Lake Michigan Trail App

Assists users of the Lake Michigan Trail (kayakers, cyclists, motorists).

Created for the Lake Michigan Water Trail Association and Michigan DEQ,

this app is designed to gather economic impact data for the Michigan

section of the Lake Michigan Trail, a multi-modal trail around Lake

Michigan. Dr. Dave Lemberg, an Associate Professor of Geography is

exploring whether crowdsoursed data can be used to help calculate the

economic impacts of trail use.

To add utility for trail users (and encourage trail users to download

and use this App, we are including the following features ( (1)

currently Michigan only):

-provides directional homing to access points along Lake Michigan (you

can find your car also by setting your own point locations) (1)

-Provide links to visitors centers websites in Lake Michigan coastal

communities (1)

-Provide a database of Lake Michigan coastal amenities such as dining,

lodging and entertainment keyed to user location (1)

-Provides scalable maps of the multimodal Lake Michigan Trail. Each map

sheet details the water trail with access points for sea kayaking, the

U.S. and north shore bike trails with navigation instructions, and the

Lake Michigan Circle Tour directions for motorists. Reading these maps

require a separate .pdf reader (we recommend Avenza PDF Maps for best

map reading utility) (1)

-Provides coupons for amenities around Lake Michigan based on traveler

location (1)

-Allows expenditures while on the Lake Michigan Trail to be logged

within the app’s internal database for periodic upload (see initial

screen for informed consent to participate in the data collection project).

-Uploads anonymous data to researchers for future analysis of the

economic impact of the trail. safe keeping and future analysis.