Advocacy Themes, Messages, Quotes
& "Sound Bites"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents (click any item, you'll be sent to that area)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Topics for any Trail and
Multi-use path
HEALTH (fitness & exercise)
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS
URBAN GREENWAYS / OPEN SPACE
SMART GROWTH / LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS / SOCIALIZING
SAFE COMMUNITIES
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL
PERSONAL TRAIL SAFETY
TRAILS AS SAFE FACILITIES
TRANSPORTATION
COMMUTING
NON-MOTORIZED USES
INTER-MODAL LINKS i.e. "Bikes on Board"
ECONOMIC IMPACT
CONFLICTS
CULTURAL AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
EDUCATION / LEARNING TOOL
TRAIL CORRIDORS
RAIL-TO-TRAIL
RAIL-WITH-TRAIL
CANALS & UTILITIES
TRAIL-WITH-ROAD
RECREATION
TOURISM
For Long Distance Trails and the East Coast Greenway specifically
ECG VISION
ECG ALLIANCE MISSION, GOALS & ORGANIZATION
ECG HISTORY AND UNIQUE APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTATION
HOW THE ECG HELPS LOCAL TRAILS
HOW LOCAL TRAILS CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ALLIANCE
ECG USE
ECG DEVELOPMENT (SOTR)
ECG MANAGEMENT
TOURISM on the ECG
General Topics for any Trail and Multi-use path
Surgeon General's prescription to reduce
both spreading obesity and the chronic, often lethal health problems linked to
sedentary living is physical activity 5 times a week/30 minutes /day.
Those who do not find time for exercise will
have to find time for illness.
-OLD PROVERB
Without health there is no happiness. An
attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object.
-THOMAS JEFFERSON, Third US President (1801-09), 1743-1826
Walking makes for a long life.
-HINDU PROVERB
Most people are pantywaists. Exercise is
good for you.
-EMMA 'GRANDMA' GATEWOOD, at age 67 first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian
Trail (1955), 1887-1973
Walk and be happy, walk and be healthy. The
best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.
-CHARLES DICKENS, British novelist, 1812-70
Trails promote health and fitness by
providing an enjoyable and safe place for bicycling, walking, and jogging,
removed from the hazards of motor vehicles.
-AMERICAN TRAILS, Trails for All Americans report, 1990
There's something wrong with a society that
drives a car to work out in a gym.
-BILL NYE, The Science Guy, 1999
Walking is man's best medicine.
-HIPPOCRATES, Greek physician, 460-377 BC
Let us bequeath our children more than the
gadgets that surround us. If bicycling can be restored to the daily life of all
Americans, it can be a vital step toward rebuilding health and vigor in all of us.
-DR. PAUL DUDLEY WHITE, American cardiologist, 1886-1973
Walking has the best value as gymnastics of
the mind.
-RALPH WALDO EMERSON, American essayist, 1803-82
People offer many excuses for their
inactivity, among them a lack of time and routes that are not safe for
pedestrians or cyclists.
"Adding traffic lanes to deal with
highway congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity." Louis Mumford
Cost savings were reported in lower annual
direct medical costs of $330 per person for those sufficiently active. Savings
were across both genders and include those with physical limitations as well as
smokers. See: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/pr-cost.htm
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL PROMOTES
BICYCLING AND WALKING
To support the national goal of better health through physical activity, the
Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) has developed a program guide to encourage children to
walk or bike to and from school in groups accompanied by adults.
"KidsWalk-to-School" is a community-based program that aims to
increase opportunities for daily physical activity among children by promoting
human-powered alternatives for getting to and from school. It also encourage
communities to build partnerships with schools, PTA, local police departments,
departments of public works, civic associations, elected officials, and
businesses to create an environment that is supportive of walking and bicycling
to school safely.
You can obtain copies of the guide by
downloading it from the KidsWalk-to-School web page at
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk.htm, e-mailing a request for up to 25
copies to cdcinfo@cdc.gov or calling 1-800-CDC-4NRG.
"The societal costs in air pollution,
energy depletion, and lack of physical activity are costs we all share in
(bicyclists & walkers too - even though they're doing healthy things,
they've got to pay high health insurance costs because of all the slobs in
pick-up trucks)"
- state transportation official
Since the bicycle makes little demand on
material or energy resources, contributes little to pollution, makes a positive
contribution to health and causes little death or injury, it can be regarded as
the most benevolent of machines.
-S. S. WILSON, Bicycle Technology, Scientific American, March 1973
Society as we know it is almost a conspiracy
against human health. One of the main forces working to counteract that is the
trailsman.
