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There was some wonderful news for rail-trail advocates and planners in Illinois last week, with Governor Pat Quinn announcing tens of millions of dollars would be invested in trails throughout the state. The grant funding was provided by the federal Transportation Enhancements (TE) program, now known as Transportation Alternatives (TA), and was part of a package of nearly $50 million for active transportation works throughout Illinois, that is expected to support more than 400 jobs across 54 projects...

A few weeks back, we held a webinar with experts from around the country discussing various methods of measuring trail use. As the adage goes, "You can't manage what you don't measure." This rule is especially true for trails, which host a wide variety of transportation and recreation users. Learn how nonprofits, governments and the private sector are using trail counts to better understand bicycle and pedestrian behavior, and how these resources can assist your pathway. We discuss counter technology...

Over the course of the past several months, RTC conducted trail user surveys on three community trails in New Jersey: the one-mile Merchantville Bike Path , the 2.5-mile Blackwood Railroad Trail and the 6.5-mile Monroe Township Bikepath between Williamstown and Glassboro. A total of 644 completed survey forms were returned to RTC for analysis. Some of the more interesting findings from the study include: About 70 percent of the survey respondents reported that they used the trail at least once a...

Photo and story by Eric Oberg/Rails-to-Trails Conservancy As part of our Urban Pathways Initiative, RTC is working with project partner Slavic Village Development Corporation (SVD) to encourage trail use on the Morgana Run Trail in Cleveland, Ohio. RTC and SVD decided that the effort would be greatly enhanced if we were able to gain some baseline information about the trail. We were able to use three Trafx infrared trail counters from the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance...