Indianapolis Cultural Trail Sees Thousands of Users during Super Bowl

Abstract

The Indianapolis Cultural Trail was designed to be an urban trail that could connect residents and visitors to the downtown cultural districts while providing a network that could encourage healthy activity, public engagement, and promote the walkability of the city. To evaluate the usage and understand the trail’s potential capability, counting devices were placed at two locations along the trail, at Alabama Street and on the Glick Peace Walk, for a three-week observation period during the Super Bowl. During the three-week observation period, the Alabama Street location recorded over 11,600 usage counts while the Glick Peace Walk location recorded nearly 4,000.

The data indicate that large downtown events can boost trail usage. Super Bowl weekend (Friday, February 3 through Sunday, February 5) resulted in increased trail usage at both locations. At the Alabama Street location, of the 11,649 total user counts, nearly one-third (30 percent) occurred during Super Bowl weekend. Equally impressive, the Super Bowl weekend counts at the Peace Walk accounted for nearly one-fourth (24 percent) of the total 3,870 user counts.