-STEWART UDALL, former Secretary of the Interior from 1961-69 and former
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Board Member, 1998
In the 1860's and 70's, Frederick Law
Olmstead, who designed many urban parks, used health promotion to sell his idea
for creating large parks in the heart of cities. He recognized the connection
between getting people out into the fresh air and sunshine and preventing
rickets and tuberculosis, then rampant in cities.
Greenway: 1. A linear open space established
along either a natural corridor, such as a riverfront, stream valley, or
ridgeline, or overland along a railroad right-of-way converted to recreational
use, a canal, scenic road, or other route. 2. Any natural or landscaped course
for pedestrian or bicycle passage. 3. An open-space connector linking parks,
nature reserves, cultural features, or historic sites with each other and with
populated areas. 4. Locally, certain strips or linear parks designated as parkway
or greenbelt.
-CHARLES LITTLE, Greenways for America, 1990
if you take a syllable from each of these
terms-green from greenbelt and way from parkway, the general idea of greenway
emerges: a natural, green way based on protected linear corridors which will
improve environmental quality and provide for outdoor recreation.
-CHARLES LITTLE, Greenways for America, 1990
We need to bring open space to the people,
instead of expecting them to journey to find it. That's where greenways are
contributing.
-GILBERT GROSVENOR, Vice Chairman, President's Commission on Americans
Outdoors, 1987
A highway takes your car to the country, a
greenway your mind.
-CHARLES LITTLE, Greenways for America, 1990
Greenways are many things to many people.
And that's one of their virtues.
-CHRIS BROWN, Chief, National Park Service, River, Trails, and Conservation
Assistance Program, 1994
Greenways provide more bang for the
recreational buck by taking advantage of otherwise unbuildable landscapes like
floodplains and ridgelines, and by linking lands already in public ownership.
-ED MCHAHON, Director, American Greenways Program, 1998
The 'linkage of urban and rural spaces':
this is what makes the greenway idea so fresh and compelling.
-CHARLES LITTLE, Greenways for America, 1990
A connected system of parks and parkways is
manifestly far more complete and useful than a series of isolated parks. Report
to the Portland [OR] Park Board, 1903.
-FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, American landscape architect, 1822-1903
And, if greenways truly capture the
imagination and boldness of the American spirit, they could eventually form the
corridors that connect open spaces, parks, forests, and deserts-and
Americans-from sea to shining sea.
-PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON AMERICANS OUTDOORS, Report and Recommendations to
the President of the United States, 1986
There are all sorts of opportunities to link
separated [open] spaces together, and while plenty of money is needed to do it,
ingenuity can accomplish a great deal. Our metropolitan areas are crisscrossed
with connective strips. Many are no longer used, but they are there if we only
look.
-WILLIAM WHYTE, The Last Landscape, 1968
We can tie this country together with
threads of green that everywhere grant us access to the natural world.
-PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON AMERICANS OUTDOORS, Americans and the Outdoors, 1987
Multiple-use recreation trails or 'multi-use
trails' are generic terms for what many people call trails or greenways. These
trails are built to high standards, are usually 10-feet wide, asphalt or
concrete paved, and designed for many types of use. Bicycling, walking,
running, in-line skating, and other nonmotorized uses are typical on multi-use
trails, and they are frequently very heavily used.
-ROGER MOORE and THOMAS ROSS, Trails and Recreational Greenways: Corridors of
Benefits, Parks & Recreation, January 1998
The towns of to-day can only increase in
density at the expense of the open spaces which are the lungs of a city. We
must increase the open spaces and diminish the distances to be covered.
Therefore, the center of the city must be constructed vertically.
-Le CORUSIER, The City of Tomorrow and Its Planning, 1929
It may not be crowding per se that degrades
us, but a lack of relief from crowding-a lack of open space, a lack of green,
of nature going its own way.
-CHARLES LITTLE and JOHN MITCHELL, Space for Survival, 1971
Concern for the environment and access to
parks and open space is not frivolous or peripheral, rather, it is central to
the welfare of people body, mind, and spirit.
-LAURANCE ROCKEFELLER, American capitalist & philanthropist, 1910
Too often, the advocates of trails and
linear parks along rights-of-way come up against officials who recognize only
one kind of park-the squared-off kind that comes in chunks; and one kind of
recreation-the supervised kind known as 'organized sweating.' Such officials
refuse to acknowledge that there has been a change in US recreation trends,
reflected in the phenomenal growth of hiking, biking, and horseback riding.
-CONSTANCE STALLINGS, Let's Use Our Rights-of-Way, Reader's Digest, 1970
The greenway concept has spread across the
state [North Carolina] to almost every major municipality. I think that one of
the things that's impressive is that the energy is coming from the citizens
rather than the government units.
