TRAIL USE SURVEY

Introduction

It had come to the attention of the PLAN Jeffco Board of Directors that a number of former users of Jeffco Open Space parks and trails are no longer using the trails because of excessive mountain bike use. The Open Space Department routinely surveys park users, but has no way of accounting for non-users. This survey represents PLAN Jeffco’s attempt to determine the proportion of former users.

PLAN Jeffco also was interested in determining how users preferred separation of users, if at all.

Of the 229 responders, only 2 no longer use JCOS. But over half the hikers and over 40% of the equestrians indicated that they avoided JCOS parks in order to avoid potential conflicts, principally with bikers. And 8% of the hikers say they seldom use JCOS parks at all.

Only 20 percent of the responders addressed how to separate users. Alternate trails had the most support.

Summary of Findings:

1. We had expected to see larger differences between user types.

81% of the biker respondents use JCOS parks regularly

67% of the equestrians

59% of the hikers

8% of the hikers seldom use JCOS parks.

2. Many of the respondents use the parks in many ways.

21% of the hikers also bike

81% of the bikers also hike

75% of the equestrians also hike

40% of the hikers also flower and bird watch

28% of the bikers also flower and bird watch

33% of the equestrians also flower and bird watch

3. We found that many equestrians also hike, but hikers and bikers tend not to be equestrians.

4. Equestrians are the most loyal users of JCOS parks.

88% of equestrian rides are on JCOS

64% of hikes are on JCOS

68% of bike rides are on JCOS

5. The most popular parks are:.

1^st White Ranch - hikers, 2^nd by bikers

2^nd Matthews Winters - 1^st by bikers

3^rd Mt Falcon

4^th Elk Meadow

5^th Lair O’the Bear

6^th Apex

6. In order to not have conflicts:

Hikers avoid: Matthews Winters, Apex, White Ranch, and Mt Falcon

Bikers avoid Apex, Elk Meadow, White Ranch, and Matthews Winters

Equestrians avoid White Ranch, Elk Meadow, Mt Falcon, and Apex

7. The parks are most popular at the following times:

48-57% use the parks on week-end mornings

34-44% use the parks on week-day mornings

13-17% use the parks on week-end evenings

8. Because of the potential for trail use conflicts:

54% of hikers are apt to not use a favored park, 87% answered due to bikers

42% of equestrians

26% of bikers

9. The volume of bikers concerns 38 to 47% of the hikers. Discourteous bikers concern 35% of the hikers.

10. The potential for separating users was favored by:

66% of hikers

47% of bikers

42% of equestrians

11. The question relating to "How to separate users" was only answered by 20% of the responders

9-13% favor alternate trails

1-6% favor alternate days

1-4% favor alternate parks.

We suspect that the low response rate indicates that this was a complex issue requiring more thought than they wanted to spend at the end of the questionnaire.

12. Analysis was attempted to determine differences between responders who had conflicts and those who did not.

85% of those who had experienced conflicts were hikers - 13% were bikers

85% of those who did not experience conflicts were hikers - 38% were bikers

(Note some users both hike and bike)

White Ranch was more popular with users who had conflicts than those who did not have conflicts - other parks tended to have the same ranking

Favored parks and parks avoided are similar to both types of responders

Week-day morning users most apt to have conflicts.

Over 90% of the responders with conflicts favor separating users: whereas only 36% of those with no conflicts favor separating users

13. Four parks were selected for comparison - Apex - White Ranch - Matthews Winters being readily accessible to the population centers and Alderfer-Three Sisters and being more remote.

The parks had very similar user types - Alderfer had the highest number of regular JCOS users.

The uses were very similar.

Alderfer had the most regular JOOS users and White Ranch the fewest.

The rankings of the parks used were similar and the users tend to avoid the same parks.

Alderfer has high use by week-day morning users - 60%.

Potential for conflicts were similar - too many bikers as the biggest complaint.

Separating users was favored by 59 to 68% with alternate trails being the preferred method.

There still is a conflict problem that is most focused on the close-in Mountain Backdrop parks. The conflicts primarily are due to numbers of bikers (85%) and not discourteous bikers (35%). It is apparent the JCOS efforts in minimizing conflicts is helping. However, the responses indicate that all types of users are inconvenienced by needing to choose to use these parks at off times in order to have an enjoyable experience. Over 50%of hikers and over 40% of equestrians indicated that they avoided certain parks at peak times. Two-thirds of all hikers supported separating uses. Therefore, very few hikers use Apex, Mathews-Winter, and White Ranch on summer afternoons or evenings. Alternate trails at Apex and Mathews-Winters are limited by the available space and the potential for environmental damage. White Ranch does have the potential for alternate trails, but minimizing environmental damage indicates that closing present multi-use trails to bikes would be the better solution. However, this would take away from bikers almost 30 years of historic use.