For years, the City of Golden has been working to understand how many people go tubing in Clear Creek during the summer months.
The information will be used to implement new regulations to improve safety and will continue to be analyzed as officials consider adding a reservation system.
This year, the tracking system is being enhanced with artificial intelligence.
On busy weekends, Clear Creek, which runs through downtown Golden, becomes like a bustling water park.
“We were floating down on the tube and there were a lot of people there, we were bumping into each other,” Abigail Roberts said.
But there are fewer rules and no lifeguards on the stream.
“There’s definitely a lot more people out on the weekends, especially on the riverfront. There’s a lot more people on the riverfront. But I think it’s a really nice feeling to be able to get in wherever you want and get out wherever you want,” Arvada resident Zach Friedman added.
Freedman said that spontaneity is part of the appeal and the reason more tourists are visiting this part of the waterway.
“We’ve heard from the community that Golden is too crowded on summer weekends, so we’ve started to really look at how many people are out there, how many is too many and what that really looks like,” said Golden Vice Mayor Carly Lorenz.
Last summer, Lorenz said, they set up cameras on the riverbank to try to count the tubers, but the work had to be done by hand.
This summer, an artificial intelligence program was added to do the tallying.
“This is kind of the cutting edge of new technology that can really help solve problems,” Lorenz said.
At the same time, Golden is using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to keep track of how many visitors bring their own tubes.
City officials said they addressed system failures and issues with tags not properly attaching to tubes in 2023. Only about 1,000 tags have been distributed and tracked.
The city has distributed about 11,000 tags this year.
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Lorenz said the agency would review the new data when considering additional restrictions in 2025.
“Will there need to be a reservation system? What will that look like? How many people will we target, how will it be different on weekends? Will we really hit a maximum level of capacity?” Lorenz said.
For Roberts and Friedman, this is the first time they’ve heard about the possibility of a reservation system, and they’re still not convinced.
“I love that it’s such a laid back atmosphere. It doesn’t matter when you come,” Friedman said.
“I don’t think it’s feasible. There are so many questions,” Roberts added.
Lorenz said he is considering reservations but recognizes how logistically difficult it would be to set up a full reservation system given the number of access points on the creek.
Data from the new AI system for 2024 is due to be presented to the city council in early October.