-CHUCK FLINK, President of Greenways Inc., as quoted in Corridors of Green,
Wildlife in North Carolina, 1988
Every important change in our society, for
the good, at least, has taken place because of popular pressure-pressure from
below, from the great mass of people.
-EDWARD ABBEY, One Life at a Time, Please, 1988
Americans are seeking trail opportunities as
never before. No longer are trails only for the 'rugged individualists'
pursuing a solitary trek through breathtaking wilderness users include young
people and senior citizens, families, individuals and organized groups, people
with disabilities and the physically fit.
-AMERICAN TRAILS, Trails for All Americans report, 1990
Greenways and trails offer a new way of looking
at how a community's cultural, historic, recreational and conservation needs
fit into an overall picture that also includes economic growth. With their
emphasis on connections, greenways and trails allow community leaders to
consider how existing parks and open spaces can become part of a network of
green that supports wildlife, pleases people, and attracts tourists and clean
industry.
-OFFICE of GREENWAYS and TRAILS, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT of ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION, Thinking Green: A Guide to the Benefits and Costs of Greenways and
Trails, 1998
SMART GROWTH / LIVABLE COMMUNITIES
Cycle trails will abound in Utopia. (H.G.
Wells, English novelist, 1866-1946)
Nothing could do more to give life back to
our blighted urban cores than to reinstate the pedestrian, in malls and
pleasances designed to make circulation a delight.
-LEWIS MUMFORD, The Highway and the City, 1953
No city should be too large for a man to
walk out of in a morning.
-CYRIL CONNOLLY, The Unquiet Grave, 1945
A city that outdistances man's walking
powers is a trap for man.
-ARNOLD TOYNBEE, English historian and historical philosopher, 1889-1975
The future is not someplace we are going to,
but a place we are creating. The paths to it are not found, they are made.
-JANE GARVEY, Deputy Administrator, Federal Highway Administration from 1993-97
Great walking cities are those with
destinations within a 15- to 20-minute walk of each other varied architecture.
Diverse neighborhoods and a lively street life energized by sidewalk vendors,
entertainers, and window-shoppers filled with open spaces and parks widened
sidewalks, auto-restricted zones, and amenities such as benches, signs, and
fountains.
-The Walking Magazine, August 1991
Most communities designed since World War II
are unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists.
The Clinton/Gore administration's livable
communities website, tied to their initiative of the same name. Good links on
school walkability, among other topics. http://www.livablecommunities.gov
"SMART CHOICES OR SPRAWLING GROWTH: A
50-STATE SURVEY OF DEVELOPMENT"
The Sierra Club Report on Sprawl, September 2000. Lots of examples of
"smart" walkable developments.
http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/50statesurvey/
Article in the Planning Commissioner's Journal
(Summer 2000) promoting walkable school sites. "In Maine, the number of
children attending public schools declined by 27,000 between 1970-1995 but
state and local busing costs rose from $8.7 million to $54 million a year
during that period. The principal reason: sprawling land use patterns."
order online ($4) at http://www.plannersweb.com
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS / SOCIALIZING
"To make a Greenway is to make a
Community"
- Charles E. Little, author of Greenways for America.
The Trail is "a long, skinny community
center"
-Tom Farrell, Director of Recreation, Town of Brunswick.
People are different on a path. On a town
sidewalk strangers may make eye contact, but that's all. On a path like this
[Stowe, VT] they smile, say hello, and pet one another's dogs. I think every
community in American should have a greenway.
-ANNE LUSK, Vermont greenway advocate, 1990
Trails consolidate and connect communities,
rather than encourage them to expand and fragment.
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1997
Trails encourage us to socialize and have
meaningful human contact, because they get us out of our steel-encapsulated
driving machines.
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1998
Everything is connected to everything else.
-ALDO LEOPOLD, American conservationist, 1887-1948
Like the railroads that brought us together
in the 19th century, these trails will bring us together in the 20th and 21st
centuries.
-FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON at launch of the National Millennium Trails
Program, 1999
Greenways are about connections: connections
between people and the land, between public parks, natural areas, historic
sites, and other open spaces, between conservation and economic development,
and between environmental protection and our quality of life.
-CHUCK FLINK & ROBERT SEARNS, Greenways, 1993
Only one-third of children who live less
than a mile from school now walk to school.
