December 2011 - RTC TrailBlog

Rail-trail advocates in Michigan are celebrating this week with news that the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) has recommended a $3,755,400 grant to acquire a section of out-of-service Coe Rail Line in Oakland County, about 35 miles northeast of Detroit.

In addition to the 33-acre parcel of rail corridor, the grant will also enable the Commerce, Walled Lake and Wixom Trailway Management Council, a joint effort of the three townships along the route, to purchase the Walled Lake Train Depot, with plans to convert the historical building into a visitor center or community gathering place.

It was third time lucky for the people of Oakland County, who had seen two previous applications for funding to purchase the land rejected.

The proposed Commerce, Walled Lake and Wixom Trailway would provide a valuable connection between two popular existing trails, linking the West Bloomfield Trail, in Bloomfield, and the Huron Valley Rail-Trail in Wixom.

The new trail would also fill another gap in the ambitious plan for a Great Lake to Lake Trail, formally known as the Michigan Airline Trail, a cross-state trail network utilizing Michigan's thousands of miles of rail-trail and other multi-use pathways.

Photos courtesy of Kristen Wiltfang/Oakland County

Yesterday's announcement of recipients of the highly competitive transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants contains quite a bit of good news for Americans looking for transportation options beyond highways and cars.

More than $14 billion worth of roads, bridges, transit, and bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects were applied for from the $527 million available in TIGER grants. The applications came from city and county municipalities across America and reflected a local, grassroots understanding of the improvements needed to make these communities better places to live, work and do business. Often, the improvements they sought were infrastructure for biking and walking.

Fortunately for active transportation advocates, it appears that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and the rest of the U.S. Department of Transportation remain committed to the promise of ensuring biking and walking are crucial parts of America's transportation landscape: Of the 46 projects chosen for TIGER grants, 22 incorporate some aspect of bike and pedestrian accessibility. 

"It is great to see a broad range of projects, even those that are primarily on roads, integrating walking and biking into their design," says Kartik Sribarra, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's director of policy outreach. "Giving people the option to walk or bike is key to building better cities, neighborhoods that move better, and downtown areas that thrive."

The headline-grabber for biking and walking advocates will likely be the funding of Chicago's first large-scale bike share program, terrific news for a city whose leadership has indicated that non-motorized transportation is central to its sustained growth.

There is great news, too, for the people of Beaufort, S.C., with funding announced for the city's effort to reconstruct its downtown area to improve accessibility.

City planners have said that their main street's current suburban-style commercial corridor is not only dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, but also an obstacle to shopping and other economic activity. The city's retrofit will focus on integrating motor vehicles, transit, biking and walking, as well as a connection to the nearby Beaufort Rail-Trail, which, when complete, will connect with schools, neighborhoods and service centers throughout the region.

"Cities like Beaufort are increasingly aware of the fact that commercial areas that discourage walking and biking are just not maximizing their potential for good business," Sribarra says. "Downtown areas to which people can walk or ride not only provide a great health benefit, but nearby real estate values benefit, too. Commercial areas become vibrant places of community, rather than less appealing parking lots, which typically don't encourage walking, sightseeing, window shopping or community activity."

The Beaufort TIGER grant included a significant match from the city. The match was provided in part by a one percent local sales tax designated specifically for transportation improvements, an indication that local voters were willing to invest in more options for biking and walking in their city.

Beaufort City Manager Scott Dadson says that designing shopping centers only for vehicular access limits their potential for success.

"Even in a city the size of Beaufort, people will choose not to go out shopping if it means driving in traffic at certain times of the day," he says. "We also look at the cost of gas as another gauge of whether it's 'worth it' to get in the car and drive somewhere. If walking or biking or taking a golf cart are other options to get to the store, suddenly those businesses have a more robust market in which to serve and hopefully succeed."

In Northfield, Minn., a relatively small TIGER grant will have a massive impact on pedestrian safety and give residents and students another transportation option for short trips around this small city of about 20,000 people.

For a federal investment of a little more than $1 million, Northfield will be able to build a pedestrian crossing traversing State Highway 3, a major road bisecting the city. This link will allow pedestrian and bicycle access between residential and college areas and the downtown area, and improve safety on and around the highway.

The people of Northfield believe strongly that their transportation landscape must give them options other than to drive. This project represents a widespread community effort to improve safety in an area where 23 percent of all commutes are non-motorized.

