The city of San Jose Trails Program released the numbers from last week’s eighth annual trail count.
Volunteers staffed count stations along the Guadalupe River Trail, Los Gatos Creek Trail, Los Alamitos Creek Trail, and the Three Creeks Trail. People using the planned Five Wounds Trail were also counted.
Guadalupe River Trail
1,082 people were counted at the Coleman Avenue station on the Guadalupe River Trail last week, of which 60% were on bicycle. This is a 50% increase over last year’s 719 people.
The most active station was at River Oaks, where 1,689 people were counted at this important junction to the VTA light rail system and passage to large employers in North San Jose and North Santa Clara.
1,256 people were counted where the tail crosses San Fernando Street between downtown San Jose and Diridon Station. This is a 40% increase over 2013.
Other trails
The city counted 1,397 trail users where the Los Gatos Creek regional trail passes under Hamilton Avenue, a 15% increase over last year. At Auzerais Avenue, 169 people passed by on the Los Gatos Creek Trail during the peak commute hours.
With 789 uses, the city reports an 19% decline on the Los Alamitos Creek Trail, a five mile recreational trail in south San Jose. 54 people were counted on the Three Creeks / Willow Glen Spur Trail, an increase of 20% over 2013.
The city also counted people using corridor of the proposed Five Wounds Trail, which will link Berryessa BART, Lower Silver Creek Trail and Coyote Creek Trail. The corridor is not opened to the public, but volunteers counted 369 people at Williams Street. According to the city trails program, the key users were parents walking their children to school.
As Working hobby to help others with the same problems as myself with artificial leg, getting around. If I don’t have a car handy and just to get around with out a car for the fun of it. I thought I would pass some conclusion along better understand what the future might hold for us.
When looking at what changes need to be made over the next couple of generations to add larger sidewalks and bicycling paths, its should be look at in two different perspectives. The first one is person X. Person X will be the need to have a market, and or a pharmacy with in three or more rings, that would be round trip, Ring 1, a mile, Ring 2, 11/2 miles and Ring 3, three miles. The reason I have set this up this way, as a person with artificial leg, a three mile walk round trip I can do on a good day with a slight climb in elevations. Using as a guide, you can figure out in a given location how many person for one reason or others will walk, bicycle, or use an electric scooter for transportation to said location.
Commuter X will be someone either by chose or by design will use a bicycle to commute to work, that it is a Johnny come lately in the modern generation as a form of getting to work. Will using a bicycle over a sustain period of time, and just another fad that will die out. Again looking over a generation to revamp area of the community to accommodate the uses of bicycle and electric scooters. To understand what will be needed, that a set of feasibility study in different geologic with a set of basic question such as,
Age of the rider.
Length of the commute.
Type of work.
Frequency of the commute.
If need of support in reaching the destination (showers, locker, etc).
Is weather a factor.
Where they shop.
Do they use there bike for primary shopping.