Projects

Evaluation of pedestrian counters

Client: The Countryside Agency

Summary:

We researched into all pedestrian counters available in the UK, and made recommendations as to which system should be used on the National Trail network.

The problem:

The Countryside Agency needs to know how many people are using the National Trail network. Some data exists for some Trails, but there is no consistency of approach and no central pool of data.

They want to address this but don’t know which products to recommend Trail managers buy, or what approach to data collection is the most efficient.

Our input:

We researched into the products on the market for counting pedestrians, and spoke to the people using them about how reliable, cost effective and accurate they are.

We made recommendations on which products worked best in which locations, and analysed the various options for data management.

The result:

Natural England have accepted the recommendations and are considering the possibility of a central policy on pedestrian monitoring.

Trail managers are aware which system is best, and are being encouraged to replace unreliable counters with new ones following the recommendations in the report.

More accurate, reliable data is being collected to help Natural England demonstrate the value of National Trails.