1. The “exercise loop”
On Saturday 3/3/2012 I went around the loop at about 8 AM, on a sunny day. I counted 272 people going the other way, of whom 124 appeared to be nonwhite (if unsure I called them white, so I probably underestimated the # of nonwhites) 25 were on bicycles and there were 23 people with dogs. The majority of people were women who seemed to be less than 50 years old. I plan to do another count on a weekday morning.
On Thursday 3/29/2012 I went around the loop at about 8:30 AM on a cloudy cool day. I counted 204 people, 81 apparently nonwhite, 8 with dogs (if you have more than one dog, I count you once only) and 8 with bicycles (I count jogging strollers as bicycles, I don’t count ordinary push strollers at all). This surprised me because it was not an appealing morning. The proportion of women was, if anything, even higher than on 3/3. I don’t believe that I can keep track of more than 4 variables accurately. I’m going to do weekday & weekend counts every month- I believe that at least 7 or 8 in each category will be needed to have an idea of variability & statistical significance. I always go contravia (against the arrow, whereas I normally walk/run in the direction of the arrow. I don’t count anyone going the same direction that I am).