On June 1, 2008, Schuylkill River Park Alliance stopped over a hundred park users on a typical Sunday morning to ask questions about their use of the trail and desired uses in the future.  Here are the results:

East Falls is the most popular northern destination

32.8% of the respondents said that they went as far north as the East Falls Bridge

24.6% said they went north of the East Falls Bridge

23% said they went to Lloyd Hall/Boathouse Row

There is a high demand among park users for the Schuylkill River Trail to be extended southward

54.1% said they would go all the way to Fort Mifflin

20.5% said they would go to Bartram’s Garden

Together that's 74% of park users said they would go at least to Bartram’s Garden

Bicyclists and runner preferred Fort Mifflin, walkers preferred Bartram’s Garden

On a 6 point scale, respondents said that they would be very likely (overall mean rating of 4.93) to use the trail even if it travelled southward on the west side of the river after crossing the South Street Bridge.

 In addition to an extended path, park users are thirsty for water

Among sixteen different amenities, water fountains were the most highly rated (5.26 out of 6) by bicyclists, runners and walkers.  Toilets followed as the second most highly rated amenity (4.69).  “Continuous dirt path adjacent to the paved path” (4.20), “more police presence” (3.83), “more/different landscaping” (3.67), “trail head-kiosk of information (3.64), “more benches and other places to sit” (3.61), and “more center striping” (3.55) were among the top eight that had ratings above neutral (3.5).   

Under the Walnut Street Bridge is most popular location for amenities

Among four location choices, “Under the Walnut Street Bridge” was chosen by the most number of respondents (34.5%) for new amenities.

(49) bikers, (50) runners and (32) walkers took the survey. Of those who responded, 64 were female, 52 were male.

Ages 18-34 (39%)

Ages 35-49 (24.6%)

Ages 50-64 (33.9%)

Ages 65 or older (2.5%)

90.7% were residents of Philadelphia

46% said they used the park 2-4 times a week and 28% said 5 times a week or more.

89.9% of the respondents said they used the park for exercise, followed by casual walking (37%), leisure (33%) and commuting (27.7%).