Fresh Pond Census Report

How many people visit Fresh Pond Reservation?

  • Average air temperature: 35.2 o  F
  • Total snowfall: 0.5 inches

FPR had the most visitors that month of any February-to-date.

Bicycle and Transportation Infrastructure

Changes to transportation infrastructure near FPR could alter visitor patters. For example:

These amenities could help more people visit FPR due to increased bicycle accessibility.

Perimeter Road bicycle use  did not increase  after the Blue Bikes station and WCG opened. This could be because  most Perimeter Road users are pedestrians . WCG and Blue Bikes cyclists may park their bikes before walking or jogging on the Perimeter Road.

Anecdotal observations show that pedestrians also use the WCG to access FPR. New users from the WCG since 2022 could help explain why  FPR usership remains higher than before 2020  . 

Note: Unlike the Perimeter Road, bicycle counts on the Fresh Pond Bike Path increased after the WCG opened in 2022. Learn more about Fresh Pond Bike Path user trends in  the appendix .

Development Patterns

New residential developments north and east of FPR could also influence usership. Between 2013 and 2023, there were at least 3,199 new residential units built within a 1-mile radius of FPR. These units have been clustered north/northeast of FPR.  This could be why more people appear to be using the northeastern entrances to FPR, such as Lusitania. 

New Residential Units within 1 Mile of Fresh Pond Reservation, 2011 - current| Residential unit data within the City of Cambridge boundary only. | Data source:   Cambridge Development Log. See metadata for inclusion criteria.  | Mobile Users: click the arrow icon in the upper righthand corner of the dashboard image to view live

Appendices

Appendix: Fresh Pond Bike Path at BPMULTI

Fresh Pond Bike Path User Trends

This Fresh Pond Bike Path sensor (BPMULTI) was operational from 2015 through 2023. It was a "multi" sensor capable of differentiating between bikes and pedestrians.

During this time, most people on the Fresh Pond Bike Path were cyclists. There were with a few exceptions:

  • Pedestrians outnumbered cyclists in 2017 and 2018 during the construction detour.
  • Pedestrians were roughly equal in number to cyclists in 2020 and 2021. This was due to an increase in pedestrians, not a decrease in bikers.

Between 2021 and 2023, bicycle users on the Fresh Pond Bike Path more than doubled. There were about 66,500 bicycle counts in 2021, rising to 142,300 in 2023.

Annual Cyclist and Pedestrian Totals at the Fresh Pond Bike Path Station (BPMULTI), 2015 - 2023 | Frequent periods of missing data exist in August of 2015; April and May of 2017; February and June of 2019; December of 2020; late October and early November 2021; December of 2022; and January and December of 2023. | Sporadic periods of missing data occur in most years.

Watertown-Cambridge Greenway (WCG)

The  WCG  opened in June 2022, coinciding with this increase. The WCG connects the Fresh Pond Bike Path to Watertown. The WCG likely explains why cyclist counts began increasing in 2022.

Perimeter Road (WTPMULTI) and Fresh Pond Bike Path (BPMULTI) Bicycle Comparison

Annual Cyclist Totals at the Perimeter Road (WTPMULTI) and Fresh Pond Bike Path (BPMULTI) Stations, 2015 - 2023 | See  WTPMULTI  and  BPMULTI  plots for information on missing and excluded data.


Appendix: Data Documentation and Methods

Explore the  Fresh Pond Reservation Census Program Report Data Documentation  for detailed documentation about:

  • The sensors used to count users
  • Data quality control
  • How we calculate usership in this report

Get data presented in this report from the  Cambridge Open Data Portal .