# IR trail counter install



## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

Four of us from Gallup Trails 2010 installed an infra-red trail counter today. Since it was the first time any of us had done this it took some time to decipher the installation instructions and then find the right size tree to bolt it to, in the right spot, with another tree to install the reflector on in the right spot on the other side of the trail. Oh, and the unit should be on the south side of the trail so it doesn't look into the sun. We finally located the perfect setup and proceeded to install the unit up in a dense cedar tree. This involved drilling three 1/4" pilot holes and turning in three special lag bolts after determining the position of the unit by eyeball. 

Once the unit was roughly aimed we installed four D batteries, which enabled a small high pitched beeper to sound. If the unit is aimed properly the beep stops, so by holding a spare reflector we located exactly where the beam was pointed, then adjusted the mounting bolts to dial in to the permanent reflector location. After tightening everything down, we then used the signal strength display which came up in the LCD window to fine tune the reflector so it is perpendicular to the IR beam. Once satisfied with the setup, we reset the counters and noted the time of day, 1 pm in this case, so that the interval timer could be keyed to that time of day. 

The little LCD displays the total count when keyed, so collecting the data is simply a matter of writing the number down once a year and resetting the counter. There is also a data port for downloading more detailed interval counts that are interpreted by the manufacturers proprietary software.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

stealthy. it'd be interesting to know trail usage at some of the places I've ridden or maintained.


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## gmcttr (Oct 7, 2006)

Does it also count every critter that walks down the trail?


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Being that it's an active IR sensor, the only thing that will trip it is something that breaks the IR beam. I can't tell how high this thing is set, but you can set it high enough for a person, and not much else will be tall enough to trip the sensor.


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

gmcttr said:


> Does it also count every critter that walks down the trail?


You set the beam to cross the trail at waist height. A big dog's tail will register, as we observed. The total count is useful in comparison to another year's total count. Also, the total count divided by two will give a reasonable estimate of total annual users. The numbers are useful for fund raising agencies. In this case we installed the counter for another agency, who will also monitor the count. Thinking of putting a couple of these on some other area trail systems just to get an idea of annual useage. Approx $500 per unit plus labor to install, in this case donated labor.


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## thefriar (Jan 23, 2008)

I wonder if a trail cam would achieve the same results at a cheaper cost? A trail/game camera costs $50-$100 and can take a couple 100 to thousand plus pictures, if you tallied the total number of shots taken, you could achieve the counts at 1/5 to 1/10th of the cost of the IR. Was there a reason IR was used?


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

thefriar said:


> I wonder if a trail cam would achieve the same results at a cheaper cost? A trail/game camera costs $50-$100 and can take a couple 100 to thousand plus pictures, if you tallied the total number of shots taken, you could achieve the counts at 1/5 to 1/10th of the cost of the IR. Was there a reason IR was used?


1. The IR units can run for at least a year on a set of batteries.
2. MUCH more rugged than a game camera.
3. Give a simple readout of the total count without processing. (think a bunch of counters to monitor)
4. Mount very securely, not removeable without serious tools.
5. The range of the beam is much greater than a game cam which lets the unit be placed farther from the trail, less noticeable. The beam is also very precise and can be aimed to only count people height objects.
6. These units will require considerably less attention over the years than a bunch of game cams. We try to do everything so that it will last as long as possible with as little maintenance as possible. 
Summary: I believe over the years the game cams would require exponentially more time and money investment to get the same info. Difference between a hack job and proven pro solution.

http://www.diamondtraffic.com/html/volumecounters.html#TTC-4420


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## thefriar (Jan 23, 2008)

Good points.

In my park I'm only dealing with 440 acres and 8-9miles of trail, which means there are a ton of different loops, but everything is always "close". Trying to find the most economical alternative to get the best demographics info possible, with the benefit of a pretty solid group of volunteers.

I like the idea that they're less maintenance and require less overall labor that a cam system, but the winner in my application would be the ability hide it. Although we're talking dense second growth New England woods so getting the line of sight dialed might not be possible at an unobtrusive distance.

If you just count the number of pictures taken you could easily deduce the number of hits/users to pass. Might be some dogs and game, but a thumbnail sort might help get through that quickly. There'd definitely be more labor involved but the same result should be attainable at identical quality of data with less $ and more man-hours (always a trade off).

I like the IR though, just don't know if I can get grant or town $$ to do it.


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

One approach to getting $ is to approach the organizations that will benefit from the info for grant/fund raising or promotional purposes, like an economic development commission or local chamber of commerce. They buy the unit, you install it and present them with the annual data. 