"SCHOOL SPRAWL"
"WALK OUR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL" KIT
Has sample letters to parents, businesses and community groups, news releases,
handouts, Walkability checklists, curriculum ideas and 100 free Grafeeties
("bumper stickers for sneakers") saying "Let's Walk
Together." Produced by the Health Promotion Project at Univ. of
Wisconsin-Madison. Kit is $5. Contact Rick Brooks at (608) 265-4079 or via
email at
Crime and the fear of crime do not flourish
in an environment of high energy and healthy interaction among law abiding
community members-the trail may be one of the safest places in the city.
-Chief of Police in South Burlington, Vermont, 1997
Most trails are safer for bicycle and
pedestrian use than the major alternatives such as public highways and roads.
This point can be put another way: the risks of liability for bicycle and
pedestrian use of trails are less than those associated with similar use of
streets and highways. The reason is the user is less likely to be hit by a car
or to run afoul of the detritus thrown from cars or other vehicles when the
user is on a trail were such vehicles are prohibited. Indeed, the relative
safety of trails is one of the major reasons that they are so popular with
pedestrians and cyclists.
-CHARLES MONTANGE, Preserving Abandoned Railroad Rights-of-Way for Public Use:
A Legal Manual, 1989
"More than twice as many people have
died since 1900 in U.S. car collisions as have been killed in all the wars in
U.S. history." Katie Alvord,
Divorce Your Car, 2000
The thing to remember when traveling is that
the trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast and you miss
all you are traveling for.
-LOUIS L'AMOUR, Western writer, 1908-88
A quarter of all trips taken by Americans
are under a mile, but 75 percent of those trips are done by car
Bicycling and walking for transportation are
great ways to get in that needed physical activity.
As summer traffic worsens, the Greenway
provides a capacity outlet for alternative transportation modes
In Italy, 54 percent of all trips and in
Sweden, where it is cold and dark much of the year, 49 percent of all trips are
done by walking or bicycling, whereas in the United States, the figure is only
10 percent.
- Dr. Lawrence D. Frank of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
"Eighteen bikes can be parked in the
space of one car, thirty of them can move along in the space devoured by a
single automobile. It takes two
lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by
using modern trains, four to move them by buses, twelve to move them in their
cars and only one lane for them to pedal across on bicycles." Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity, 1973
"This luxury of speed destroys its own
aim; a pedestrian makes more headway
than a hundred conveyances jammed end to end along the twists and turns of the
Sacred Way." Hadrian,
Emperor, Roman Empire
There is more to life than increasing its
speed.
-MOHANDAS K. GANDHI, Indian nationalist leader, 1869-1948
The more I think about our US domestic
transportation problem from this vantage point [China] the more I see an
increased role for the bicycle in American life. I am convinced after riding
bikes an enormous amount here in China, that it is a sensible, economical,
clean form of transportation and makes enormous good sense.
-GEORGE BUSH, US Liaison Office, Beijing, China, 1975
Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of
a bike ride.
-JOHN F. KENNEDY, Thirty-fifth US President (1961-63), 1917-63
I thought of that [the theory of relativity]
while riding my bike.
-ALBERT EINSTEIN, American scientist, 1879-1955
Without question, bicycling is an efficient,
economical and environmentally sound form of transportation and recreation.
Bicycling is a great activity for families, recreational riders and commuters.
Hillary, Chelsea and I have bicycles. (President Bill Clinton, in Bicycling
magazine, 1992)
Dear Lord, if you pick 'em up, I'll put 'em
down.
-WALKER'S PRAYER
To explore the interesting places in the
vicinity, to become acquainted to some extent at least, with the natural
history of the localities, and also to improve the pedestrian powers of the
members.
-objectives of ALPINE CLUB OF WILLIAMSTOWN, MA, America's first organized
hiking club, 1863
After all, what is a pedestrian? He is a man
who has two cars-one being driven by his wife, the other by one of his
children.
-ROBERT BRADBURY, The New York Times, September 5, 1962
It's about as nice a thing as anybody can
do-walking, and it's cheap, too!
-EMMA 'GRANDMA' GATEWOOD, at age 67 first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian
Trail (1955), 1887-1973
To walk; to see and to see what you see.
-BENTON MACKAYE, on the ultimate purpose for hiking on the Appalachian Trail,
1971
The art of walking is obsolete. It is true
that a few still cling to that mode of locomotion, are still admired as fossil
specimens of an extinct race of pedestrians, but for the majority of civilized
humanity, walking is on its last legs.
-Scientific American, January 9, 1869
Walking for pleasure will increase from 566
million occasions of participation in 1960, to 1,569 million by the year 2000,
a 277 percent increase. Hiking will jump 358 percent, from 34 million to 125
million.
-USDI BUREAU of OUTDOOR RECREATION, Trails for America: Report on the
Nationwide Trails Study, 1966
A good walker leaves no tracks.
