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rail-trail report
What We’ve Been Up To
n
In April, Kelly Pack and Jim Brown,
RTC’s director and manager of trail
development, respectively, served as ses-
sion moderators at the Georgia Trails
Summit in Athens, Ga., the first state-
wide trail summit to convene in more
than 15 years. Pack and Brown also
served as hosts of a mapping station to
collect data on new and proposed trails.
For the past year, Pack and Brown have
been providing technical assistance and
guidance to the organizers of the sum-
mit, and RTC will continue to work
with Georgia trail leaders to identify
opportunities for trail development and
advocacy throughout the state. Contact:
kelly@railstotrails.org.
n
In June, RTC announced the
launch of T-MAP (Trail Modeling and
Assessment Platform) (
railstotrails.org/
TMap
).
Through this three-year, $1.2
million initiative, RTC will, in partner-
ship with researchers and trail manag-
ers in 12 U.S. cities, lead the first-ever
nationwide survey of urban trail use and
create planning tools that can forecast
the returns on investment that trails
stimulate around the country. T-MAP
includes three core models intended to
determine trail connectivity, trail use
and demand, and the dollar value of trail
use with regard to healthcare savings
and economic impact. RTC will provide
regular public updates on T-MAP over
the next three years. Contact: tracy@
railstotrails.org.
n
Barry Bergman, manager of trail
development for the Western Regional
Office, has been working with high
school teachers in El Monte, Calif.,
to recruit students to become Fitness
Leaders, who are trained to develop
and lead physical activity programs and
events in the community. Also in El
Monte, Bergman and Rayna Gordon-
Hellman, program assistant for the
Western Regional Office, have been
working with the city and community
organizations to develop an activity
and event planning tool kit to promote
healthy living and address El Monte’s
high rates of obesity. The tool kit will
serve as a valuable resource for local
partners to build on RTC’s work and
use trails to stimulate physical activity.
Contact: barry@railstotrails.org.
n
On June 12, Eric Oberg, man-
ager of trail development for the
Midwest Regional Office, presented
on barriers to trail development at the
Greater Cleveland Trails & Greenways
Conference in Mayfield Village, Ohio.
The conference served as an excel-
lent venue for RTC to share and glean
insights with trail developers from the
Cleveland area and the surrounding
region. Contact: eric@railstotrails.org.
n
In the Northeast Regional Office,
Carl Knoch, manager of trail devel-
opment, worked with Friends of the
Riverfront in Pittsburgh to install infra-
red trail counters and trail-user survey
distribution boxes along the 24-mile
Three Rivers Heritage Trail. This infor-
mation will be used to develop RTC’s
13
th Trail User Survey and Economic
Impact Analysis by the Northeast
Office, which will ultimately help
communicate the quantitative and
qualitative impact of the trail in the
region. In the Philadelphia/Camden
area, Knoch and Akram Abed, RTC’s
camden region manager, placed trail-
user survey distribution boxes on 16 dif-
ferent trails to help establish a baseline
of trail usage characteristics in support
of The Circuit, a developing region-
wide trail network in the Delaware
Valley. Contact: carl@railstotrails.org.
n
RTC has kicked off a nine-month
campaign in Florida to help push the
needle toward increased state support
for trails, biking and walking, with
an emphasis on southern Florida. As
a major component of the campaign,
RTC’s State Director, Ken Bryan, is
helping to lead a push for the inclu-
sion of a rail-with-trail as part of the
All Aboard Florida high-speed rail
project that connects Orlando with
downtown Miami. To draw attention
to some recent trail-related policy wins,
the Florida Legislative Achievement
Award was presented to State Sen. Andy
Gardiner for securing funds this year
to begin closing gaps in a trail from St.
Petersburg to Titusville. Gardiner also
led the way for an amendment to state
law so that State Transportation Trust
Fund dollars can be further allocated for
trails. Contact: ken@railstotrails.org.
PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT
RTC has taken
a leadership role in
the Power of 32+ regional trail project
(
a map is available at
gototrails.com
),
which will eventually connect 52 counties
in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania,West
Virginia and New York, becoming the larg-
est destination trail network in the country.
The Power of 32+ is planning trail connec-
tions starting in Pittsburgh and radiating
to Cleveland, Morgantown, Parkersburg,
Ashtabula, Erie and Harrisburg. RTC is
working closely with the Pennsylvania
Environmental Council (PEC) on this major initiative, which is supported by a vari-
ety of funding partners, including the ClaudeWorthington Benedum Foundation
and the George Gund Foundation. Contact: eric@railstotrails.org.