A month ago organizers of the second-ever ArroyoFest closed all lanes of the northern section of the 110 Freeway between Lincoln Heights and Pasadena for a Ciclovia-type event, and guessed at the size of the vast throng that walked, rode bicycles, scooters and skateboards, and filled the freeway’s car-less lanes.
Now, for the first time in the history of “open streets” events that date back six years, a scientific count of the participants using video cameras produced a more precise — but still not perfect — count of how many people came out for the unique event on Sunday, Oct. 29.
Professional traffic-count engineers from Wiltec, based in Pasadena, analyzed the video footage by slowing down the video and counting the participants.
The company reported 40,882 people on the closed freeway between 9:45 a.m. and 10:45 a.m., considered the peak time or, if you will, the event “rush hour,” revealed Wes Reutimann, co-organizer of the 626 Golden Streets: ArroyoFest event and special programs manager for Active San Gabriel Valley (ActiveSGV).
But the data from the one-hour time did not capture the 4,000 runners who ran the route from 7 a.m. to about 8 a.m., bringing the total up to 45,000, he said. Also, the cameras were not positioned on Mission Boulevard in South Pasadena, which was jammed with participants and was the event launch point.
“It should be the best estimate we have ever had for an event,” Reutimann said on Nov. 29. When extrapolating for camera dark times and early-comers who may not be represented in the video footage time frame, he concluded the number was closer to 50,000.
“This is the first time we had video count data of one of our events. It gives us a firmer grasp of community participation,” Reutimann said. “We safely say more than 45,000 people attended the event. It is validation there was a really strong community interest in seeing ArroyoFest come back.”
Whether 45,000 people or more, the 6-mile event marked the…
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