-LAO-TZU, Chinese philosopher, 604-531 BC
INTER-MODAL LINKS i.e. "Bikes on Board"
In, summary, this study indicates that
concerns about decreased property values, increased crime, and a lower quality
of life due to the construction of multi-use trails are unfounded. In fact, the
opposite is true. The study indicates that multi-use trails are an amenity that
help sell homes, increase property values and improve the quality of life.
Multi-use trails are tremendously popular and should continue to be built to
meet the ever-growing demand for bicycle facilities in Seattle.
-BRIAN PUNCOCHAR & PETER LAGERWAY, Evaluation of the Burke-Gilman Trail's
Effect on Property Values and Crime report, 1987
The only way you can expect someone to
understand your point of view is to provide them with the substance from which
your outlook was developed. Essentially then, the task is education and not
argumentation.
-HERB COHEN, You Can Negotiate Anything, 1980
MOTORIZED VEHICLES
A pedestrian ought to be legally allowed to
toss at least one hand grenade at a motorist every day.
-BRENDAN FRANCIS, Irish writer, 1923-64
As the number of off-road vehicles has
increased, so has their use on public lands. Increasingly, Federal recreational
lands have become the focus of conflict between the newer motorized
recreationist and the traditional hiker, camper, and horseback rider. The time
has come for a unified Federal policy toward use of off-road vehicles on
Federal lands.
-PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON, message to Congress, 1972
One man's noise may be another man's music.
-MALCOM BALDWIN and DAN STODDARD, The Off-Road Vehicle and Environmental
Quality, 1973
OTHER USERS
Splintering the outdoor user groups is
playing into the hands of those interests that would exploit or destroy the
resource we're all preoccupied with saving. The Davids of the world have a
tough job already. If we continue to sling rocks at each other, the Goliaths
will walk or ride all over us. Let's build trails, not walls between each
other.
-JOHN VIEHMAN, Mountain Bikes: Let's Build Trails, Not Walls, Backpacker,
August 1990
TRAIL OPPONENTS
When you work in a bureaucracy, trying to
make program changes sometimes seems like trying to slow dance with a cow: it's
not much fun, it annoys the cow and you step in a lot of manure.
-BETH TIMSON, From Waterbars to Polygons: The Evolution of a State Trails
Program, Trends, 33(2), 1996
Every path has its puddle.
-ENGLISH PROVERB
When we first heard about the plans for the
Cedar Valley Nature Trail from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids [Iowa], we were less
than enthusiastic. We attended the meetings and tried to get laws passed and
lawsuits initiated to stop what we felt was a real menace to our well-being. We
headed up a group of farmers and took the issue to court. We fought it for a
year and finally decided that it wasn't worth it and that we should negotiate.
In retrospect, it's funny, 'cause the trail
is the greatest thing going.' None of the fears have come to pass. There are
perhaps 15,000 people using the trail every year. Many of them access the trail
through our farm. We have formed many friendships with the trail users, and
hear from them throughout the year and at Christmas.
-RICK SPENCE, Farmer, Farmland News, February 1993
No single individual should be able to
unravel the tapestry of railroad corridors in our nation which took generations
to weave together, at the expense of the great sweat and toil of American
workers.
-STEWART UDALL, Former Secretary of the Interior from 1961-69 and former
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Board Member, 1998
TRAIL RULES / ENFORCEMENT
A simple equation exists between freedom and
numbers: the more people, the less freedom.
-ROYAL ROBBINS, Basic Rockcraft, 1971
Trails urge people to slow down, not to
speed up.
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1996
Rules are for fools.
-PAUL PETZOLDT, Founder, National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), 1908-99,
preached outdoor education based on developing understanding and good judgement
instead of rules
CULTURAL AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Rather than taking travelers deep into the
woods, the trail will show the breadth of human activity and American history,
running through urban areas in Washington, D.C., New York and Boston and by
fishing ports, museums and lighthouses. The Greenway will be the urban
equivalent of the Appalachian Trail.
We will be known by the tracks we leave
behind.
-DAKOTA PROVERB
Human history and natural history are
visible from trails. The old railroad routes through a town can show a lot
about how the town developed, what it was like long ago. When you go through a
town by bicycle on an old railroad route, the place looks very different than
from the customary perspective of the car and the highway.
-PETER HARNICK, Co-founder, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1987
It is no use walking anywhere to preach
unless our walking is our preaching.
-SAINT FRANCIS of ASSISI, Italian friar, 1181-1226
In the end we will conserve only what we
love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are
taught.
-BABA DIOUM, Senegalese conservationists, 1937-
We didn't inherit the earth from our
parents, we are borrowing it from our children.
