Benchmarking Activity on GRG Trails

What started out as a pilot benchmarking study to establish baseline information on three GRG trails ended up revealing some interesting trend data, as well. The study conducted earlier this summer on Grant’s Trail, River des Peres Greenway, and the North Riverfront Trail established that trails are used more by bicyclists than pedestrians, more by men than women and more by individual bicyclists than groups of riders.

In addition, the study indicated a significantly higher percentage of bicyclists on the three trails were wearing helmets than the national average. Compared to the National Survey of Bicyclists and Pedestrian Attitudes and Behavior, which stated that only about 50% of bicyclists wear a helmet for at least some trips, GRG found that approximately 71% of riders on Grant’s Trail and River des Peres Greenway and 68% of riders on the Riverfront Trail were wearing helmets.

Using a methodology developed by the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation (NBPD) Project, the GRG study concluded that local trail usage is strong and continuing to increase. The benchmarking study included projections that these three trails are used annually by nearly 613,000 individuals.

This is impressive compared to annual attendance figures in 2008 for other major St. Louis visitor attractions as reported in the St. Louis Business Journal (June 12, 2009 issue), which indicated the St. Louis Zoo had 2.98 million visitors, the Gateway Arch had 1.95 million visitors, Six Flags had 1.4 million visitors and the Science Center had 1.2 million visitors.