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People Are Biking, Walking More Amid Pandemic

CREDIT: Facebook/Big River Crossing

Facebook/Big River Crossing


The number of people biking and walking here is higher than usual, according to new data from the city.

The city’s Bikeway and Pedestrian Program looked at data from nine automatic bicycle and pedestrian counters installed at different spots around the city that revealed a surge in activity, largely corresponding to the city’s Safer-At-Home order issued in late March.

The counters located in parks, along trails, and on city streets detect passing bikes and pedestrians to provide a total count of both modes or a combined count.

Overton park closed to car traffic in late March and began tracking bikers and walkers at its primary access points and the Old Forest gateways earlier this year. At the Old Forest Gateway near Rainbow Lake there has been a huge jump in bicycle activity since late March.

From the third week in March to the third week in April, the number of cyclists counted per week at that spot jumped by 2,000 users. While cyclist numbers hovered around 2,000, pedestrians counted were close to 6,000, according to the data.

On the graphs below, the Overton Park’s Tucker Street access point off of Poplar Avenue is referred to as Tucker, the Old Forest entrance near Rainbow Lake is dubbed Tyler, and the entryway along East Parkway is called Ben.

City of Memphis


On Big River Crossing, traffic increased to numbers similar to those in the spring following its opening. Counters along Big River Crossing were installed in fall 2016 and have been tracking traffic ever since.

This year, cyclist numbers began similar to that of last year, but by the second week of March, traffic was higher for that week than the same period in any previous year. And by the fifth week of March, the bicycle counts were more than double the average for that period with a total weekly count of 1,245. Last year, less than 400 users were recorded during that week.

City of Memphis

There are multiple counters along the Shelby Farms Greenline. Where the Greeline meets Germantown Parkway, a counter recorded a spike in activity beginning in the last week of March. Usage between late March and the end of April was, on average, 160 percent higher than the same period in 2019.

City of Memphis

Moving west, the counter along the Greenline at Farm Road tracked an average of 5,000 cyclists and pedestrians per week between the last week of March and the end of April. From the fourth week in March to the next week, there was close to a 200 percent increase in activity.

City of Memphis

Even further west, the Greenline counter near Highpoint Terrace recorded more than 7,000 users from late March through April. This is nearly double the average use for this time period.

City of Memphis


The segment of Wolf River Greenway that runs parallel to Humphreys Boulevard has seen the highest usage since tracking began in 2014. Compared to the previous five years, springtime usage climbed more than 80 percent on that portion of the Greenway. In the last week of March alone, nearly 6,000 cyclists and pedestrians were counted, compared to about 2,500 during that period last year.

City of Memphis

The city installed an on-street bicycle counter on Florida Street near Crump in 2017. While traffic recorded by this counter is in line with previous years during late February to late March, the first week in April shows a huge spike in usage. The count for that week was 64 compared to 22 in 2019 and 13 in 2018.

City of Memphis


Explore Bike Share began offering free 60-minute rides for 30 days on March 20th and recently extended the offer through May 20th. In the initial 30 days of the campaign, “Let’s Ride This Out,” check-outs from EBS’ top 30 stations usage increased by 54 percent compared to the month prior. Of those checkouts, close to 85 percent were new EBS users.

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Health Official: Virus Numbers Will Rise On Testing Outbreaks

CREDIT: Facebook/Mid-South Food Bank

Health Official: Virus Numbers Will Rise On Testing Outbreaks

Coronavirus cases will continue to rise in Shelby County as health department officials continue to target hot spots, health officials said here Tuesday afternoon, but the counts aren’t the only metric they’ll consider to further re-open the economy.

New cases have been reported in the county every day for the last seven weeks. The counts have fluctuated, usually following fluctuations in testing. Tuesday’s total new case count was 72 as new tests fell to 719, lower than previous days and below the county goal of 1,000 tests per day.

