The effect of a trail use intervention on urban trail use in Southern Nevada

Objective: Communities are building or improving trail networks for biking and walking to encourage physical activity, but the relationship between trail environments and physical activity is not well understood. We examined the effect of a trail use intervention in Southern Nevada.

Methods: We monitored the usage of urban trails (n=10) in Southern Nevada before, during, and after an intervention which included a marketing campaign promoting trail use and the addition of way-finding and incremental distance signage to selected trails (October 2011-October 2012). Data were collected with infrared monitors placed on the trails for three periods of 7days. We compared pre-, mid-, and post-intervention usage rates on the 6 trails where signage was added to usage rates on the 4 control trails.

Results: The groups of trails experienced different patterns of increases and decreases over the 1-year study period. Mean users per hour increased 31% for the study trails and 35% for the control trails (p<0.001), but the total increase did not vary between the groups.

Conclusion: Trail use increased about 33% during the 1-year study period for the intervention. Adding wayfinding and incremental distance signage appeared to support the increase in usage which followed the marketing campaign.