April 2012 - RTC TrailBlog

Ever since the first leg of the Bayshore Bikeway in San Diego Bay, Calif. was built in 1976, this much-loved pathway has been an integral part of life in this city. Looping around San Diego Bay, this pathway has been the catalyst for the growth in walking and biking in this sunny, seaside community, serving residents and commuters as well as it does tourists and Sunday strollers.

That the Bayshore Bikeway is enormously important to the people of San Diego is evident in the fact that it keeps growing and improving every year.

Late last month, a new 1.8-mile segment of the Bayshore Bikeway was opened. Located entirely in the city of Chula Vista, this new section of the bikeway begins at H Street, runs along Bay Boulevard and an inactive railroad right-of-way, and ends at Palomar Street. The segment will allow users to explore the city's beautiful bay-front area. This is the first step to completing the bikeway on the east side of the San Diego Bay.

San Diego residents joined local leaders such as San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox, Santee Mayor Jack Dale, and San Diego Port Commissioner Scott Peters in a ribbon-cutting celebration in Chula Vista, March 24.

Last year, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) named Supervisor Cox one of 25 Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions, recognizing his remarkable contribution to the nation's rail-trail network.

RTC Western Region Office continues to be impressed by the development of the Bayshore Bikeway, as one of the state's premier rail-trails and a vital piece of the region's active transportation network.

"We are thrilled that the Bayshore Bikeway has rounded the south end of the Bay and is headed toward completion along the east side," says RTC's Western Regional Office Director Laura Cohen. "It is certainly one of the most scenic urban rail-trails in the country. Congratulations to Chula Vista, San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), and Supervisor Greg Cox, who has demonstrated unflagging dedication to the bikeway for many years."

When completed, the Bayshore Bikeway will extend 24 miles around San Diego Bay, passing scenic points and employment sites, providing opportunities for recreation, physical activity, and healthy transportation. To date, 14.3 miles have been constructed. SANDAG will begin work on the next 2.8-mile segment from National City to San Diego in late 2012 or early 2013.

Photo of Supervisor (and Rail-Trail Champion) Greg Cox enjoying the new section of the Bayshore Bikeway courtesy of SANDAG.

American Express, a long-time partner and supporter of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), has teamed up with the National Trust for Historic Preservation on a very cool initiative in the New York City area.   

Partners in Preservation will provide $3 million in preservation grants for local historical sites. Planners started with a list of more than 500 worthy sites, and they whittled the list down to 40, representing all five boroughs. You can vote on your favorite place once a day from April 26 until May 21, and the top four vote-getters will receive the largest grants.

The best part? RTC provided trail information and helped Partners in Preservation prepare bike maps for the area, so you can pedal around the city and familiarize yourself with the sites, including the High Line!

Since 2006, Partners in Preservation has awarded $6.5 million to preservation projects in San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Boston, Seattle and the Saint Paul/Minneapolis area. In addition to raising awareness for important historical sites, American Express and the National Trust hope to inspire long-term local support and interest in these preservation projects.

It's a great program in support of some wonderful historical sites. All you have to do is visit www.facebook.com/PartnersinPreservation or www.partnersinpreservation.com to cast your votes. You can also follow along on Twitter.

Voting kicked off at 11 a.m. EDT today, so check out the sites and cycle through history!

Promotion graphic courtesy of Partners in Preservation. 

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is keen to hear from communities or individuals holding a National Trails Day event on their local rail-trail, June 2.

Although many of us celebrate our love for trails in our own personal way each day, since 1993 National Trails Day, organized by the American Hiking Society the first Saturday in June, has been the one occasion when people across the country come together as one large community and celebrate together these wonderful avenues of recreation and transportation.

America's 200,000 miles of trails represent a many-splendored thing. They allow us access to the natural world for recreation, education, exploration, solitude and inspiration. They take us to good physical and mental health by providing us with a place to breathe fresh air, get our hearts pumping, and escape from our stresses. And, just as importantly, they provide mobility and transportation, a connection to schools, stores and employment--an open door to the wide world.

No wonder tens of thousands of Americans are always eager to show some serious love for trails on National Trails Day!

What about you?

Trail clean-up? Barbecue? Three-legged race or a good-ol' fun run? If you know of something happening on a rail-trail near you to celebrate National Trails Day, let us know about it! We can help promote your event through our nationwide network of members and friends.

And be sure to get lots of photos and video from the event! It's a great way to not only recognize those supporters and volunteers who give their time to keep our rail-trails spick and span, but it also helps promote both your trail and your town to rail-trail aficionados all across America.

