TRAFx- Trail Counters

MI-TRALE is responsible for managing over 400 miles of designated and Club ORV routes in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Besides working with the MIDNR, and the Ottawa National Forest in developing, marking, maintaining the funded and club trails, MI-TRALE has worked to develop a management schedule for these trails. Besides visual observation the Club has invested in some traffic count (rider usage) data detectors to assist in the management of the trails. This system is manufactured in Canada by TRAFX Research Inc. The major advantage of the newly installed TRAFx trail counters is that we can analyze rider use by time of day, day of the week, or many other formats to not only help schedule routine maintenance, but major grading projects as well. We also use this data to support Club grant requests and to show the economic benefits in real time to local communities, local business services, and to land owners. To learn more about the vehicle and trail counters we use click here .

Below are samples of the rider/trial data we captured from the units we had placed. The Club has additional counters to be placed and data from them will be collected in years to come. You can notice the steady rider amounts. This data can be broke down by weeks as well and we of course see holiday increases in riding. If you have any questions on how we collect and use the data or would like to know more about the units, please feel free to reach out to any club officer or director and we will get the right person to answer your questions.