Building Trails Page 9

Sacramento River Trail | Photo courtesy Sergio Ruiz | CC by 2.0

Tracking Federal Bike/Ped Spending in 2015: RTC Releases TrADE Report

Posted 07/26/16 by Leeann Sinpatanasakul in Building Trails, Policy | Tagged with Facts and FIgures, Federal, Funding, State and Federal Programs, Transportation and Health

The Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP)—known as Transportation Enhancements (TE) until 2012—is the largest federal source of funding for walking and biking projects and has helped to build thousands of trails across America since 1991. Here's the latest spending report on this critical program for the rail-trail movement.

Ohio and Erie Canalway Towpath Trail (under Hope Memorial Bridge) along Cleveland's Cuyahoga River | Photo courtesy Behnke Landscape Architecture

Seven Wonders of the Ohio to Erie Trail

Posted 07/14/16 by Laura Stark in Building Trails, America's Trails | Tagged with Best Of, Biking, IHTC, Ohio, Tourism , Trail Communities, Trail Destinations

One state, 202 miles, four days, two wheels—it all adds up to an awesome biking adventure on the Ohio to Erie Trail, which crosses the Buckeye State at a diagonal like a prized sash. Here are seven amazing highlights of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Bicyclists wave on day 1 (Sunday, June 19) of RTC's West Virginia Sojourn, which took nearly 130 riders from Parkersburg to Salem, W.Va., and back via the North Bend Rail Trail. | Photo by Mark E. Abbott

RTC Sojourners Wrap Ride in West Virginia

Posted 06/24/16 by Parkersburg News and Sentinel in Building Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Biking, Demand for Trails, Sojourn Series, Trail Businesses, Trail Communities, West Virginia

Nearly 130 bicyclists ranging in age from 7 to 77 rode into the city Wednesday to conclude Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's 2016 West Virginia Sojourn.

Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania | Photo courtesy Jason Pratt | CC by 2.0

2016 Doppelt Grant Awards to Fund Innovative Trail Projects Around US

Posted 06/04/16 by Kelly Pack in Building Trails | Tagged with Funding

RTC is pleased to announce the winners of our 2016 Doppelt Family Trail Development Fund grant awards. We received an unprecedented 166 applications in 2016, totaling more than $5 million in funding requests. These numbers speak to the incredible demand for rail-trails and trail networks across the country, and we encourage all the communities who applied to reapply this fall. Here are this year's selectees!

On the Jones Falls Trail in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland | Photo by Side A Photography

112 Years Later: Baltimore’s Trail Network Vision Is Coming of Age

Posted 05/10/16 by Katie Harris, Amy Kapp in Building Trails | Tagged with Baltimore Greenway Trails Coalition, Celebrating 30 Years, Connected Systems, Demand for Trails, Ecology and Environment, Maryland, TrailNation, TrailsTransform, Walkability and Bikeability

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. painted a visionary picture for Baltimore in his comprehensive 1904 Report Upon the Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore. His blueprints for Baltimore’s park system, which focused attention on the three stream valleys, are a shining example of effective urban planning. More than a century later, these stream valleys remain among the city’s greatest assets—and now, they are pieces of a new vision for a connected and more equitable Baltimore.

Photo courtesy Grant Montgomery | CC by 2.0

Notice: Upcoming Railroad Abandonment in Thurston County, Wash.

Posted 04/26/16 by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy in Taking Action, Building Trails | Tagged with Abandonment Notices, Corridors and Railbanking, Washington

On or about April 21, 2016, BNSF Railway Company filed for the abandonment of 1.43 miles of track within Belmore in Thurston County, Washington. We are providing this information because it presents an opportunity to develop a real regional asset: a multi-use trail that can accommodate hikers, bikers, equestrians and other appropriate uses.