Take a moment to get in touch at jake@railstotrails.org.

Photo courtesy of Vermont State Parks blog.

Among all the events taking place across the country this Sunday to mark Earth Day, there will be few as remarkable as the arrival of Kirk and Cindy Sinclair in the nation's capital.

When the Sinclair's complete the last few miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park (C&O Trail) into Washington, D.C., it will bring them close to the end of a 5,000-mile hike that began at the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, Calif., almost a year ago.

Their trek is the first-ever continuous west-to-east thru-hike of the American Discovery Trail, a route connecting thousands of miles of existing trails and rail-trails, community paths and greenways.

The Sinclairs hiked across the red rock canyons of Utah, and the calm prairies of Kansas. They braved the blistering sun in Nevada and stood in awe of the snow-covered peaks in Colorado. The American Discovery Trail route passes through 15 states, 16 national forests, 14 national parks and connects some 10,000 significant historical, cultural and natural sites.

Along the way, the couple averaged 12 to 15 miles a day in the winter and 20 miles in the fall and summer. They slept in churches, parks and the homes of locals while stopping in towns, or set up camp outdoors when far from a settlement.

The Sinclairs, who call themselves "Hiking Humanitarians," are walking to raise awareness of housing, hunger and health issues in America, and to promote the importance of community, kindness and helping others.

"The common thread here is all of the acts of kindness we've found along the way, and in all sorts of forms," says Kirk Sinclair. "We want to raise expectations of the kindness of humanity and the virtues of community to address housing, health and hunger."

"We have been received well everywhere we've gone," Kirk says. "Regardless of ideology, everyone takes to the message of community, that we need to rely on each other to address community issues."

The Sinclairs plan to arrive in Washington, D.C., on Earth Day--Sunday, April 22--and complete their trek at the Atlantic shore at Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware on May 2.

The couple is eager to talk with community groups, bloggers and the media, or anyone interested in their journey. They can be reached at 860.309.3063 (cell), or through the director of the American Discovery Trail, Krista Lenzmeier, at 800.663.2387, or krista@discoverytrail.org.

Photo of the Sinclairs hiking through Posey County, Indiana, courtesy of Evansville Courier & Press.

When Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) released its research report earlier this year on the prevalence of walking and biking in small towns and rural communities, we provided a groundbreaking examination of a long-neglected area of study--what active transportation really means to people living outside the metropolitan centers.

And the results certainly raised some eyebrows.

Active Transportation Beyond Urban Centers: Walking and Biking in Small Towns and Rural America for the first time illuminated the fact that in many instances the proportion of residents in rural communities who walk or bike to work is equal to, or higher than, the rate in big cities.

More importantly, it busted the long-held myth that active transportation is only a priority for city dwellers, and provided invaluable statistical ammunition for bike and pedestrian advocates in rural areas.

Now, Beyond Urban Centers co-author Tracy Hadden Loh, and a team of bike/ped experts and community organizers from regional America, will further examine the report's findings in a free webinar hosted by RTC, Active Living Research, and the Public Health Institute's Dialogue4Health Web forum series.

The webinar is open to anyone with an interest in rural communities or active transportation, and will be held 3:30 to 5 p.m. (EDT), Tuesday, April 24.

The panelists will relate their experiences of how some towns have implemented policies, programs and environmental changes that support walking and biking, and outline strategies and resources to promote active transportation in your community.

Rather than just restating the findings of Beyond Urban Centers, the aim of the webinar is to move beyond the report itself by sharing on-the-ground experiences of biking and walking in smaller communities, and examining the real challenges and opportunities for planners, organizers, residents and businesspeople.

Anyone wishing to take part in the webinar is encouraged to download and read the Beyond Urban Centers beforehand. The report can be downloaded for free at www.railstotrails.org/beyondurbancenters

To register for this webinar, visit the Dialogue4Health web forum page.

While opponents of investing in our nation's biking and walking infrastructure try to convince us that trails, bike lanes and sidewalks are frivolous and nonessential, America's business leaders continue to understand the importance of these lifestyle assets to a productive workforce.

Just ask the South Carolina-based company ACS Technologies, which this week opened a half-mile walking trail, built and paid for by the company, through their 14-acre Florence campus.

A local news blog called the new trail "a great stride for its employees' health and well-being," and wrote that Dean Lisenby, executive director of information technology at ACS, spearheaded the project about a year ago to increase the wellness of the 300 employees at the company's campus.

