Hourly Trail Visitor Trends
Figure 1 shows the hourly distribution of visitors to different trails. For most busy trails, usage reaches its maximum between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM, but remains relatively stable throughout that period. However, other less-used counters such as 1200 Penn show different usage peaks, including around 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Exact visitor counts at each time of the day are visible when hovering over the heatmap.
Figure 1: Hourly Trail Visitor Trends
Weekly Visitor Distribution Across Trails
Figure 2 shows the distribution of visitors to different trails throughout the week. Although less-used trails' traffic remains relatively uniform, more-used trails' traffic shows increased usage on weekends, as well as a very slight increase on Wednesdays relative to the rest of the week. Exact visitor counts for each trail are visible when hovering over the heatmap.
Figure 2: Weekly Visitor Distribution Across Trails (Interactive)
Effects of Holidays on Trail Usage
We find that holidays have a significant impact on overall trail usage, even when accounting for seasonal variations. In particular, summer holidays including Independence Day, Labor Day, and Juneteenth attract a much higher number of visitors, while Christmas and Veteran's Day in the winter tend to see lower usage. Results for all major U.S. holidays are visible in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Additional Visitors (relative to monthly median) by Holiday
Predictive Modeling
We have developed several predictive models to forecast trail usage in advance of a given day, month, or year. View this information by clicking here:
Note: not all of our models have been transferred to the website yet. We plan on expanding this tool's functionality very soon.