"This pedestrian crossing project is a great example of how relatively small investments in walking and bicycling infrastructure have an enormous impact on day to day lives," Sribarra says. "$1 million is a drop in the bucket of the price of a road. But for this same $1 million, scores of people every day will benefit from a safer, healthier commute, which also has the benefit of getting cars off the road during peak periods."

Other significant bicycle and pedestrian-related projects to receive TIGER funding include:

• Buffalo Main Street Revitalization (N.Y.) - A project to revitalize the historical downtown area by improving transportation connectivity and pedestrian access.
• Stamford Intermodal Access (Conn.) - Improve pedestrian access to the Stamford Transit Center.
• Snake Road Improvement (Fla.) - Improve 2.25 miles of road on the Big Cypress Reservation, including a 5-foot sidewalk and a 12-foot multi-use path.
• US 101 Smith River Safety Corridor (Calif.) - Improve a portion of US 101 including pedestrian features to slow traffic and provide safe access for pedestrians and bicyclists to vital community services.
• City of American Falls Complete Streets (Idaho) - Transform the downtown area to safely accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists.
• St Albans Main Street Reconstruction (Vt.) - Improving livability in the center of a small city by improving non-motorized transportation.

For every project to receive TIGER funding, however, there were many more non-motorized infrastructure projects to miss out. An innovative regional effort involving a number of cities in the northeast, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Camden and Newark, would have provided walking and cycling connections for millions of residents and boosted the commercial and environmental sustainability of an enormous metropolitan area.

With current political threats to the Transportation Enhancements program and other funding for active transportation projects, whether our state and federal government are willing to invest in the forward-thinking plans of America's cities and counties will have a great impact on how we all get from A to B in the coming decades.  

Photo of shoppers enjoying a pedestrian friendly commercial area in Burlington, Vt., by RTC

By Dawn Langton

With red flannel underwear fluttering on a backyard clothes line, a family buying their Christmas tree, kids playing at the park, and miles of uninterrupted woodland and prairie, the newest paved rail-to-trail in Florida has some of the most old-fashioned sights. Cool, sunny weather on the first weekend in December was the perfect chance to see them all on the Palatka-Lake Butler State Trail (PLBST).

The trail gained four paved miles in Putnam County last fall with the completion of the Twin Lakes Park-to-Grandin segment. It now stretches almost 10 miles from Grandin to Keystone Heights, making it a leisurely day trip from Jacksonville or St. Augustine. If you want a longer ride, you can connect to the 5.5-mile State Route 21 bike path in Keystone Heights and head north to Gold Head Branch State Park. It is one of Florida's oldest state parks and one of the most charming, with both paved and off-road bike-friendly trails.

My riding buddy, Becky Yanni, and I started the PLBST in Grandin, on County Road 315. The sign is small, but you see the trail to your left as soon as you turn right onto CR 315 from SR 100. We parked on the right side of 315 on the grassy area in front of the trail boundary signs. (It's best to save the wine tasting at Tangled Oaks Vineyard just east of the CR 315-SR 100 corner until after your ride, but it's a must-visit).

After passing the chickens and dogs at the three red-trimmed houses on the aptly named Grandin Railroad Rd., the trail quickly veers away from SR 100 into the woods for roughly three miles. It rejoins the highway for about a mile at Putnam Hall, but is still set back nicely from the traffic. The intersection with SR 26 is the only major crossing. Then you are off into the woods again for about 1.5 miles until you parallel County Line Rd. for a nice view of Oldfield Pond to your left.

A few more cranks and you'll find Twin Lakes Park at 5.5 miles, with clean restrooms, a water fountain (hidden behind the post in front of the women's bathroom), covered picnic tables and plenty of parking for the dozen folks who started the trail there that day. If you prefer to do the same, the park is at 6065 Twin Lakes Rd. Maintained by Clay County, it's accessible from CR 214.

After the park, the trail rejoins SR 100 again, with a nice view to the left of Lake Geneva. CR 214 is the only major intersection before the outskirts of Keystone Heights. At least one realtor likes the area: A large Rails to Trails Land for Sale sign looms amidst a stand of pines. Don't be fooled by the Bike Wash sign spray-painted on plywood behind a restaurant on your left - it's for the other kind of bikers.

Things get busy as you head into town. The intersection of SR 100 and SR 21 has all the usual chain stores. The trail crosses SR 21 and continues another mile or so through town, but we chose to check out the 10-foot wide SR 21 bike path to Gold Head. The connection between trails is not obvious at first. We turned right onto SR 21 and stayed on the sidewalk until we saw the green bike path sign a half-mile later. There we joined the cycle track, physically separated from the road. Not as leafy and remote as the rail-to-trail, but the next best thing.

