Saturdaykey forWestSt
LAST weekend saw the piloting of the pedestrianisation of a section of West Street, Drogheda, and part of its success may hinge on a sudden change in the number of people who visit the street when traffic is restricted.
How this will be gauged will be down to the calculation of footfall, an exercise which began throughout the month of August, when those behind the BID (Business Incentive District) scheme monitored six premises in five town centre locations.
The results show that Saturday is the busiest day of the week, with an average 8,703 monitored movements across five streets.
The quietest day for footfall is Sunday, with 4,737 recorded movements across the five streets.
‘It should be noted that there is a significant drop off in footfall outside traditional office working hours which indicates a large impact on the evening time economy, ‘ said a spokesman for BIDS. ‘From the data collected, you can see that trends indicate that the third week of August illustrated a significant reduction in footfall which could be due to heavy rainfall recorded that week or additionally last-minute staycation breaks before back to school’
An application is currently being submitted for further funding to LEADER to help increase the footfall collection and coverage across the town.
The locations surveyed were North Quay (The Golf Bag), West Street (Hickeys, opposite the Tholsel and Ill Forno), Laurence Street (The Gift Box) and Shop Street (Enable Ireland).
The survey showed overall daily totals for the month, average hourly totals, day of the week footfall totals and weekly footfall total. Peak times for all streets was during lunchtime hours from 12pm to 2pm, with 1pm showing the most footfall for all locations.
There is a dramatic tail-off every day after 6pm, with most days seeing pedestrians leave the town centre at that time. Sunday sees the least amount of town centre visitors, with Wednesday coming a close second, perhaps a hang-over from when there used to be half-day closing.
These figures will be made available on a monthly basis and comparative analysis will take place as data is built up.