The new cases brought the county’s total case number up to 2,992. Though, Shelby County Health Department director Alisa Haushalter said the number — the total case number — is not as important now as it was in the virus’ beginning here.

To gauge the actual spread of the virus’ spread in the county, health officials look to how many patients tested positive for coronavirus against how many tests were administered. On Monday, for example, 72 tested positive out of 719 tests. That means about 10 percent tested were positive for the virus.

It wasn’t great news as “we try to keep it way below 10 percent,” Haushalter said Tuesday. However, the county has averaged a positivity rate between 8 percent and 8.5 percent for the duration of lockdown orders.

But Monday’s 10 percent positivity rate had an outlier in the data. Tests given at Compass Rehabilitation found 33 patients with the virus there and seven positive staff members for a total of 40. So, more than half of all of Monday’s new cases were from one location.

Shelby County Health Department

Monday’s virus report shows clusters of the virus found in nursing homes across Memphis since the end of March.

“When we begin to target nursing homes, our numbers will go up,” Haushalter said. “It is critical at this point to put a laser focus on those outbreaks we have within our vulnerable populations. Targeted or surge testing will continue in facilities serving seniors, in communities with outbreaks in transmissions [like the 38118 ZIP Code], and jail facilities. This will be our focus for months to come and, yes, I anticipate this will contribute to our numbers going up.”

[pullquote-1]
If the positivity rate begins to trend upward, health officials could recommend reversing some of the new loosening of restrictions. These began here Monday as the first day of the new Back to Business plan allowed some restaurants and stores to open on a limited basis.

If spikes in the positivity rates continued, Haushalter said she would recommend “tightening the faucet.” Though, she told one reporter during a new conference Tuesday that she could numerically predict the likelihood of tightening that faucet.

“Our goal is to not go backward, but to go forward,” she said. “Our mantra in these press conferences everyday is the same — social distancing, washing your hands, and cough etiquette.”

Haushalter said the health department also looks at the reproduction rate of the virus. That rate is, basically, how many people are affected from every one case of the virus here. The goal is to keep that number below one (one person giving it to fewer than one person, statistically speaking), she said. However, the figure has been above one for a few days. If that number reaches and stays at around 1.3 or 1.4, health officials may have to consider tightening the faucet.

Rt.live, the virus model established by the co-founders of Instagram, put Tennessee’s reproduction rate at .95 Tuesday afternoon.

The health department also looks at its capacity to isolate new cases and quarantine them quickly, she said. Also, they have to make sure hospitals have enough space for COVID-19 patients and for patients with non-virus-related conditions like strokes or those who have been in auto accidents.

“If we see a negative trend in any way, we may have to pick up restrictions again,” Haushalter said. “But if we can pick it up and improve our social distancing, we don’t have to close things back down.”

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VIRUS INFOGRAPHIC: Testing Rates, Cases, Deaths

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VIRUS INFOGRAPHIC: Testing Rates, Cases, Deaths

Source: Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s office

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Are We Beating Coronavirus? Ask the Founders of Instagram

CREDIT: rt.live

rt.live

If you wonder if we’re beating the spread of coronavirus in Tennessee, the answer may come from the founders of Instagram.

The social platform’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched a new website, rt.live, in early April. Data is fed to the site from the all-volunteer COVID Tracking Project, which updates information daily from health agencies across the country. From all of that data, Systrom said one metric “has the most promise.”

“It’s called Rt — the effective reproduction number,” Systrom wrote. “We can estimate it, and it’s the key to getting us through the next few months.”
[pullquote-1] Dive into Systrom’s full explanation of Rt here. But here’s the quick-and-dirty on it. The figure, basically, tells you the number of infections that will be caused by one infection. States with an Rt of 1 have slowed the spread of the virus. The virus is spreading in states with an Rt number over 1.

rt.live

rt.live

25,000 people signed up for the platform the first day. When he left the company a year ago, Instagram had over a billion users. With this, Systrom said he became interested in the science of how things grow during his time at the company.