The stretch between trails is full of life on a Saturday morning. A Christmas tree lot is so close to the sidewalk that you brush the branches as you ride past. And bring your quarters, because yard sales abound. The only disappointment was that the Jumping Bean cafe is closed on Saturdays now, despite a welcoming "coffee to go" sign out front. But it looked promising, if you ride during the week.

We turned back after a mile, because the Palatka Holiday Tour of Homes and its pastry table were calling our names. Next time we'll check out the rest of the PBLST trail through town and ride the SR 21 bike path all the way to Gold Head. And we'll pack lots of quarters and coffee.

Dawn Langton is a member of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and a friend of our Florida office.

Photo and map courtesy of TrailLink.com

At Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's (RTC) 25th Anniversary celebration in October, we honored a group of men and women--the inaugural Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions--who have made a remarkable contribution to the rail-trail movement during the past quarter century. We will be posting a blog story on each of the honorees during the coming weeks. Today we pay tribute to George M. Burrier, Jr., whose work to establish the Rock Island Trail State Park in Illinois is now recognized as a one of the defining achievements in the development of a rail-trail network in America.  

George Burrier was born in Chicago, Ill., but spent most of his childhood in Pennsylvania. He received a B.S. in psychology from Northern Illinois University in 1967. After serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, he finished his law degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in the evenings in 1973 while working for Pullman, Inc.

Shortly after 1983, William Rutherford, former director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), flew Burrier over the abandoned Peoria, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, where rail traffic had ceased in 1963. Rutherford asked Burrier to help make his trail plan come true. The Forest Park Foundation directed by Rutherford acquired the line in 1965. The IDNR received the land in 1968, it became a state park in 1973-and then commenced a 17-year battle to develop the 31-mile Rock Island Trail State Park.

Working with an initial annual state budget of $1 a year, Burrier and other volunteers began piecing together the trail, from restoring bridges and acquiring former railroad depots along the route to finding donors and new supporters for the project. Burrier provided legal work pro bono throughout this process, helping the friends group negotiate through local landowner and political opposition. Finally, on May 12, 1990, Secretary of State Jim Edgar officially dedicated the trail.

At the Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions award ceremony, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a native of Peoria, Ill., said riding and walking on the Rock Island Trail State Park had done much to convince him of the importance of trails in our daily lives. Sec. LaHood said generations of Americans owed a debt of gratitude to trails advocates like Burrier, who had given much of their time and energy to building invaluable resources for the public good--often being vilified for it at the time.

Burrier and his family began cycling adventures in 1983 by going on a six-day ride from Fish Creek, Wis., to Milwaukee. Since then, the Burriers have traveled in 45 states, three Canadian provinces, Belgium, France, Iceland and The Netherlands.

The Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champion grant awarded in Burrier's honor will assist the Friends of the Rock Island Trail, Inc., in its work to promote the rail-trail Burrier spent so many years seeing to completion.

Photo of Sec. LaHood with George Burrier and RTC President Keith Laughlin by Scott Stark/RTC.

The state of Missouri received some terrific news last month with the announcement that 11 trail projects would receive funding through the federal Recreational Trails Program (RTP).

Notably, a $100,000 RTP grant will make possible a critical link in Kansas City’s Riverfront Heritage Trail, a rail-trail that connects the banks of the Missouri River with the historical downtown area of the city, local parks and shopping areas.

The half-mile section of concrete trail to be funded by the RTP grant is a terrific example of how relatively short connections can add enormous value to regional trail systems. Connecting the eastern and southern sections of the Riverfront Heritage Trail with the western branch into Kansas City, Kan., just across the border, this small link now completes a hub reaching out toward hundreds of miles of trail stretching north to Omaha, Neb., west into Kansas, east along the Missouri River and south to Joplin, Mo.

“This is an unusually important segment of the broader trails system,” says Darby Trotter, president of Kansas City River Trails, Inc., a nonprofit corporation created to operate and maintain the Riverfront Heritage Trail and promote trail use in the region. “What we have here is the hub of a four-state trails system.”

For Trotter and fellow trail organizers, the half-mile connector is the culmination of more than a decade’s work building the Riverfront Heritage Trail and establishing river and rail-line crossings to connect to communities and trails beyond the city itself.

“We see this as the end of Phase 1,” he says. “Phase 1 was to build the hub to get to. Phase 2 is happening now – people are connecting other trails to the system.”

