New AI system tracks tubing on Clear Creek amid reservation system talks

For years, the city of Golden has been working to better understand how many people are tubing on Clear Creek during the summer months.

The information is used to implement new restrictions to improve safety and will continue to be analyzed as officials consider adding a reservation system.

This year, they are enhancing their tracking system by using artificial intelligence.

On a busy weekend, Clear Creek through downtown Golden can resemble a bustling water park.

"Get in your tube and float down; there were a lot of people. We were bumping into people," Abigail Roberts said.

On the creek, however, there are fewer rules and no lifeguards on duty.

"On the weekends, definitely more people are hanging out, especially by the banks of the river— a lot more people on the sides. But I think it's super pleasant that you can kind of just get in wherever you want and get out wherever you want," Arvada resident Zach Friedman added.

Friedman says that spontaneity is part of the attraction and why this portion of the waterway is seeing an increasing number of visitors.

"We've really heard from the community that there are too many people sometimes on the weekends in the summer in Golden. So we really started to figure out how many people are there, how many is too many, and what does that really look like?" Carly Lorentz, Golden's deputy city manager, said.

Lorentz said that last summer, they installed cameras along the banks and used them to try to count the number of tubers, but the work had to be done manually.

This summer, an artificial intelligence program was added to do the counting.

"It's kind of at the front end of this new technology that's being really helpful to solve a problem," Lorentz said.

At the same time, Golden is using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to get an idea of how many visitors bring their own tubes.

According to city officials, in 2023, they dealt with system outages and tags that didn't attach well to tubes. Only around 1,000 tags were handed out and tracked.

This year, the city distributed roughly 11,000 tags.

Lorentz said they will review the new data as they consider additional restrictions in 2025.

"Is a reservation system needed? What would that look like? How many people are we talking about, and what are the differences on weekends? Does it really hit the highest level of numbers?" Lorentz said.

For Roberts and Friedman, it's the first they've heard of a possible reservation system, and they are not sure about it yet.

"I kind of like the fact that it's so laid back. It doesn't matter when you show up," Friedman said.

"It just doesn't seem feasible to me; I have lots of questions," Roberts added.

Lorentz said that while they are considering reservations, they recognize how difficult it would be logistically to create a full reservation system given the number of access points on the creek.

Data from the new AI system for 2024 will be presented to the city council in early October.