He began to apply different predictive models to watch how companies grow. He wondered if models could be applied to coronavirus. He and Krieger built the model and have been publishing the results on the website.

The Rt predictive numbers have tracked real data, Systrom said. However, “This is a work in progress. I don’t have all the answers, nor do I claim to know the future for certain.”

Systrom said he hopes the information helps policymakers make informed decisions, certainly as many states — like Tennessee — are announcing plans to re-open their economies.
[pullquote-2] “Without the use of a clear metric on our ability to contain the coronavirus pandemic, it’s difficult to imagine that we’ll manage a return to normalcy anytime soon,” Systrom said.

So, how does Tennessee fare in the model? The Rt.live site said Tennessee’s number was at .91, showing a slight decline of the virus in the state. The number put Tennessee in the middle of most states. Idaho is at the bottom with an Rt of .19. Nebraska is at the top with an Rt of 2.
rt.live

rt.live

The state’s Rt number overlaid with new coronavirus case counts.

The Tennessee figures track closely with numbers published by Vanderbilt University researchers last week. Their transmission number refers to the average number of additional people infected by one infected person, much like the Rt.live site.

As of Thursday, April 16th, the state’s transmission number had declined to around 1.0. A transmission number below 1.0 for a sustained period is necessary to slow an epidemic, the researchers said.

The Vanderbilt researchers said transmission rates here have settled into a “simmer.” While the news seemed positive, they warned the situation remained “delicate and uncertain.”

The Vanderbilt figures last week showed a transmission number of somewhere between 1.25 and .90 for the Mid-South region, which includes Shelby County and four neighboring Tennessee counties.
Vanderbilt University

If Vanderbilt researchers maintain their publishing schedule, new statewide transmission rate figures will publish Wednesday.

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UPDATE: Highest Coronavirus Cases in East Memphis, Cordova, South Memphis

UPDATE: New data from the Shelby County Health Department shows the county’s highest concentrations of coronavirus are in Cordova, East Memphis, and South Memphis.

A heat map issued by the department Tuesday (below) showed Midtown and East Memphis as the largest virus hot spot in the county. Health officials issued a new map showing cases by ZIP code Wednesday afternoon after members of the media requested it.

Shelby County Health Department

The ZIP codes with the highest coronavirus are 38106, 38108, 38028, 38119, 38120, and 38109 — all with between 28 and 40 cases each. Downtown and Midtown ZIP codes have between 12 and 20 cases.

ORIGINAL POST: The Shelby County Health Department is starting to compile and make available a ton of demographic information about the coronavirus pandemic here.

A glance at some of the early figures shows Midtown and East Memphis as the county’s hottest hot spots and that millennials are proving to be the most affected (or have tested positive for the virus so far).

So, here’s the health department’s newly released heat map of coronavirus cases (data is current to Monday, March 30th):
Shelby County Health Department

Here are (crudely) Memphis neighborhoods overlaid on the heat map:
Shelby County Health Department

 So far, the virus has tested positive in males and females almost the same (of those who have been tested, of course):
Shelby County Health Department

The health department and Mayor Jim Strickland have published the demographics by age almost since the beginning.

Shelby County Health Department

Here’s what Strickland had to say about it in his update Tuesday:

“One initial common misconception with this virus has been that it only effects people over 60 years old. By the numbers—that’s simply not true, especially in Shelby County. The health department puts out a graph in their daily update, and I include it each day in here.

Today, I want to call special attention to the numbers in that graph.

Shelby County confirmed cases:

11-20-year-olds= 4.7%

21-30-year-olds= 22.7%

31-40-year-olds= 19.1%

41-50-year-olds= 16%

51-60-year-olds= 17.4 %

Grand Total= 79.9% of COVID-19 cases in Shelby County have been in people 60 or younger.