-NATIVE AMERICAN proverb
Trails have multiple values and their
benefits reach far beyond recreation. Trails can enrich the quality of life for
individuals, make communities more livable, and protect, nurture, and showcase
America's grandeur by traversing areas of natural beauty, distinctive
geography, historic significance, and ecological diversity. Trails are
important for the nation's health, economy, resource protection and education.
-AMERICAN TRAILS, Trails for All Americans report, 1990
Trails educate young and old Americans alike
about the value and importance of the natural environment.
-AMERICAN TRAILS, Trails for All Americans report, 1990
God keeps on making children but he has quit
making land.
-CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE on ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, From Rails to Trails,
1975
Do not follow the path. Go where there is no
path and begin the trail.
-ASHANTI PROVERB
Greenway corridors have three standard
features: they are linear pieces of land, they are under some form of long-term
protection and they connect one area to another.
-TERESA MOORE, Greenscapes and Greenways-Maryland's Green Infrastructure,
Trends, 33(2), 1996
If there's one essential ingredient to
creating trails and trail systems, it's people. All the land and financing in
the world won't blaze a trail if there aren't people championing the project.
-BAY AREA RIDGE TRAIL COUNCIL, In Support of Trails: A Guide to Successful
Trail Advocacy, 1993
It is at the local, community level where
successful trail networks begin.
-BRANDYWINE CONSERVANCY, Community Trails Handbook, 1997
a trail is a linear corridor, on land or
water, with protected status and public access for recreation or
transportation. Trails can be used to preserve open space, provide a natural
respite in urban areas, limit soil erosion in rural areas, and buffer wetlands
and wildlife habitat along waterways. Trails my be surfaced with soil, asphalt,
sand and clay, clam shells, rock, gravel or wood chips. Trails may follow a
river, a ridge line, a mountain game trail, an abandoned logging road, a state
highway. They may link historic landmarks within a city. Trails may be
maintained by a federal, state, or local agency, a local trails coalition, or a
utility company.
-AMERICAN TRAILS, Trails for All Americans report, 1990
due to some quirks of history that won't be
repeated, we do have one last chance to save urban land-linear open space-in
rather large chunks and weave them into a connected system of trails and
greenways it is an opportunity we can't afford to miss.
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 2000
In the not-too-distant future, Americans
will look back on those who created rail-trail parks with the same gratitude
that we today feel for those visionary men and women who created our first
national parks. But this 'second wave' of park creation must take place now,
within the next decade or so, if we are not to lose the opportunity of using
the abandoned rail corridors which are rapidly disappearing from the landscape.
-PETER HARNICK, Converting Rails to Trails, 1989
Rail-trails are trails constructed on
abandoned railroad corridors converted to recreational use or 'railbanked' for
possible future rail use. They can be very short to hundreds of miles long.
Typically surfaced in crushed stone or paved, their moderate grades make
rail-trails popular with bicyclists, walkers, and others.
-ROGER MOORE and THOMAS ROSS, Trails and Recreational Greenways: Corridors of Benefits,
Parks & Recreation, January 1998
Trails and parks are as necessary to
communities as roads, sewer systems and utility grids.
-PETER HARNICK, Converting Rails to Trails, 1989
It's truly ironic that this country spends
millions of dollars each year building new trail systems while an
already-established system of trail corridors along some of our most scenic
vistas is melting away before our very eyes [testimony before President's
Commission on Americans Outdoors].
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1987
Saving old railroad corridors as trails is
not only good recreation policy, it is good railroad policy. They [abandoned
rail corridors] may be appropriate for rail use in the future. If they are
destroyed now, we will never be able to reassemble them again.
-DREW LEWIS, former Secretary of Transportation and a former Chief Executive
Officer for Union Pacific Railroad, 1990
At an average of twelve acres per mile, and
with widths up to 400 feet, abandoned lines represent a million-acre resource
available for many public uses, particularly trails: conservation trails for
wildlife protection, nature interpretation, and open space; recreation trails
for hiking, biking, walking, skiing, and horseback riding; trails for cultural
interpretation and historic preservation; and access trails to rivers and to
public lands for camping, hunting, and fishing.
-DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1988
We are human beings. We are able to walk
upright on two feet. We need a footpath. Right now there is a chance for
Chicago and its suburbs to have a footpath, a long one.
The right-of-way of the Aurora electric road
lies waiting. If we have courage and foresight, such as made possible the Long
Trail in Vermont and the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, and the
network of public footpaths in Britain, then we can create from this strip a
proud resource.
Look ahead some years into the future.
