Symposium exhibit hall

We also want to thank the many people who gave their effort and enthusiasm to make the Symposium so successful. We should mention first the many sponsors and exhibitors who make the Symposium possible as well as affordable. We hope you will take a look at the web page for our sponsors and remember their support when you are considering trail equipment, supplies, and services.

At the heart of the Symposium, as always is an army of presenters who bring their knowledge and ideas to the rest of us. There were a total of 88 educational sessions and about 130 speakers. It was a vast landscape of expertise, all shared by so many fine people who care about YOUR trails, not just their own.

Volunteers on the march

In addition, we are grateful to our dozens of Arizona volunteers who did so much to make every aspect of the conference run smoothly. And finally, I would also like to recognize the incredibly hard work of Executive Director Pam Gluck and her Staff, who started early on the long, long trail to the Symposium. But all the work has its reward, and we are delighted such a big crowd could be with us in Arizona this year.

We’ll be making many of the presentations and resources showcased at the Symposium available in coming weeks. For now, we’d just like to say again, “THANKS!”

– Stuart Macdonald, on behalf of American Trails staff, Board, and Advisors

Now in light of emerging data, American Trails has broadened its lens to focus on children and the effects of outdoor experiences and exercise on their physical and intellectual well being. Our publications, webinars, and Symposium papers call attention to the positive effects of walking in nature, including decreased incidence of impulsivity, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorders among children.

Not only are trails conduits to learning about the natural world, but also cost-effective media that help control problematic behavior and even medical conditions among their youngest users. “Taking a hike” is really a euphemism for taking care of mind, body, and soul.

Also, in April we are hosting 19 young people from across the country and Canada to attend the American Trails International Trails Symposium. The new Hulet Hornbeck Youth Scholarship Fund will support training and mentoring opportunities for these young trail enthusiasts. Our goal is to encourage learning about the importance of trails along with stewardship and conservation.

— Jennifer Rigby, American Trails Board and Director of  The Acorn Group/Acorn Naturalists

• See our Library for resources, articles, and studies on Health & Trails…

• Learn more about ways of engaging children in trails and outdoor activities…

• Read about the American Trails “Advancing Trail Development” webinar series…

The reach of Jenny’s two organizations and the impact they have through their resources and services inspire youth and adults, across the country, to become lifelong stewards of our great outdoors and trails. Jenny’s meaningful work provides so many solutions to today’s problems, and we all know that trails are a part of the solution. Environmental education inspires lifelong learning and truly does make a difference.

In the light of the recent tragedy, the work of The Acorn Group, Acorn Naturalists, and American Trails has never been more vital! There are so many positive things occurring around the world simply getting more children active and outdoors.

I was touched to learn of a past tweet from senselessly deceased Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung: “Welcoming our kinders [kindergartners] this morning– 74 new opportunities to inspire lifelong learning.”

Jenny shares Principal Hochsprung’s dedication to learning and inspires positive lifestyle choices in our children daily. We are so happy that NAAEE has recognized Jenny and her two organizations– and we are so proud that she is one of our Board members! Thank you for all you do for American Trails and for the world!

– Pam Gluck, Executive Director, American Trails

On a recent trip to France and Belgium I was interested to see how all this transportation interaction works out. One point that struck me is the difference in attitudes between Americans and Europeans.

Drivers in the US are not accustomed to obstacles on the road except for other cars. You’ll hear a chorus of horns when a car making a right turn lingers for a slow pedestrian. Once behind the wheel we become desperately impatient and quick to anger.

Sharing the street in Lubljana, Slovenia

American bicyclists live in a different world as well. The surprising challenges of European streets include cobblestones and bricks, curving tramway tracks, and streets that diverge at odd angles and narrow abruptly according to some medieval logic. Then there are the swarms of pedestrians striding purposefully across every foot of roadway and bikeway.

But attitudes seem to make all the difference. European drivers accept their status as second class citizens, but make up for it by parking on the sidewalks and speeding down improbably narrow alleys. Yet they are conditioned to anticipate walkers stepping into traffic at any moment and to inch along with stoic politeness as cyclists putter down the middle of any street. And given the state of the sidewalks, motorists are likely to share the road with wheelchairs as well.

Of course there are miles of cycle tracks along major roads, and this is where the tourist quickly finds that an attitude adjustment is needed. Yes, you are holding up bike traffic and confusing the truck drivers with your lack of aggression. Get with the program!

We like to see facilities as the solution, and we like to blame our policies and politicians. Yet so often, success comes down to what can’t be funded or legislated: attitude.