Another point, which may not matter, is that with a camera you are collecting photos of everyone using the trail. Not sure I want to do that (might see something I don't want to know about) whereas the counter is just that, only a counter and records no personal data. I would check the legality of photographing everyone without telling them on a public trail. Just a thought.


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## danjmeyers (Mar 15, 2009)

Last year's High Desert Screamer was the first race I've filled out an economic impact survey for, and now this. You guys got your stuff figured out over there. Kudos, I'm sure this will make it much easier to pitch local officials on future projects and funding as well as protect mountain bike interests on existing trails. We should all be so well organized.


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

*You are so right*



danjmeyers said:


> Last year's High Desert Screamer was the first race I've filled out an economic impact survey for, and now this. You guys got your stuff figured out over there. Kudos, I'm sure this will make it much easier to pitch local officials on future projects and funding as well as protect mountain bike interests on existing trails. We should all be so well organized.


We are sort of blessed with enough isolation to breed workableness and cooperation. The fact that there ain't nothing better coming down the road doesn't hurt either, or the fact that the largest area employer (PHS/GIMC) is growing and needs to attract quality health care professionals. A significant number of these folks are mountain bikers as the word gets out and the circle widens. Throw in that developing trails is high in the priorities of local gov'ts official agendas, and you have a reliable driver for the process. I regularly meet with two adjacent county managers, FS, BLM, and NPS reps, state legislator rep, as well as several public service orgs. reps. All in the same room and with a common agenda. Our operatives thumbsup reach to inner state and federal circles. Pretty hard to FUp with all that going!


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## ebxtreme (Jan 6, 2004)

Cool!! Maybe I missed it, but can you send a link to the mfgr. of this?

Cheers,
EB


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

ebxtreme said:


> Cool!! Maybe I missed it, but can you send a link to the mfgr. of this?
> 
> Cheers,
> EB


bottom of post #7, five above this one.


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## AlloyNipples (Jan 12, 2004)

Here's the ones we use on our system. IR at the trailhead and magnetic on the trails. This way we can differentiate between riders and walker/joggers.

http://www.trafx.net/TRAFx_Mountain_Bike_Counter_2009.pdf

Here's a few graphs that they produce. Scroll down some. Sept/Oct the trails were mostly closed due to flooding and Dec for freeze/thaw. The info has be invaluable for us when presenting proposals to the various land and money holders.

http://www.sorbawoodstock.org/


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

AlloyNipples said:


> Here's the ones we use on our system. IR at the trailhead and magnetic on the trails. This way we can differentiate between riders and walker/joggers.
> 
> http://www.trafx.net/TRAFx_Mountain_Bike_Counter_2009.pdf
> 
> ...


These look great! How much to buy in to the system?


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## AlloyNipples (Jan 12, 2004)

bsieb said:


> These look great! How much to buy in to the system?


$2700 for 3 magnetic and 1 IR, all w/5 year warranty. Kind of pricey but the funding they will eventually generate...


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

AlloyNipples said:


> $2700 for 3 magnetic and 1 IR, all w/5 year warranty. Kind of pricey but the funding they will eventually generate...


Do you have the individual prices on the IR and magnetic? Our club has just started looking at trail counter options, and this is the best I have seen so far,


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## AlloyNipples (Jan 12, 2004)

slocaus said:


> Do you have the individual prices on the IR and magnetic? Our club has just started looking at trail counter options, and this is the best I have seen so far,


That part I don't know, we bought a "package". IIRC, we got a little off by putting a link to them on our website. Best bet would be to contact trafx direct. We had a very good experience with them and wouldn't hesitate to recomend to anyone looking for a good counter.


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

AlloyNipples said:


> That part I don't know, we bought a "package". IIRC, we got a little off by putting a link to them on our website. Best bet would be to contact trafx direct. We had a very good experience with them and wouldn't hesitate to recomend to anyone looking for a good counter.


Thanks, sent them an email.


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## trafx (May 3, 2010)

Hi,

I'm Daniel, from TRAFx. Thanks for the good words AlloyNipples, glad to hear the counters are working well for you.

slocaus, I took a look back through our email archives and I couldn't see a message from you on March 17th, maybe it got spam filtered? Our email address is "[email protected]", not to be confused with the folks at trafx.com, which is not us.

We sell two types of counters (as previously mentioned), one that uses an infrared sensor and one that uses a magnetic sensor.

