After seeing an extraordinary amount of activity over the COVID-19 pandemic, City of Lethbridge data shows a decline in park and avenue use.
Data collected through 22 trail counters and three vehicle counters near river valley access roads projects an 18 percent decrease in movement in 2022 compared to 2021, with the total number last year at about 1.1 million.
“So 2020 and 2021 were record highs for us,” explained Parks and Cemeteries General Manager Blair Richter.
“However, the number in 2022 was actually very similar to our historical average.”
One of the trail counters in Lethbridge.
Courtesy: City of Lethbridge
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Richter believes that as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted and other activities resume, people may have waned to visit parks at similar levels.
The city is exploring the possibility of adding more counters and new technology in the future to improve accuracy. The current counter cannot differentiate between types of activity, such as walking, cycling or scootering.
Image of a trail counter at Legacy Regional Park.
Courtesy: City of Lethbridge
The most popular areas in 2022 continue to be regional parks such as Henderson Lake Park and Nicholas Sheran Park.
But according to Richter, one North Lethbridge area in particular stood out from the rest.
“Legacy Park was the only location that saw real growth in 2022,” he said. “(This was a 42 percent increase over 2021 and we can probably attribute that to the new discovery playground and the new spray park).”
After years of planning and construction, the major phases of the multi-million dollar park are slated to be completed in 2022.
“It’s great to see that park getting attention.”
Some positive trends are also visible at the Helen Shuler Nature Center.
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Curtis Goodman, resource development coordinator, is happy to see more residents and students coming back through his doors.
“In terms of overall attendance, it was closer to about 52,000 people and when we go back to 2019, we were closer to 60,000,” he explained.
“So we’re almost back to where we were before (COVID).”
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