Live music was a highlight of Washington, D.C.'s 2016 Opening Day for Trails celebration on Kingman Island | Photo by Milo Bateman

Opening Day 2016 Recap: DC Celebrates Future Northeast Trail Connection

Posted 04/20/16 by Katie Harris in Building Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Biking, Community Events, District Of Columbia, Maintenance and Volunteers, Walkability and Bikeability

This year, RTC’s National Office teamed up with Living Classrooms, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) and REI to celebrate Opening Day for Trails 2016 on Kingman Island. As a special highlight—WABA led a bike ride on the Anacostia River Trail, which is welcoming in a new 4-mile Kenilworth segment that will have a huge impact on connectivity in the area.

Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, part of the 750-mile Circuit Trails network | Photo by Thom Carroll

The Circuit Trails: 750-Mile Network Has Sparked a Greater Philly Transformation

Posted 04/12/16 by Heather Mistretta in Building Trails, America's Trails | Tagged with Celebrating 30 Years, Circuit Trails, Connected Systems, Demand for Trails, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Trail Destinations

For the past five years, a web of approximately 30 multi-use pathways known as the Circuit Trails has been growing throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, with long-term plans to stretch 750 miles across nine counties. Currently at 300 miles, the Circuit Trails is like no other system in the country—connecting urban, suburban and rural communities in a 2.5-million-acre area. By the time it is complete, which is expected to be in 2040, more than 50 percent of the region’s population will live within a mile of the Circuit Trails. Additionally, the system will connect to the East Coast Greenway, enveloping a 3,000-mile off-road route that spans as far north as Calais, Maine, and as far south as Key West, Florida.

2016 RTC Florida Sojourn riders on the Black Creek Trail in Clay County, Florida | Photo by Mark Battista

Miami-to-Everglades … and Back Again: 2016 Florida Sojourn Recap

Posted 03/31/16 by Mark Battista in Building Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Demand for Trails, Florida, Miami LOOP, Sojourn Series, Trail Destinations

Like birds winging south for the winter, more than 70 riders flocked to the sunny climate and balmy breeze of southern Florida to bike RTC’s inaugural Florida Sojourn, Feb. 29 to March 3, 2016. Here are some highlights from the four-day, 120-mile bike trek.

Fort Duquesne Bridge and Walkway along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (the hub for the developing 1,450-mile Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition vision). | Photo courtesy Wally Gobetz | CC by 2.0

1,450-Mile Developing Trail Network to Revitalize America’s Industrial Heartland

Posted 03/29/16 by Jake Lynch in Building Trails, America's Trails | Tagged with Celebrating 30 Years, Connected Systems, IHTC, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tourism and Economic Development, Trail Destinations, Walkability and Bikeability, West Virginia

The Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition envisions a 1,450-mile system of off-road trails that will connect many of the major centers of America’s Rust Belt and industrial Appalachia. The trail network will span 48 counties across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and New York. Here's more about this ambitious project.

Artist Lorraine Vullo's labyrinth memorial at the Historic Homestead Pump House in Pennsylvania | Photo courtesy Kordite | CC by 2.0

10 Amazing Things on the 2016 Pennsylvania Sojourn

Posted 03/16/16 by Maureen Hannan in Building Trails, Trail Use | Tagged with Biking, Encouraging Trail Use, Pennsylvania, Sojourn Series, Trail Destinations, Walkability and Bikeability

RTC’s 2016 Pennsylvania Rail-Trail Sojourn will be a breathtaking 110-mile bike trip westward along the historic Great Allegheny Passage. Celebrate Mother’s Day weekend with a three-day bike ride through scenic woods and rushing waterfalls, lofty trestles and surreal tunnels, wide rivers and old coal towns! It's going to be amazing.

Glacial Drumlin State Trail in Wisconsin | Photo courtesy Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin | CC by 2.0

Meet the Badger: 500-Mile Trail Network Takes Hold in Southeast Wisconsin

Posted 03/03/16 by Amy Kapp in Building Trails | Tagged with Celebrating 30 Years, Connected Systems, Route of the Badger, Tourism and Economic Development, Trail Destinations, Wisconsin

In October 2014, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) formally launched an initiative in Southeast Wisconsin that could have an enormous transformative effect on the region and America’s rail-trail future. The goal of the project, appropriately dubbed the Route of the Badger, is to connect completed trails in seven counties—Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha—into a world-class destination trail system.