What do grill ignitors and TV remotes have to do with MVPC’s active transportation work?  

No, despite how efficient it may sound, MVPC staff aren’t watching television during their Peloton workouts while simultaneously scarfing grilled zucchini. Here’s the correct answer: grill ignitors and television remotes contain the same technology that staff have deployed along several paths in the region.  

A total of fourteen trail counters containing both passive infrared and piezoelectric sensors will soon offer insight about paths’ usage levels through MVPC’s Valley Tally program. The counters’ passive infrared sensors detect infrared light radiating from objects within a particular field of motion, like a TV remote emitting a signal to a television. The counters’ piezoelectric sensors generate electrical charges when mechanical stress is applied by wheels or foot strikes, similar to lighters that create a charge when the stress of a button is applied to a piezoelectric crystal.  

Unlike the increasing breadth of camera-based technology deployed in the built environment, MVPC’s counters allow for completely anonymous data collection, including: 

• Counts of pedestrians and bicycles 

• Mode of wheeled travel (i.e. bicycles vs. other wheeled objects) 

• Speed of bicycle travel 

• Direction of bicycle of travel 

Some counters use inductive loops to collect bicycle data. While these systems are also anonymous, inductive loops detect changes in the electromagnetic field at a given point. Piezoelectric technology tends to be more accurate than inductive loop counters because many cyclists now opt for carbon-fiber bicycle frames, which are not magnetic. Additionally, the placement of the sensors allows software receiving the data to differentiate between wheeled vehicles based on axel wheelbase. Inductive loops cannot offer this advantage. 

MVPC’s counters have been deployed at the following locations: 

Amesbury (3): 

• Amesbury Riverwalk: Appx. Appx. 610’ west of Rocky Hill Road 

• Amesbury Riverwalk: Just north of the Oakland Street Trail Access 

• Salisbury Point Ghost Trail: Appx. 1,275’ east of Elm Street/150’ west of I-95 underpass 

Methuen (2): 

• Methuen Rail Trail: Appx. 240’ south of Union Street 

• Methuen Rail Trail: Appx. 385’ south of Hampshire Road (in Salem, NH) 

Newburyport (6): 

• Clipper City Trail: Appx. 95’ south of Merrimack River boardwalk 

• Clipper City Trail: Appx. 305’ north of Water Street, east of Coast Guard Facility 

• Clipper City Trail: Behind wastewater treatment facility 

• Clipper City Trail: Appx. 620’ north of Low Street (near access spur) 

• Clipper City Trail: Appx. 100’ north of Parker Street trail entrance west of Route 1 

• Clipper City Trail: Appx. 100’ north of Parker Street trail entrance east of Route 1 

Salisbury (3): 

• Old Eastern Marsh Trail: Just north of the Ghost Trail intersection near Lyon’s Park 

• Old Eastern Marsh Trail: 30’ north of Friedenfels Street parking lot access 

• William Lloyd Garrison Trail: Appx. 65’ south of southern side of Old Merrill Road parking lot 

Staff will need a few weeks to validate and calibrate each counter as well as setup the software that creates reports in a usable format. Following validation, the counters will begin to transmit data. Staff will use the data in several ways: 

• Supporting grant applications for multimodal projects; 

• Assessing resource demand for multimodal projects; 

• Creating prioritization schemes for trail maintenance; 

• Validating and adjusting location-based services’ “big-data”; and, 

• Examining the characteristics of the Valley’s most popular paths to increase demand elsewhere. 

If the data proves valuable, MVPC will expand its Valley Tally program elsewhere in the region. If you are interested in learning about path usage on a trail beyond MVPC’s current inventory, please let us know and encourage your municipal leaders to contact MVPC’s transportation program to discuss counter implementation.