copyright 1996, Tracy-Williams Consulting

Special trails for bicyclists are highly popular. Indeed, when many people think of bicycle provisions, they immediately think of trails. Networks like the American River trail in Sacramento, the C and O Towpath in greater Washington DC, the Burke-Gilman in Seattle, and the Elroy-Sparta in Western Wisconsin, are well-known, well-liked, and heavily used.

Trails have been built for lots of reasons but here are some of the most basic:

1. Connections and bypasses tend to serve a strong utilitarian purpose. Such trails, for instance might connect a residential area with a nearby school or commercial area. Their value is not so much found in their length as in the practical purpose they serve.

Consider the following diagram, which shows a short one block long trail in Missoula, Montana. It allows middle school students to reach their campus without using a nearby (and substandard) arterial street.



2. Scenic corridors often provide excellent opportunities for trail development. While they may serve utilitarian purposes, such uses tend to be secondary and, to some extent, almost accidental. Typical corridors used for such trails include abandoned railroad rights-of-way, river floodplains and lakefronts, and linear parks.

Consider the American River Parkway in Sacramento, California, for example. This extensive trail corridor follows a major river, utilizing the floodplain and passing under virtually all intersecting arterial streets. It draws recreational riders from throughout the Sacramento metropolitan area; many users drive to a trailhead, where they park, get out their bikes, and start riding. A section of the trail that passes under a major arterial street is shown below.



Implementing trails in a community can involve identifying logical corridors, including these corridors in an appropriate plan, and building the paths in a prioritized manner. Often, however, actual trail development happens when someone gets excited about the prospects of a particular corridor -- perhaps because a large parcel just came on the market, or a rail line was recently abandoned, or for some reason the trail possibility caught someone's eye. He or she then gets others excited, and something eventually gets built.

The American River system discussed above, for example, started with a 6-mile section between the State Fairgrounds and a park near downtown. As the trail got more and more popular, the idea of extending it gained currency. Today, the network encompasses over 30 miles of path and several very expensive bridges.

The River's Edge trail in Great Falls, Montana, is following a similar evolution. As the first sections attracted attention and use, members of the community offered their help in extending it and adding amenities.

Design considerations:

Trail design isn't for the novice, no more than is road design. Many bicyclists travel at speeds ranging from 5mph to 30mph. Few are trained to ride and users' ages run from 5 years to 90 years. Such considerations require close attention to design guidelines and careful exercise of engineering and planning judgement.

Sadly, the novice designer is apt to make one or more of the following mistakes and the results can be tragic for the user and for the agency.

Examples of such problems can be found on trails throughout the country. And, while they may easily lead to liability problems, the solutions are often straight forward. In particular, they involve paying careful attention to design guides, knowing the users, and -- once a trail is built -- keeping track of and solving problems that arise.

Popular trail systems:


The following are some of the most popular trails in the U.S. Each has its unique characteristics and special features. In the near future we'll be adding images and text about each one...

References:

Topics for further study:

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