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Padilla, who joined the Learn-to-Ride
class on a friend’s recommendation. “I was
kind of embarrassed when I signed up…
because I was an adult, but everyone else
in the program was an adult too, so that
made me feel much more comfortable.”
The focus of SPOKES is bicycles, but
its reach is much deeper. For Padilla, it
has brought a new sense of confidence
and freedom. She says, “This program has
helped me, has guided me and has given
me confidence in how to learn.”
WISCONSIN
Elementary Benefits
of School-side Trail
It’s off the street and through the field
for schoolchildren in Sheboygan, Wis.
A trail opened in late 2013 that leads to
Sheboygan Falls Elementary provides a
safe route to school, but that’s not all. The
trail is a great place for exercise and an
outdoor classroom for the kids. Crossing
a once-vacant field, the trail adjacent to
the school was funded through NTPP.
Lynn Bub, principal of the
700-
student­school, says bringing kids
closer to nature is the greatest benefit of
the trail, helping teachers redefine what
nature is. She explains, “Nature is not
somewhere you go—somewhere you have
to make a trip to visit. Instead, we are
trying to teach our students that nature is
everywhere around us.” 
Bub says teachers regularly take their
students out to the trail, enabling the
children to see that time immersed in
nature can be included in their daily lives.
“
The trails helps us change the way stu-
dents perceive and interact with nature,”
she adds.
A morning walking program hosted
by physical education teachers encourages
students to take a stroll on the trail before
the school day begins. The program is
voluntary, but a ticket program rewards
participation. Occasionally, the teachers
hold a raffle for student walkers as an
additional incentive. Bub says the pro-
gram allows kids to move their bodies,
use their energy and get their blood
pumping before being asked to concen-
trate on schoolwork.
Kindergarteners use the trail to walk
to a senior center near the school to
engage in activities with older residents.
“
This wouldn’t have been possible with-
out the trail,” Bub states. “We would have
had to bus the kids over there, but now
they can walk, they can be outside, and
they can get some exercise.” School lead-
ers believe that such connections are an
important part of a well-rounded educa-
tion. The trail expands the reach of the
school into the community, enabling it to
forge more connections.
MISSOURI
The Trails That Bind
Columbia, Mo., is a city with a few tricks
up its sleeve. Its charm starts unassuming-
ly, disguised as just another Midwestern
college town, but after spending some
time exploring the tree-lined streets by
foot or riding the trail system, you may
become hooked. And you wouldn’t be the
first.
Resident Steve MacIntyre is one such
example. He admits that sometimes he
has considered moving to “greener pas-
tures,” but then he thinks of his family’s
quality of life, and his choice is made. He
attributes Columbia’s burgeoning trail
system—and the freedom of mobility it
affords—as being an integral factor in his
decision to stay.
Most days, he doesn’t need to get into
his car. In fact, he often goes his entire
work week without driving. 
“
Sure, we could move to San Diego,
and yes, the weather would be great!” says
MacIntyre. “But how long would it take
me to get to work? Could I commute by
bike like I can in Columbia?”
With the launch of NTPP in the
mid-2000s, Columbia set out to create
an integrated system of trails to usher in
a more active era of transportation. The
existing trail system was well used, but it
did not connect its neighborhoods to its
downtown area, and the city recognized
the need for safer options for people to
navigate—by bike or on foot—to school,
work, parks, businesses and commercial
areas. 
Chip Cooper is the primary founder
of PedNet, a Columbia-based nonprofit
created to promote active transporta-
tion. It was Cooper and a group of fellow
advocates that, decades ago, first helped
introduce local policies in support of bike
infrastructure and create bike master plans
with a long-term trail vision. 
“
I didn’t expect to live long enough to
see it completed,” explains Cooper. “But
the federal funds [from NTPP] dramati-
cally accelerated the plans, and [now], the
community is going to experience a fully
built network.”
He continues, “It’s bigger and bet-
ter, it’s connected, and the community
is changing the way they talk and think
about alternative transportation.”
Much of the backbone of the sys-
tem—13 miles of continuous, level trail—
has already been built. NTPP funds sup-
ported the creation of a series of “feeder”
trails to connect neighborhoods to the
trail backbone. The parks and recreation
department is preparing to install markers
that identify the network as the Columbia
Trails System—a rebranding that signifies
the realization of what Cooper and others
imagined decades ago.
The trail system serves the citizens of
Columbia on a day-to-day basis, and its
magnetic force draws—and retains—new
residents. Take Walter Gassmann, who
moved to Columbia with his wife Allie
in 2000. Gassmann commutes to his job
at the University of Missouri by bike, a
commute he claims is one of the prettiest
he has ever had, and for someone that has
lived in multiple countries—he’s originally
from Switzerland, was raised in Asia and
has lived in Berkeley and San Diego—
that’s no small claim.
“
Some people ask me, ‘What are you
doing in Missouri?’” says Gassmann. “But
Columbia is a very pretty town, and the
bike infrastructure is one of the reasons
that I stay.”
A new trail
connects
kindergartners
at Sheboygan
Falls Elementary
to a local senior
center.
photo courtesy sheboygan
falls elementary
Trails have
residents
hooked in
Columbia,
Mo.
photo courtesy columbia parks and recreation