Trotter says much of the most difficult, and most expensive, work is already completed – bike and pedestrian crossings over the Missouri and Kansas rivers, as well as over the busy network of active rail lines in Kansas City’s central industrial district. Construction of the half-mile link is expected to begin in early 2012.

If Kansas City can promote itself as a central trail destination for hikers, bikers and riders embarking on, and returning from, journeys all across the country, local businesses will have tapped into a lucrative, and sustainable, economy.

Straddling the border between two states and two major rivers, the Riverfront Heritage Trail and connecting pathways have been a multi-jurisdictional effort, involving government agencies on both sides of the border, as well as broad support from the regional private sector.

Though its recreational utility is much appreciated by residents and visitors alike, the establishment of the Riverfront Heritage Trail had a particular inspiration – local history.

“It was an attempt to bring people back to the riverfront, back to their heritage,” Trotter says, adding that a lot of thought was put into naming the trail. “And it was always important that the trail connect with the oldest parts of the community – the initial settlements, the River Market.”

Today, the area’s history is portrayed in art works along the trail – the journey of Lewis and Clark, and the less-heralded journey of slaves escaping from Missouri to the free state of Kansas in the 1850s.

Though the area’s rich history was a catalyst for the trail, its development is now guided by a forward-looking vision. Trotter, a senior executive for a company that has been in Kansas City since 1886, says a number of area business leaders can see the direct connection between amenities like parks and trails, and strong population and commercial growth.

“Looking across the country, the progressive cities are those which are making good use of their waterfront areas, riverfront areas,” he says. “Up until recently, we weren’t doing that.”

A decade later, the Riverfront Heritage Trail is an integral part of the community – popular and well-used. And though Trotter says city authorities have been reactive rather than proactive in encouraging walking and biking (“We had to pull them along kicking and screaming at times…”), there are signs the message has been received; one of the goals of Kansas City’s new master plan is to make the downtown area more walkable.

RTP grants like this one are funded by a small portion of motor fuel excise taxes collected from recreational vehicle use.  So, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles – those vehicles that use recreational trails in some states – help pay for the maintenance and establishment of such trails.

In addition to the Riverfront Heritage Trail link, RTP grants in Missouri helped fund the widespread development and maintenance of both motorized and non-motorized trails in Missouri State Parks, the construction of a backcountry hiking trail in Roger Pryor Backcountry, Shannon County, and a trail from the city of Greenville to Wappapello Lake.

For more information on the Recreational Trails Program, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/rectrails/

Images courtesy of Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation, and Kansas City River Trails, Inc.

The history of America's rail-trails and community pathways is ripe with terrific stories about community-minded individuals who took the bull by the horns and turned grand ideas into ribbon cuttings.

All across the country there have been volunteers who have dedicated years, decades of their lives to the funding and construction of trails projects - often facing stern criticism long before the true value of their work became evident.

Alabama's Janice "Teko" Wiseman was one such individual. This week, her passing is being mourned across the state by trails advocates and a broad array of people she inspired in a lifetime of volunteerism, community action and a passion for helping other people that has now left a generous legacy. She was 83.

Sixteen years ago, the Fairhope resident and Mobile native dreamed of building a countywide network of hiking and biking trails, joining people, towns and communities in Baldwin County, all while promoting a healthy lifestyle. Never satisfied just to dream, Wiseman took action and founded the Baldwin County Trailblazers.

A passionate activist, Wiseman is described as a source of strength, wisdom and love to family and friends. She worked tirelessly with volunteers and local officials, securing more than $6 million in private, federal and local support to construct the 32-mile Eastern Shore Trail. In 2010, the National Park Service designated the trail a National Recreational Trail. For her work, Wiseman received the Alabama Trail Advocate award from the nonprofit organization American Trails.

"There are very few true visionaries in this world, but Teko was one them," says Fairhope City Councilwoman Debbie Quinn. "Teko took an idea and brought communities and dollars together to make it happen."

The trail was just one of many endeavors Teko and her husband, Dr. Hollis Wiseman, took on as civic leaders during their 62 years of marriage. Though deeply devoted to their family and six children, the Wisemans still found time to change the landscape of their community. Hollis founded the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of South Alabama Women and Children's Hospital. In the 1960s the couple created Alabamians Behind Local Education (ABLE), a movement to create a smooth transition for school integration. Teko helped found Keep Mobile Beautiful in the 1980s and was its coordinator for 10 years. Upon moving to Baldwin County 20 years ago, Hollis was instrumental in building the Fairhope Public Library, and Teko conceived the idea for connecting communities and people through miles of sidewalk. 