If you just want to count bikes, the magnetic sensor is the way to go. It detects passing metallic objects up to about 1m (3ft) for bikes (works to about 20ft/6m for cars). For mountain bike counting, it's usually installed under a rock right on the trail (see http://www.trafx.net/mtb-gallery.html for some pictures).

Our Infrared trail counter uses a "passive" sensor, similar to a motion detector in an indoor security system. It does not require a reflector. This counter can be used in a similar manner shown in the images at the start of this thread, but our counter is quite a bit smaller and doesn't require the reflector installation. See http://www.trafx.net/ir-gallery.html for some pictures.

For data collection, we have a "dock" that is hooked up to the counters in the field. The dock pulls the data from the counters and you bring the dock back to your PC to transfer the data to the software.

Our counters will do hourly totals recording, so you can break the data down to find out what times of the day are popular, what days of the week, etc. Very useful for identifying usage trends on your trails. Our online software (see http://www.trafx.net/datanet/demo ) is very easy to use and makes some very nice charts based on the data the counters collect.

We sell a standard "package" for $2245 USD that includes three counters (of either type), cables, a docking unit (to connect the counters to your PC and collect data) and software. We can put together a package with fewer counters if you don't need three. We can usually work something out for non-profit organisations.

Additional counters range from $395 to $525 USD, depending on what kind and how many. Please contact us (our email is "[email protected]") for a detailed price list.

daniel


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## k2biker (Jan 13, 2004)

Just throwing this in the mix...be careful buying / installing game cameras or the like. If it takes a picture, you may have some privacy / legal issues to deal with later! Not that we've done that, but it came up at our last SORBA executive board meeting from a land manager who almost did it!


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## trafx (May 3, 2010)

k2biker said:


> Just throwing this in the mix...be careful buying / installing game cameras or the like. If it takes a picture, you may have some privacy / legal issues to deal with later! Not that we've done that, but it came up at our last SORBA executive board meeting from a land manager who almost did it!


This has been our experience as well. As a manufacturer of counting equipment, we've been involved in several scenarios where image gathering was considered (usually for classification/categorization purposes), but it was inevitably dropped because of the legal and privacy concerns. The game cameras also often need to be placed in a location where they're quite visible to humans and they can be a prime target for vandalism.

Another downside for using off-the-shelf game cameras for mountain biking is that they are usually designed for capturing relatively slow-moving animals, like deer walking through the forest. This means that their infrared sensors/software will often miss faster-moving bikers and they will generally under-report the number of cyclists seen. Parks Canada (www.pc.gc.ca) tried to use them to capture mountain bike users in the some of the national parks here in Canada with poor levels of success.


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

trafx said:


> slocaus, I took a look back through our email archives and I couldn't see a message from you on March 17th, maybe it got spam filtered?


Daniel, our board decided to table this for the time being, but I will save this information, thank you very much!


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## Trail Ninja (Sep 25, 2008)

trafx said:


> This has been our experience as well. As a manufacturer of counting equipment, we've been involved in several scenarios where image gathering was considered (usually for classification/categorization purposes), but it was inevitably dropped because of the legal and privacy concerns.


This surprises me. I wouldn't see it any differently than the countless security cameras in most cities and towns or the web cam at Whistler.

Obviously it would depend on what jurisdiction you're in but do you know under what circumstances taking a picture or video of someone in a public place is illegal?


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## mtbikernc69 (Mar 23, 2004)

I can't see that there is any privacy issues with using a game camera. It's public land, anyone can sit in the woods and take pictures of users passing by. Only issue I could see is if you took a picture of someone and used it for monetary gain without their permission. If Google street view can take a picture of my house I can take a picture of someone in the woods on public land.rft:


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

mtbikernc69 said:


> I can't see that there is any privacy issues with using a game camera. It's public land, anyone can sit in the woods and take pictures of users passing by. Only issue I could see is if you took a picture of someone and used it for monetary gain without their permission. If Google street view can take a picture of my house I can take a picture of someone in the woods on public land.rft:


No one is saying you can't take pictures on public trails. If you are an organization, that's a little different circumstance. What if you record something you don't want to see? What if the cops show up with a subpoena for your "records" because a crime happened in the vicinity? What if you are held liable as an accomplice because you didn't come forward with your information? Lots of "what ifs" that boards of directors tend to shy away from disappear with a simple counter.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

mtbikernc69 said:


> I can't see that there is any privacy issues with using a game camera. It's public land, anyone can sit in the woods and take pictures of users passing by. Only issue I could see is if you took a picture of someone and used it for monetary gain without their permission. If Google street view can take a picture of my house I can take a picture of someone in the woods on public land.rft:


The difficulty with those game cameras is that they use passive IR/motion detectors. So, if the ambient air temperature is close to body temperature, their capability to get a detection is greatly reduced. Furthermore, most of them have a significant delay between detection and snapping a picture, thereby reducing their usefulness. You can compensate somewhat with camera placement, but you can only do so much. And I know from experience that when trail users see your camera, they want to mess with it, even when you don't care about the people and you're only interested in the wildlife.