Imagine yourself going for a walk on an autumn day. Choose some part of the
famed Illinois footpath. Where the highway crosses it, you enter over a stile.
The path lies ahead, curving around a hawthorn tree, then proceeding under the
shade of a forest of sugar maple trees, dipping into a hollow with ferns, then
skirting a thicket of wild plum, to straighten out for a long stretch of
prairie, tall grass prairie, with big blue stem and blazing star and silphium
and goldenrod.
You must go over a stile again, to cross a highway
to another stile. This section is different. The grass is cut and garden
flowers bloom in great beds. This part, you may learn, is maintained by the
Chicago Horticultural Society. Beyond the garden you enter a forest again,
maintained by the Morton Arboretum. At its edge begins a long stretch of water
with mud banks, maintained for water birds and waders, by the Chicago
Ornithological Society. You notice an abundance of red-fruited shrubs. The
birds have the Audubon Societies to thank for those. You rest on one of the
stout benches provided by the Prairie Club, beside a thicket of wild crab apple
trees planted by the Garden Club of Illinois.
Then you walk through prairie again. Four
Boy Scouts pass. They are hiking the entire length of the trail. This fulfills
a requirement for some merit badge. A troop of Scouts is planting acorns in a
grove of cottonwood trees. Most of the time you find yourself in prairie or
woodland of native Illinois plants. These stretches of trail need little or no
upkeep. You come to one stretch, a long stretch, where nothing at all has been
done. But university students are identifying and listing plants. The
University of Chicago ecology department is in charge of this strip. They are
watching to see what time and nature will do.
You catch occasional glimpses of bicycles
flying past, along one side. The bicycles entered through a special stile
admitting them to the bicycle strip. They cannot enter the path where you walk,
but they can ride far and fast without being endangered by cars, and without
endangering those who walk.
That is all in the future, the possible
future. Right now the right-of-way lies waiting, and many hands are itching for
it. Many bulldozers are drooling.
-MAY THEILGAARD WATTS, letter to the editor, Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1963.
This letter led to the creation of the 50-mile Illinois Prairie Path and is
generally credited with getting the rails-to-trails movement started.
It is a rare [railroad] right-of-way which
does not have an incredibly complicated legal and political history behind it,
and unsnarling questions of title and jurisdiction is difficult under the best
of circumstances. It takes a hard core of screwballs to see this kind of
project through.
-WILLIAM WHYTE, The Last Landscape, 1968
Our national flower is the concrete
cloverleaf.
-LEWIS MUMFORD, American social philosopher and urban planner, 1895-1990
We have overbuilt many roadways in America.
We can afford to do that. We cannot afford to overbuild our trails. For in
making them 'better,' we make the experience worse.
-DAN BURDEN, Florida Bicycle Facilities Planning and Design Handbook, 1997
Trails are relatively inexpensive. A
splendid national network of all kinds of trails can be established at less
cost than a few hundred miles of super highway.
-GAYLORD NELSON, Senator from Wisconsin, 1969
I-90 across Lake Washington from Seattle to
Bellevue, includes a parallel trail, a bridge, and a trail on the interstate
bridge itself. http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/td/bg_i90.asp
I-70 along Glenwood Canyon in Colorado won
all kinds of awards for environmental sensitivity in its design and
construction and it also includes a 17-mile trail that is pretty cool. http://www.williamsform.com/colorado.html
or http://www.glenscape.com/glncyn.htm
I-66 through Arlington, Virginia was built
with a trail (WO&D & Custis trails) as part of the project.
http://www.his.com/~jmenzies/urbanatb/rtrails/wad/wad1.htm
the majority of Americans, especially given
the projected age profile, will be pursuing low impact walking and bicycling as
their primary outdoor activity.
In rural southeastern Missouri, where there
are few sidewalks or shopping malls or other places to walk, walking trails
have been established, and 55 percent of the people who use them say they walk
more as a result.
Study after study has shown that suburban
residents walk less, bike less and are less physically fit than city dwellers.
"NCDOT TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD
DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES"
An Aug. 2000 24-page downloadable manual from the North Carolina Department of
Transportation. Covers topics like design speed, street types and
widths,sidewalks, planting strips, and relationship of buildings to street.
http://www.doh.dot.state.nc.us/operations/tnd.pdf
Bicycle tourism now exceeds the economic
contribution of the maple sugar industry in Vermont
Methods of locomotion have improved greatly
in recent years, but places to go remain about the same.
-DON HEROLD, American writer, 1905-60
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it
is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing
anything.