Today, thousands of adults and children each year benefit from Teko's leadership by way of the Eastern Shore National Recreation Trail. They search for reptiles at Daphne's Gator Alley, run the wooded, hilly path through Montrose, stroll along beautiful Mobile Bay in Fairhope, or cycle Scenic Highway 98 past the historic Grand Hotel.

Always full of energy, Teko most recently had a new vision that would connect the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay with South Baldwin County. Her favorite motto was "Foley or bust." Sadly, she passed away with only three miles left to complete on the Eastern Shore Trail.

The family requests that all memorials be made to the Baldwin County Trailblazers, P.O. Box 701, Daphne, AL 36526, or online at www.thetrailblazers.org.

When the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, welcomed the Morgana Run Trail more than five years ago, there were high hopes for how it would help transform the area. And in the ensuing years the trail proved the catalyst for many wonderful amenities, from public art installations to the construction of a new school.

The fall of 2011 brought yet another step forward in Slavic Village's renewal, with construction beginning on a new residential development, Trailside at Morgana Run. The two- and three-bedroom single-family homes will feature direct access to the Morgana Run Trail, which runs throughout Slavic Village to Mill Creek Falls.

With the real estate market struggling nationwide, and in Cleveland particularly, the fact a home developer has invested in a new project deliberately featuring trail access is significant. Recent studies by the National Association of Homebuilders found that trails were the number one amenity desired by potential new homebuyers. And homes in close proximity to the Minuteman Bikeway and Nashua River Rail Trail in Massachusetts have been found to consistently sell closer to the list price, and faster, than homes not close to either trail.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy staff from the Midwest Regional Office have been working with Slavic Village Development (SVD) for the past three years. The 2011 Urban Pathways Initiative Conference was held in Cleveland in the spring of 2011 and showcased the Morgana Run Trail and Slavic Village. Trailside at Morgana Run is further evidence that walking and biking infrastructure continues to be a robust driver of economic activity.

Where the new neighborhood will one day grow was once an environmentally contaminated brownfield site until being cleaned up a few years ago. Third Federal Savings and Loan, a banking institution founded in Slavic Village and headquartered next door to Trailside, is the developer of Trailside at Morgana Run.

"We want to continue to help the revitalization of the neighborhood where we were founded," says Jennifer Rosa, public relations manager for Third Federal. "The Trailside project is important to us not only because it is on property adjacent to our headquarters, it is also adjacent to a beautiful multi-purpose trail and helps move new development further into the neighborhood."

Photo of cyclists on the Morgana Run Trail by RTC

Here at Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, we love celebrating the connections between the steam-powered locomotives of yesterday and our leg-powered locomotives of today. A rail-trail, or a rail-with-trail, is a great way to pay tribute to the nation's railroad history by integrating it with our recreation and transportation future.

But how to describe the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic? Staged on neither a rail-trail nor rail-with-trail, this annual bike race set amongt the San Juan Mountains of central Colorado creates a unique connection between bike and train. As in, bike versus train.

Back in the day when mining for gold and silver was the biggest industry in the region, Jim Hayer worked as a brakeman on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which had run steam-powered locomotives between the mining towns of Durango and Silverton since the 1880s.

Jim's younger brother Tom was a bicycle enthusiast who grew up alongside the same tracks on which his brother worked every day. A healthy rivalry naturally developed between older and younger brother. One day, full of the flush of youth, Tom challenged Jim to a race--Tom on his bike, Jim on his train--from their home to nearby Silverton.

As the train came by the house, the steam whistle screamed, signaling Tom to climb onto his steel-framed 10-speed and pedal furiously up over the rim of the volcano, down into the caldera and to Silverton below. The train took a shorter and easier route, but with limited speed due to the narrow twists and turns, making for an even contest between man and machine. When Tom eventually became strong enough to win--which he did--the bragging rights were his, and the whole town knew it.

Years later, in the spring of 1972, 36 riders came together to celebrate the season's first run of the train and to accept the challenge made legendary by Tom and Jim Hayer. In the 37 years since, the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic has become one of the most renowned bike events in the West, famed not just for the unique character of the race but also for its stunning natural setting.

Held each Memorial Day weekend, the event now attracts riders from across the world, each competing to beat each other as well as the puffing engine that races them into Silverton on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, now a National Historic Landmark.

If the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic sounds like your kind of challenge, be sure to book ahead. Many of the categories for this year's event are already full. Check the event website at www.ironhorsebicycleclassic.com for details.

Photos courtesy Imagesmith Photo.