- Young men and women working for conservation corps on the hard tasks of building trails, fences, and rock walls

- People everywhere volunteering for the dirty work of picking up trash, fixing the drainage, and hacking invasive plants

- Tireless folks running local trail groups on the slimmest of budgets

- Unpaid board members who get roped into writing newsletters, planning events, and driving to endless meetings

- Planners and parks people in small towns and rural counties who make trails part of their jobs

- Fathers and great-grandmothers teaching kids that trails are fun

- Talented diplomats and publicists who spend years creating the right climate for greenway projects to proceed

- All those elected to thankless offices who say “yes” when it’s easier to say “no”

- The optimists who refuse to give up, who believe that every problem has a solution, and that every community deserves a trail

And finally, we want to thank every one of you who care about trails, and who make it possible for American Trails to represent our common interests throughout America. We wish you a happy Thanksgiving, and rewarding times on the trails you love.

– Stuart Macdonald, American Trails Magazine and website editor

One of the outstanding features of the conference was the poster session where each nation displayed their favorite trail information and each participant gave a five-minute  presentation. This was incredibly informative. In addition there were plenary sessions including presentations ranging from wayfinding in Switzerland to the Appalachian Trail to Melbourne, Australia’s system for assessing user markets. Bernard Olliver, a French journalist give an inspiring talk about his walk from Istanbul to China– after age 60!

The icing on the cake was walking for many km along the outstanding Jeju Olle Trail, a spectacular trail network that rings the island province. This trail system, the vision of the Jeju Olle Foundation, is a must visit! On the last day of our visit, we all got to participate in the annual Walking Festival where over a thousand of trail lovers from Korea, China and other nations walked the coast, enjoyed music, dance, food, fellowship and fun! What an event!

In addition Dr. Hui Jung, Executive Director of Korea Trails, presented motivating ideas for continuing to build a powerful international trails movement. After her inspiring talk, a number of us formed a working committee now pursuing strengthening the the World Trails Movement and the World Trails Network. Stay tuned, more to come.

– Bob Searns, Chair, American Trails

See more about the Second World Trail Conference in 2011

“U.S. federal transportation policy needs a reset, and that change has to come from a new vision of sustainable mobility as the core infrastructure to create livable communities. Without this kind of change, we are destined to keep making decisions that maintain the highways vs. transit paradox and leave the third mode out of the solution.”

“In New York, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) requires that a project receive a “Negative Declaration” to prove that it has no adverse environmental impacts. There is no process under SEQRA for giving projects a “Positive Declaration of Environmental Benefits.” Taken to an extreme, this inability to see certain types of infrastructure projects as being good for the environment is being used in unintended ways. In San Francisco, the Transportation Department was sued for developing the city’s innovative network of bike lanes without submitting a full environmental impact statement. The bike network program was significantly delayed for several years while the lawsuit was being resolved.”

“This isn’t how we should be thinking if we are trying to quickly implement the kind of green, sustainable solutions that will solve major environmental problems. It is a constant challenge to get leaders to believe that third mode solutions such as bike, pedestrian and trail infrastructure projects are of significant value.”

“A complete green infrastructure for sustainable mobility is based on four layers of facilities: 1) greenways, 2) on-street bicycle facilities, 3) pedestrian sidewalks and crossings and 4) intermodal connections. When each of these individual layers is complete, and when all four layers are interconnected, is it possible to shift mobility into the third mode.”

Join us September 12 for the American Trails webinar and book launch featuring Jeff Olson along with Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, and Bob Searns, American Trails Chair.

Beginning in the early 1970′s, Joe, chaired a bi-partisan Mayor’s Committee— the Denver Platte River Development Committee (Later to become the Greenway Foundation, Inc.) that initiated the vision and implementation of the Denver Platte River Greenway— a continuous shared-use trail and paddleway running the length of the South Platte River through Denver, Colorado.

The vision also included sorely needed river clean-up, new parks and feature areas, and urban whitewater kayak and tubing courses. Over the years the project grew into a 45-mile long greenway through the Denver metropolitan area and into adjacent counties. This project was the first of its kind in the region and created a prototype that served as a model for hundreds of cities across North American as well as inspiring projects in Europe and as far away as China.

Joe was both a visionary and a doer! He lived a full life like a champion and left his mark and legacy in a movement that continues to reshape cities four decades after its initiation! He also inspired all of us who worked with him to strive for excellence and to never give in when seeking a righteous vision.

— Bob Searns, Chair, American Trails Board of Directors

Joe Shoemaker’s commitment to the importance of greenways made him an influential figure in the Colorado trails community for many years. At our first state trails conference in 1986, which I had nerve-wrackingly planned for months, Governor Richard Lamm had agreed to give the keynote address. The Governor, of course was late. But Joe, who had been warming up the audience, carried on at length and kept the crowd enthralled with his enthusiasm about trails across Colorado. When the Governor arrived, he had a very tough act to follow. Everyone I talked to agreed that Joe was the real star of the conference.

