# Trail Counters



## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

I know this has been brought up before, and I did search the forum, but has anyone come up with a really cheap way to count bike traffic on a trail?
Thanks


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## HypNoTic (Jan 30, 2007)

Define "cheap"?

We used a magnetic system hidden under the trail thread and it worked pretty well. We know when/how many riders used this trailhead, and the data is uploaded by cellphone to a web server that create nice infographics report that you can check out daily if you want. 

Price is around 2000$ to buy, but you can rent on a monthly basis for pretty cheap. It depend of the level of details you need.


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## drew p (Jan 20, 2012)

we are using the TRAFx Home: Vehicle Counter, Trail Counter, Bike Counter... system and are pretty happy with it. Definitely cheapest "real" trail counters I could find and seem to work well. I think we paid around $2000 for 3 counters, shuttle, and online data management system.


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## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

I was looking for something a little closer to the 1-200 dollar range. Im pretty sure I can build an arduino based trail counter for about 80 bucks, but was wondering if anyone else had done something that worked and was super cheap.

Thanks for the replies


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

^If you come up with a super cheap design that works please post it.


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## robbiexor (Aug 22, 2011)

Here's some basic DIY version of an infrared counter Infrared based digital object counter DIY kit

I'm sure you could expand it to count higher than 99.


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## Numb Bum (Mar 5, 2004)

I was thinking about adding one of these to our trail as well. I found this on ebay just now, not sure if the velocity rating would be an issue. Would need to provide a watertight case for it as well.

MXA088 Infrared Sensor Digital Counter 6 Digit Circuit Board Kit | eBay


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

Numb Bum said:


> I was thinking about adding one of these to our trail as well. I found this on ebay just now, not sure if the velocity rating would be an issue. Would need to provide a watertight case for it as well.
> 
> MXA088 Infrared Sensor Digital Counter 6 Digit Circuit Board Kit | eBay


How do you plan to differentiate bike / hike / horse users to get a count for each?


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

^You use magnetic counters for bikes and infrared for total users. I'm pretty sure that horses would trip the magnetic if wearing shoes. We are probably going to try the TRAFx system soon. The web interface is attractive for it's ease of disseminating the info. Have not had good luck with the old reflective infrared counters as far as getting useful info.


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

bsieb said:


> ^You use magnetic counters for bikes and infrared for total users. I'm pretty sure that horses would trip the magnetic if wearing shoes. We are probably going to try the TRAFx system soon. The web interface is attractive for it's ease of disseminating the info. Have not had good luck with the old reflective infrared counters as far as getting useful info.


I know the system for magnetic buried in the trail (horseshoes do not trip them I am told) for bikes. UV/IR at 4.5 feet counts everyone; UV/IR at 7 feet gets horses and then you do the math to differentiate user groups.

I was wondering about the "cheap" solution above?

Also, I wonder how many volunteer counter hours one can get for $200 of beer?


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## Harryman (Jun 14, 2011)

How much steel do you need to trip a magnetic counter? There's not much in many bikes these days.


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

"Even if the frame is carbon, the bike will still have metal components that the counter will detect: chain, spokes, hubs, etc. Bikes with insufficient detectable metal are generally rare enough to be statistically insignificant."


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## bsieb (Aug 23, 2003)

slocaus said:


> I know the system for magnetic buried in the trail (horseshoes do not trip them I am told) for bikes. UV/IR at 4.5 feet counts everyone; UV/IR at 7 feet gets horses and then you do the math to differentiate user groups.
> 
> I was wondering about the "cheap" solution above?
> 
> Also, I wonder how many volunteer counter hours one can get for $200 of beer?


The data is well worth the cost if it is useful. Makes things easier for the funding sources. Getting useful data is not a given however, it's all a little foggy unless you have human counters. Supplying beer would raise the issue of when the drinking counters started seeing double.


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## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

This may be an option, but Im not sure the proximity sensor would work too well in this application.

12V 4 Digit Red Counter Meter Infrared Proximity Photoelectric Switch Sensor NPN | eBay


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

my club has discussed using motion-sensing wildlife cameras.

one issue I see with IR-based counters is that they're going to count wildlife traffic, too. our trails can get significant deer traffic at times, so if the IR counter is placed to capture foot traffic, it will get deer, too.

with the camera-based system, you will have to manually count your results, but there will be little question what tripped it when you see the photo. limitations with the camera-based systems are that it can be difficult to completely capture groups. maybe an IR-based system (to get total traffic) along with a camera to help distinguish the types and relative quantities of types of traffic would be a little more thorough.

some cameras do have a basic "activation" counter, though, so you can count activation events along with looking at the photos to distinguish traffic.


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## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

I would give some consideration to trail users privacy before using a camera. Some people might feel a little strange about finding a camera pointed at the trail.


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## Numb Bum (Mar 5, 2004)

slocaus said:


> How do you plan to differentiate bike / hike / horse users to get a count for each?


Good question. I had not thought of that. However, our trail is bikers only with a very small group of runners that run it about once a week. I am more interested in total traffic anyway. This will let us relate to the county our annual traffic and combined with our volunteer hours should keep them in a very favorable disposition towards our Trail Crew and maintaining status quo on the MOU.


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