We’ve limited access to parks, shut down bars, reduced restaurants to take-out and delivery only, and required many other businesses to temporarily close their doors. We are doing everything we can to slow the spread, but we cannot do it without the public taking this seriously.

The virus doesn’t care if you’re younger or older. It doesn’t care if your black or white, and it doesn’t care how much money you have. The virus does not discriminate.”

Also, we’ve seen the cases of positive tests rise in graphs like these:
Shelby County Health Department

But the numbers have not always been even, especially if you look at the dates a new virus case was reported (top) and the dates of when virus symptoms first showed on patients (below):
Shelby County Health Department

Shelby County Health Department

Finally, here you can see the county’s overall testing rate:

Shelby County Health Department

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City Unveils ‘New and Improved’ Data Hub

The city of Memphis introduced a “new and improved data hub” Wednesday.

The site, data.memphistn.gov, first launched early last year and since then Ursula Madden, the city’s chief communication officer, said the city has been working to improve it.

The new site, which offers new and more detailed data sets, is meant to “increase usability and resident engagement,” said Craig Hodge of the Office of Performance Management.

“It builds on the mayor’s commitment to hold city government accountable for its performance,” Hodge said. “Internally, the Data Hub is the foundation for how we continually use data to inform our decisions; having a platform to load and share data across divisions allows city leaders to break down silos and better work together to be ‘brilliant at the basics.’”



In addition to tracking performance surrounding neighborhoods, public safety, youth, jobs, and good government, the site now allows users to track 311 requests, find civic assets near them, and see a real-time crime map.

[pullquote-1]

Madden said the new information is an effort to be “open and honest about what we’re doing well, but also our challenges.

“Ultimately if you have knowledge, you have some sort of sense of security,” Madden said. “You can take that information and do something with it. You can do things that improve your neighborhood.”

New features on the site include:

• An interactive map that shows nearby civic assets, such as parks, community centers, police and fire stations, and libraries

• Ongoing and recent capital projects and the city division responsible for them

• A real-time map of crimes, excluding sexual assault, throughout the entire city broken down by type

• A map showing ongoing and recent 311 requests, as well as code enforcement violations

Crime map


Users can also suggest other data sets not featured on the site. Madden said the site will “evolve” with new data sets being added to it in the future.

Unlike the old data hub, which she said was “sort of a static document,” the new site will be “active and engaging and can be utilized as the type of tool the public can use.”

“This is new for us,” Madden said. “We’re finally getting into the 21st century. We know that other cities already do this. So, we’re finally getting our data out to the public as well.”

City Unveils ‘New and Improved’ Data Hub

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Memphis Cited For Two Roads With Country’s Most Cell Phone Use

CREDIT: I Drive Safely

I Drive Safely

Memphis is home to two of the country’s top ten roads where the most cell phone use by a driver was observed last year, according to the company Lytx.

Lytx, a company that uses video technology to capture data from commercial and public sector vehicles, released the list earlier this week.

A half square-mile segment of road near Compress Drive and South Lauderdale Street tops the list, having the most observed cell-phone use of all the areas recorded during 2018. Another stretch of road near East Holmes Road and Lamar Avenue also made the list at number four.

Other cities that had a street in the top ten include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Irving, Texas.

Lytx

Top ten segments of road in the country where drivers were observed using their cellphones.

Around the country, Lytx software captured more than 1.3 million instances of cell phone use in 2018

The list was compiled from data collected by Lytx’s more than 3,000 driver clients around the country, who according to the company have driven tens of billions of miles since the company’s inception in 1998.

Lytx’s fleet consists of vehicles in industries such as trucking, waste, transit, construction, and government.

Nationwide, approximately nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured daily in crashes resulting from distracted driving, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Memphis City Council is not happy with Memphis’ placement on Lytx’s list and reminds you not to text and drive via Twitter. 

Memphis Cited For Two Roads With Country’s Most Cell Phone Use