Monitoring vehicle and visitor traffic on the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road: 2013-2014

Jacobi, Charles

From executive summary: "The traffic counter at the bottom of the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road was resurrected in 2013 and used to count vehicles ascending Cadillac Mountain in 2013 and descending Cadillac Mountain in 2014. We used a three person multiplier to estimate the number of visitors to the summit and applied it to all vehicles knowing that some were buses carrying many more passengers than three. We did this because of the uncertainty of the vehicle classification data. Thus the visitor numbers below are underestimated. - In 2013, we estimated 558,090 visitors to Cadillac Mountain between May 23 and October 31. The mean number of vehicles ascending per day in August was 1,847, representing 5,541 visitors. The peak number of vehicles ascending per day in August was 2,837 representing 8,511 visitors, and this was the highest for the year. There were 12 days in August with greater than 2,000 vehicles ascending per day. - August 2013 had 47 hours with greater than 200 vehicles per hour ascending Cadillac Mountain. Peak hourly traffic ascending Cadillac Mountain for August was 295 vehicles and it occurred on August10 between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. The highest hourly traffic ascending Cadillac in 2013 was 304 on September 1(Sunday of Labor Day weekend) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. for the sunset. On this date there were eight consecutive hours with greater than 200 vehicles per hour, the highest number for the year. - In 2014, we estimated 682,671 visitors to Cadillac Mountain between June 1 and October 31. The mean number of vehicles descending per day in August was 1,944 representing 5,832 visitors. The peak number of vehicles descending per day in August was 2,633 representing 7,899 visitors. However, the peak number of vehicles descending per day for the year was 2,933 on October 12 (Sunday of Columbus Day weekend) representing 8,799 visitors. There were 16 days in August with greater than 2,000 vehicles descending per day. - August 2014 had 79 hours with greater than 200 vehicles per hour descending Cadillac Mountain. Peak hourly traffic descending Cadillac Mountain for August was 391 vehicles and it occurred on August 30 (Saturday of the Labor Day weekend) between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. On October 12 (Sunday of Columbus Day weekend), there were eight consecutive hours with greater than 200 vehicles descending per hour, the highest number for the year. We should note that descending traffic volumes are higher at sunset as most visitors head down at the same time. - Sunrise traffic in 2013 was more than 100/hour from 4:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m. for nine days in July and 17 days in August for either the 4:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. hour. - Sunrise is followed by a 3-4 hour “lull” in traffic. In July and August, hourly traffic does not begin to consistently exceed 100 vehicles/hour until 10:00 a.m. - Sunset traffic in July peaked from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in 2013. On 19 of 31 days traffic exceeded 100 vehicles/hour during this hour, with a peak of 269 vehicles/hour on July 5. - Sunset traffic in August 2013 peaked from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. On 26 of 31 days traffic exceeded 100 vehicles/hour during this hour, with a peak of 254 vehicles/hour on Saturday August 30 (Labor Day weekend). There were four other days with traffic more than 200 vehicles over that same hour. - From 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in August 2013, traffic seldom dropped below 100 vehicles/hour."

Monitoring vehicle and visitor traffic on the Cadillac Mountain Summit Road: 2013-2014

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