trail Ice House sit at a table as pedestrians and joggers utilize the Katy Trail in Dallas Wednesday April 27, 2016. (Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News)
North Texas suburbs may have the open spaces perfect for building jogging and biking trails, but it’s city paths running alongside dense developments or urban bodies of water that apparently draw more pedestrians and cyclists.
Armed with a first-of-its-kind collection of data about Dallas-Fort Worth walking and biking trails, regional planners this month unveiled an emerging picture about which paths see the most use.
“If there’s a restaurant or a food truck or anything related to food, those seem to be the locations where we see the most counts,” said Karla Weaver, a program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
That planning agency last year used data from 26 mechanical counters in five cities to begin understanding where and when walkers, runners and bikers use trails. The agency wants to keep collecting data from additional spots so planners don’t have to rely on anecdotal evidence about trips North Texans make without a vehicle.
The idea is to provide better information to city officials and regional leaders who hold the purse strings for infrastructure projects. But Weaver said her agency is also beginning to study the land use around such trails to see what correlations there are between population density, economic development and path usage.
It’s a step in a different direction for an agency most known for helping highway planners predict future traffic patterns.
“We’ve been counting cars for decades,” Weaver said. … [visit site to read more]