ACS was inspired to create the trail by studies that show that walking during the middle of the day, even for just 10 or 15 minutes, increases energy and worker productivity.

Even better news for ACS employees and the residents of Florence--the ACS trail will soon connect to the city's own rail-trail system, which spans two miles between the Ebenezer Park neighborhood and a local health and fitness center.

"The initial goal was just to make a place for ACS employees, ACS Technologies employees to walk, and have an opportunity to have a healthier lifestyle," Lisenby told SCNow.com. "Once we began the process, we realized the city would be interested in connecting it to the rail-trail system, so we reached out to them and they've been very helpful and working with us. The goal is eventually to let the entire Florence community use it as part of the Rail Trail system."

Florence City Manager Drew Griffin says the city's research found that for potential residents 50-year-olds or older, the most-demanded local amenity is accessibility to a greenway or a trail system.

"When you look at cities, and when you look at what makes them a great place to live and play, almost in every case what do they talk about? They talk about their greenways, their park systems and entertainment," Griffin says

Congratulations to ACS, and the city of Florence, S.C. You're on the right track to a healthier, happier and more economically robust community.

Photo of ACS employees doing a little recon' work during construction of the walking trail courtesy of ACS Technologies.

"...I was standing before the newly built Andover covered bridge spanning Route 316, half disbelieving it was really in front of me. I pinched my arm. I rubbed my eyes. I put one foot in front of the other. I told myself I wasn't going to be like Wile E. Coyote and get halfway across the span, only to discover it was just a mirage and wave goodbye as I plunged into a cloud of dust far below. Out of the corner of my eye, I swear I saw a pig flying by...."

So wrote Peter Marteka, the hiking and outdoor recreation columnist for the Hartford Courant in central Connecticut, earlier this month. Marteka is certainly not the only person to have wondered from time to time whether the much-anticipated bridge over what has come to be known as the 'Andover Gap' along the Hop River State Park Trail would ever be complete.

It wasn't just Andover locals pacing and fretting. The gap in the trail was a key fracture in the regional trail system and a crucial missing-link in the East Coast Greenway, an effort to connect a continuous trail system from the Canadian border to Florida.

And so when the bridge was finally put in place in a public ceremony on the last day of March this year, the rounds of applause, and the sighs of relief, could be heard from Calais to Key West.

"The bridge went up and within moments people were gravitating to it. No longer is it a dangerous impediment," said Rep. Pamela Z. Sawyer, who had worked for this moment since 2002. As Marteka writes in his column, the dream of Sawyer, a Connecticut House Republican and staunch advocate of trails, to bridge the 'Andover Gap' outlasted three governors, five state Department of Transportation commissioners and four Andover first selectmen.

A well-deserved pat on the back to all those who worked so hard to make this vital improvement to the Northeast's trail system.

Photo courtesy of the Hartford Courant.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is this week mobilizing its thousands of members and supporters in Pennsylvania in defense of the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund--a immensely popular and successful program that has supported trails and open space creation in that state for the past 19 years.

The Keystone Fund is widely credited for establishing Pennsylvania as one of nation's foremost trails destinations, creating a recreational infrastructure that has saved many towns and communities struggling economically following the demise of mining and other primary industries.

"Keystone is the main reason we have more open rail-trails than any other state in the country," says RTC's Northeast Regional Office Director Tom Sexton. "It has funded thousands of park and recreation projects, and hundreds of miles of trails in every county in the state--including the Great Allegheny Passage, the Pine Creek Rail Trail, the Delaware Canal Towpath, the Lehigh Gorge and the Schuylkill River Trail."

Despite the overwhelming support of residents and businesses, Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed to eliminate the Keystone Fund and send those monies, designated by voters for the creation of trails, baseball fields, trout streams, community pools, bicycle paths and nature centers, among other investments, to the general fund.

In our continuing efforts to maintain the Keystone Funding Program in Pennsylvania, our partners in the Renew Growing Greener Coalition have launched a petition drive in support of the program.

Our goal is to reach as many signatures as possible today, Tuesday, April 10. In addition to sending an email to your contacts in Pennsylvania, please promote the petition on your social media sites to your friends and family in Pennsylvania: www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/2012budget.

Only residents of Pennsylvania may sign the petition.

RTC will continue to keep a close eye on this effort and will update you when there is more to report.

Photos of the Schuylkill River Trail courtesy of www.schuylkillrivertrail.com.