The detector shown is an active detector, so if something breaks the IR beam to the reflector, then there's a detection recorded. MUCH less likelihood of failed detections. There's still a chance of false detections from the adjacent vegetation blowing in the breeze, but as long as you take the time to set it up and trim back the veg, those problems would be greatly reduced.


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## mtbikernc69 (Mar 23, 2004)

bsieb said:


> No one is saying you can't take pictures on public trails. If you are an organization, that's a little different circumstance. What if you record something you don't want to see? What if the cops show up with a subpoena for your "records" because a crime happened in the vicinity? What if you are held liable as an accomplice because you didn't come forward with your information? Lots of "what ifs" that boards of directors tend to shy away from disappear with a simple counter.


1. If I record something I don't like, I erase it. 
2. If it's something illegal so assault, rape or murder then I go to the police.
3. Subpoena shouldn't be a problem. Give them what they need if you have it. If you're not breaking the law then you don't have anything to worry about.
4. It would be circumstantial evidence at best to implicate someone as an accomplice. Especially if it's already been erased.

I do understand the point you are trying to make. I've used a game camera in the past because of some issues of tampering with the trail and trail features.

I wouldn't use the game camera as a counter anyway. The reaction time is way too slow and there's too much delay between recording events. Totally not useful for this application at all.


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

mtbikernc69 said:


> 1. If I record something I don't like, I erase it.
> 2. If it's something illegal so assault, rape or murder then I go to the police.
> 3. Subpoena shouldn't be a problem. Give them what they need if you have it. If you're not breaking the law then you don't have anything to worry about.
> 4. It would be circumstantial evidence at best to implicate someone as an accomplice. Especially if it's already been erased.
> ...


The deeper your pockets are the more it matters, was my not so clear point. Also if you are doing it as an employee, or as an employer, private business, gov'tmental, blah, blah... all of which come with their own data collection, distribution, and storage policies. Would you feel the same if a policeman were photographing everyone using the trail, then distributing it to various gov't and private agencies all of whom store it indefinitely? While that is a lamish scenario it does illustrate the complexity of the issue for larger entities. Another matter would be that I as a private trail user might have a right to expect a certain amount of privacy in an isolated setting from being systematically and surreptitiously observed and photographed by another private person. Again, the deeper your pockets the more disconcerting such liability scenarios are.

Like you said, not really a viable solution anyhow.


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## roguehoe (Nov 27, 2007)

AlloyNipples
Thanks for the info..this is exactly what I have been looking for. Our club has worked hard gaining access into our local National Park and we have been quite successful..but the counters you mentioned will be great because we need to differentiate between hikers and mtn bikers using some of the trails. It is my gut feeling that the mtn bikers are now outnumbering the hikers on a couple of trails and these counters will be a huge help. I will be contacting the manufacturer. 

Thanks for the info.

Lastly, I spoke with NPS personnel recently about this idea of distinguishing between hikers and mtn bikers usage in the backcountry...their opinion was counters were fine, cameras not so much...too many legal loopholes...now if we can just find some money.:thumbsup:


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## mtbikernc69 (Mar 23, 2004)

bsieb said:


> The deeper your pockets are the more it matters, was my not so clear point. Also if you are doing it as an employee, or as an employer, private business, gov'tmental, blah, blah... all of which come with their own data collection, distribution, and storage policies. Would you feel the same if a policeman were photographing everyone using the trail, then distributing it to various gov't and private agencies all of whom store it indefinitely? While that is a lamish scenario it does illustrate the complexity of the issue for larger entities. Another matter would be that I as a private trail user might have a right to expect a certain amount of privacy in an isolated setting from being systematically and surreptitiously observed and photographed by another private person. Again, the deeper your pockets the more disconcerting such liability scenarios are.
> 
> Like you said, not really a viable solution anyhow.


I get what you're saying. I personally don't have an issue with being photographed/videoed in public. Not like they can't see you anyway. Ever seen the resolution of a military spy satellite?!

I checked with the police chief anyway and here is what I got...

You can photograph/video anyone in a public place but it has to be video only, no audio, and you have to have permission from the local municipality/government.

I'm leaving the subject alone for now...


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