Mount Royal Park is one of Montreal’s most important green spaces. Designed by Frederic Law Olmsted and inaugurated in 1876, it is the centerpiece of the Mount Royal heritage site, the oldest municipally protected area in Quebec. The parks of the heritage site are managed by the City of Montreal’s « Service des grands parcs, du Mont-Royal et des sports, » and maintained by the boroughs.

A round table of 38 members from the corporate, association, and municipal sectors meets several times a year to discuss the protection and enhancement of the heritage site.

Whether for accessibility, conservation, heritage enhancement, management, or planning, knowledge of visitor numbers is essential. To better understand how data helps the City of Montreal in its decision-making, we spoke to a representative of the « Division Concertation et Bureau du Mont-Royal », who is responsible for the ongoing study of visitor numbers.

Beaver Lake, Mont-Royal Park.

Visitation studies at the Mount Royal heritage site

Other visitor studies have been produced in the past, but Mount Royal’s previous one dates back to 2006 and involved in-field counting by individuals. To paint a new picture of their visitor numbers, 29 automatic counters were installed in 2022 and 2023, including temporary pedestrian and bicycle counters, to observe visitor numbers in Mount Royal Park, Jeanne Mance Park, and Tiohtia:ké Otsira’kehné Park, the three main parks of the heritage site.

Sixteen PYRO-Box systems serve as long-term counting points, and six additional ones are moved every three to four weeks. These are also supported by seven ZELT counters. The goal of this is to extrapolate visitor numbers to a hundred or so formal and informal access points in all three parks. The City of Montreal called on our Data team for this extrapolation work.

However, counters have their limitations when it comes to measuring visitor flows in open areas (notably Jeanne Mance Park). A project is currently underway to acquire traffic data from anonymized GPS data, making it possible to map out visitor journeys using time-stamped points. These can then be integrated with data from automatic counters to provide in-depth insights. Eventually, the study will also include surveys of visitors and the general public, the aim being to obtain not only a portrait of visitor numbers, but also of the different people visiting their parks, as well as tracking changes in visitor numbers over time.

Using data to improve the visitor experience

According to the city of Montreal:

Some examples of use:

• Visitor data is used to measure winter ski and snowshoe trail use.
• The data can be used to validate the need for more sustainable development of secondary trail sections in wooded areas and to justify planned interventions to advisory and decision-making bodies.
• The data also allowed them to determine the volume of bicycle traffic and to better understand potential conflicts of use.
• Finally, thanks to the integration of GPS data, the data will make it possible to quantify illegal sporting practices in natural environments (mountain biking and off-trail racing bikes) that damage flora and fauna.

A PYRO-Box Evo counting cross-country skiers in Mount Royal Park.

Traffic figures and trends

In 2006, studies estimated Mount Royal Park’s visitor volume to be 4.5 million that year (and 2.5 million for Jeanne Mance Park).

In 2024, Mount Royal Park’s visitor volume will be at least 4.8 million, a figure that is estimated to only represent about 80% of actual visitation. This is because this year has not ended, and further extrapolation work will be needed to determine the final number.

Since the installation of the counters, an increase in visitor numbers of 6.6% between 2022 and 2023 has been observed. To date and over a comparable period, the increase is 8.8% between 2023 and 2024.

An upward trend is therefore taking hold, likely driven by changes in habits linked to the pandemic, the overall increase in Montreal’s population, and perhaps a new tendency to take advantage of urban parks rather than going out of town.

Vandalism and communication

Faced with vandalism, the « Service des grands parcs, du Mont-Royal et des sports » has adopted a new strategy. After initially trying to avoid drawing attention to the counters, they are now trying to communicate with visitors by informing them of the study underway and how the systems work, in full respect of privacy. The absence of photo and video recording is emphasized, and the final objective of measuring visitor numbers is reassured to the general public.

A PYRO-Box Evo in Mount Royal Park with an information sticker on the back.