-CHARLES KURALT, A Life On the Road, 1990
For Long Distance Trails and the East Coast Greenway specifically
The East Coast Greenway will be the nation's
first long distance, city-to-city, multi-modal transportation corridor for
cyclists, hikers and other non-motorized users.
A 2600 mile, off-road urban trail on which
to recreate and travel is an attractive vision to many people.
The multi-modal Greenway appeals not only to
walkers and cyclists but to in-line skaters, equestrians and the physically
challanged.
They should form a framework of parks and
forests connected by a series of paths and trails for general outdoor living.
-BENTON MACKAYE, founder of the Appalachian Trail, 1879-1975
www.greenway.org
This 'trail connecting cities' is precisely
the kind of project needed along the increasingly urbanized Atlantic Coast. It
will be a link ---- connecting state capitals, colleges, museums, trails,
waterfronts, towns, farms and parks.
Volunteers, local communities and trail
groups are currently hard at work on all parts of the route, from Key West,
Florida to Maine's Canadian border.
The proposed East Coast Greenway, running
through 15 eastern states, is one of 16 National Millennium Trails designated
by the Clinton administration last summer, including trails such as the
Appalachian Trail, Freedom Trail and the Lewis & Clark Trail.
"A trail connecting cities"
This "urban equivalent of the
Appalachian Trail" will traverse the densely populated Eastern Seaboard
offering easy access to a wide range of users.
the concept of a long-distance trail has a
strong appeal for communities that want to be connected.
The East Coast Greenway will be the nation's
first long distance, city-to-city, multi-modal transportation corridor for
cyclists, hikers and other non-motorized users.
"In essence, the Appalachian Trail is
about getting away from it all. We see the East Coast Greenway as a way for
people to get back into it all." - Eric Weiss
Millennium Trails will be very tangible
gifts to the future. We will walk on them and hike on them and bike on them.
They will be accessible to people of all ages and abilities. But in a very
important way they represent more than the tangible effect of the trail. They
represent a commitment and an investment in what kind of country we want in the
next century.
-FIRST LADY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON at launch of the National Millennium Trails
Program, 1999
ECG ALLIANCE MISSION, GOALS & ORGANIZATION
Our goal is to connect existing and planned
trails that are locally owned and managed to form a continuous, safe, green
route - easily identified by the public though signage, maps, users guides and
common services. The route will be at least 80% off-road using waterfront
esplanades, park paths, abandoned railroads, canal towpaths and parkway
corridors. The East Coast Greenway will provide the linkage and is designed as
a multi-use trail serving bicyclists, equestrians, walkers, the physically
challenged and other non-motorized users.
ECG HISTORY AND UNIQUE APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTATION
Our success depends on the collaborative
efforts of volunteers, agencies, and communities working to close the gaps.
-BARBARA RICE, Bay Area Ridge Trail Council, 1993
All trails work is a partnership. Without
vibrant nonprofit organizations, supportive state programs, and the assistance
and recognition of local communities, it is almost impossible to bring these
trails forward as real places to visit and experience.
-STEVE ELKINTON, CRM and the National Trails System, CRM, 20(1), 1997
HOW THE ECG HELPS LOCAL TRAILS
By linking open spaces we can achieve a
whole that is better than the sum of the parts.
-WILLIAM WHYTE, The Last Landscape, 1968
The ECG provides the rationale to extend and
connect our local trails.
The ECG allows us to prioritize road and
trail improvements.
The ECG provides an added argument to
support new infrastructure such as a pedestrian bridge.
The East Coast Greenway vision provides a
catalyst for developing safe routes for kids to get to school
Local business leaders sense tourist money
and get more excited than if only local residents would benefit.
Increased credibility when I am able to tell
people that we are part of a trail from Key West to Calais.
The ECG provides more clout for
advocacy/lobbying with politicians than just a local or regional trail.
The ECG provides the Vision of off-road
travel to Florida, a powerful image that intrigues many people.
HOW LOCAL TRAILS CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ALLIANCE
Fundraising - funds for an effective
Alliance and to provide resources to State Committees (implies staff help,
promotional materials, money,etc)
Awareness - stage promotional events to
increase awareness and encourage ECG use.
Standards - assure consistency through
designation criteria and standard procedures
Identity - assure ECG character through
uniform signage and consistent maps
The ECGA provides a 501(c)3 vehicle for
handling contributions.
"State Millennium Trail designation
would not have happened to us without the ECGA"
The ECG provides events and news stories,
like the WAVE, to raise awareness about local trails.
An informal forum to share ideas for
promotion and fundraising, advocacy and materials with other trail groups.
General Topics for any Trail and Multi-use path
The East Coast Greenway can be the means for
sustainable tourism as it connects most of Maine's colleges, museums and cities