DAYTON — The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) is partnering with local park districts and citizen volunteers to conduct a quadrennial Miami Valley Trails User Survey in September.

Walkers, runners, or cyclists using the designated Miami Valley Trails may encounter volunteers counting trail-users and requesting they take the user survey.

Darke County will be participating in this survey on the Darke County Park District’s Tecumseh Trail at the state Route 571 trail parking area approximately one mile east of Greenville and at the trail behind the fire department in Gettysburg, Saturday, Sept. 2 (rain date: Sept. 9) and Wednesday, Sept. 6 (rain date: Sept. 13) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There also is an online version of the survey users may take using a smart phone. The volunteers will be able to assist survey-takers in getting to the survey via a website address or via a QR code. Paper survey forms will also be available.

“We’re anticipating most people will choose to take the online survey using their cell phones,” said MVRPC Executive Director Brian O. Martin. “The online survey will greatly reduce our data entry time and cut down on data entry errors. It will allow our staff to start analyzing the data sooner.”

Trail-users interested in taking the survey may go to www.mvrpc.org/trail-user-survey-2017.

The survey seeks to find out who are trail-users, when and how the trails are being used, why people use the trails and to measure the economic activity that is generated from trail use. The survey results will be released by MVRPC later this year. Past survey reports from 2009 and 2013 are available on MVRPC’s website, www.mvrpc.org.

In addition, the park districts use the results to plan programming and maintenance activities along the trails. The results will be taken into consideration as future marketing efforts are developed.

Detailed information about the region’s trail system can be found at www.miamivalleytrails.org.