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What We’ve Been Up To

n

In the Northeast:

In 2012, RTC

accepted a leadership role in

the Circuit

Trails Coalition

—a 65-member-strong

collaboration of organizations in the

Greater Philadelphia-Camden area work-

ing to create a 750-mile regional trail

system. To date, 300 miles of the network

have been completed, and 50 miles are

currently in development. The 135-mile

Schuylkill River Trail is serving as a major

artery for the system, and new connec-

tions via the recently opened Manayunk

Bridge Trail, developing Copper River

Trail and proposed Merchantville Bike

Path extension have the potential to con-

nect people in the most underserved com-

munities to major employment, education

and cultural centers.

Read more in this

issue’s cover story on p. 12

. Contact: Mary

O’Connor,

mary@railstotrails.org

.

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In the Mid-Atlantic/Baltimore,

Maryland:

Launched in 2015, the

Baltimore Greenway Trails Network

Coalition

represents an unprecedented

opportunity to create an “Emerald

Necklace” for the city of Baltimore. Phase

one includes the creation of a 30-mile-

plus loop of existing trails, inactive rail

lines, parks and protected on-road facili-

ties linking together the Gwynns Falls,

Jones Falls and Herring Run stream val-

leys. A future proposed loop and spoke

network will connect residential neighbor-

hoods, the downtown business district,

former industrial areas, transit hubs, uni-

versities, cultural anchors, stream valleys,

urban coastal wetlands, parks and public

spaces.

Read more in this issue’s Eye On

feature on p. 4

. Contact: Jim Brown, jim@

railstotrails.org

.

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In the Mid-Atlantic/Midwest:

In

2014, RTC joined the leadership team

of the

Industrial Heartland Trails

Coalition

. The vision is to create a

1,450-mile network of trails connecting

48 counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West

Virginia and New York. When complete,

it will be the largest destination system in

the country. Approximately 48 percent

of the trail system has been built; major

trails include the 81-mile Ohio & Erie

Canalway Towpath, the 72-mile North

Bend Rail Trail in West Virginia and the

46-mile Montour Trail in Pennsylvania.

RTC is collaborating with municipal

governments, local nonprofits and plan-

ning agencies to create this trail network

that will help to revitalize the rust belt.

Contact: Eric Oberg, eric@railstotrails.

org.

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In the West:

In June 2014, RTC cre-

ated the

Bay Area Trails Collaborative

, a

coalition comprising more than 40 orga-

nizations working to create and maintain

a world-class regional trail system of more

than 1,000 miles in the San Francisco

Bay Area. At present, roughly 50 to 75

percent of the project is complete. The

network includes several large, regional

systems such as the Bay Area Ridge Trail,

California Coastal Trail, Bay Water Trail

and San Francisco Bay Trail. The latter is

one of the largest in the network, which

will one day traverse more than 500

miles and connects 47 cities. The group

is advocating for increased funding at the

state and regional level and will shortly

release a new report,

Trails Count!

, which

analyzes technologies for counting bicycle

and pedestrian users and makes recom-

mendations to create a regional picture of

trail use in the Bay Area. Contact: Laura

Cohen,

laura@railstotrails.org

.

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In the Midwest:

In October 2014,

RTC helped launch the

Route of the

Badger

, a massive effort to create a 400-

to 500-mile trail network in Southeastern

Wisconsin, spanning from Racine to

Milwaukee and west to Madison. RTC

is building a coalition of stakeholders to

implement this shared vision of a fully

integrated system that connects residents

to jobs, shopping centers, educational

institutions and recreation areas, while

also serving as a major bicycling destina-

tion that generates tourism dollars and

new economic development opportuni-

ties. Connections will be made between

very urban and more rural routes such as

the popular Milwaukee-based 13.5-mile

Hank Aaron State Trail, 30-mile Ozaukee

Interurban Trail and 52-mile Glacial

Drumline State Trail. Contact: John

Siegert,

john@railstotrails.org

.

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In Florida:

RTC has worked over

the past several years to establish a trail

network and advocacy alliance in the

Miami region—a project combining state

policy work and local trail development

initiatives. Implemented with talented

and enthusiastic local partners and an

expanding list of funders, the system will

feature many popular trails, including:

the long awaited LudlamTrail; the much

talked about Underline; the ever-evolving

Miami-River Greenway; the Biscayne-

Everglades Greenway (which connects

two national parks); the redevelopment-

oriented Flagler Trail; and many others.

These projects will continue to offer more

active-transportation solutions and sup-

port healthy development in Miami-Dade

county, one of the most culturally diverse

cities in the country. Contact: Ken Bryan,

ken@railstotrails.org

.

ANNOUNCEMENT

A new era for trail development

In 2014, in partnership with a team of researchers and 12 U.S. Cities, RTC launched

the three-year Trail Modeling and Assessment Platform (T-MAP) project, which

will create the country’s first national modeling tools to measure trail-system

connectivity, demand and potential impact. The information generated by these

new tools will enable communities to precisely forecast the returns on invest-

ment—related to health and transportation—stimulated by trails, greenways

and active-transportation infrastructure. Contact: Tracy Hadden Loh, tracy@

railstotrails.org

. Learn more at

railstotrails.org/TMAP .

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spring/summer.16

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rail-trail report

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years