Joe also developed a deep concern for the state park system, and served as the chair of the Colorado State Parks Foundation. At a training meeting of state parks staff one winter, Joe gave the featured pep talk. To everyone’s delight, he rattled off the names of every one of the dozens of state parks, in alphabetical order, a feat no one else could do.

— Stuart Macdonald, former Colorado State Trails Coordinator

If you aren’t counting and surveying trail users, you may be missing an opportunity to better fund your program and help the community understand the value of your trail system or interconnected network of trails.

Governing bodies, the public, granting agencies, and neighbors often ask how many people use or are expected to use a trail. Having a solid answer based on data can offer assurance, support funding for maintenance, address concerns, impact how you may design a project, and can make your grant funding applications more compelling.

I’d like to offer 10 Tips as you plan for your first count:

Tip 1 – Gather as much data as possible.  You want to make the most of staff, volunteers or consultants that have committed time to the count. Use your resources wisely by having them encourage trail users to take an on-line survey that offers insights beyond the usage data. Don’t stop trail users to respond to a survey– instead, offer them a postcard that directs them to an on-line survey (we use SurveyMonkey) so that they can provide input at their leisure. Set a clear deadline no later then 1 week after the initial count. Expect 30% to 50% response rate– so don’t be nervous about closing the survey by the deadline. Ask no more than 20 questions or you’ll risk losing responders. Ask baseline demographic questions each year (age, sex, number of visits, purpose, etc). Customize the remaining questions to gain new insights each year. You might seek to explore topics related to tourism, safety, design features, reasons for visiting trails, public perceptions, etc

Tip 2 – Know what you want to learn.  Determine what you are seeking to learn.  Are you trying to determine a trail’s tourism impact, usage as a commute corridor, value of a recreational element, something else? Think about framing your questions to explore your particular interest in depth.

Tip 3 – Make the most of your resources: San Jose does not have a defined budget line item for its annual Trail Count. We depend heavily on volunteers to schedule one or two hours at a count station. Our part-time volunteer coordinator starts reaching out to possible volunteers 30 to 45 days in advance. As the count approaches, City staff is asked to support the effort to fill in any holes in the calendar.

Tip 4 – Leverage stakeholder resources:  Trails and biking facilities are popular amenities and your Parks Department is not likely the only stakeholder for their maintenance and development. Reach out to your local Bicycle Advocacy Group, Parks Foundation, large employers, civic groups and others that might be looking for a short-term and well-defined volunteer commitment. Many people want to offer help and spending an hour or two on a beautiful trail is a great and rewarding volunteer job.

Tip 5 – Count Consistently: Determine count stations that can be used year after year to accurately track changes in usage. Use count sheets with the same methodology each year so data can be compared accurately. Data gets more valuable each year because of comparative opportunities and you’ll find many chances to share this data throughout the year.

Tip 6 – Data is data: Count every year so that you can see trends both positive and negative; new extensions should increase usage, temporary closures or construction may reduce usage. San Jose instituted a Trail Closure Policy because of the negative impact of special event closures to trail users. Without count data, we would not have found the political support for redesign of special event sites to minimize or eliminate closures.

Tip 7 – Keep it simple:  Don’t let the fear of doing it just right prevent you from moving forward. Over 5 years, we’ve learned a lot from our successes and mistakes.  Start with one or two count stations. Think about what answers you are seeking and get started. After the first year or two, you’ll have a comfort level and be able to expand your counting to strategic locations and refine surveys to learn even more.

Tip 8 – Use resources wisely:  You may choose to count at one location simply to have data for an upcoming grant. That’s OK– you don’t necessarily need to staff all count stations year after year. You might also determine that you can’t get enough volunteers for a 12-hour count. We have several count stations that are only monitored during peak periods (7-9 a.m., and 4-7 p.m.). These stations might be low volume and clearly serve a commute propose, so showing travel during the commuter periods is sufficient for our purposes.

Tip 9 – Everyone wants to make a difference:  Your volunteers and staff are participating because they want to see more trails, they wish to offer their valuable support, and they want to be part of the process. As the Trail Count coordinator, be sure to visit as many stations throughout the day as possible. You want to make sure that people are counting and surveying in a consistent manner, and perhaps more importantly, you want to personally thank people for their valuable time and commitment. This expression of gratitude can encourage the volunteers to participate year after year.

Tip 10 – Share your data: Take time to compile reports that are distributed to all volunteers, staff, your governing body, stakeholder groups, granting agencies and media. There is a shortage of data about trail usage at a national level. Many people will be very interested in your findings. Get early returns out to your volunteers as early as possible –they are part of the process and can’t wait to hear results.

San Jose has been conducting Trail Count annually for the past 5 years.  By counting and surveying our trail users on select trails, we know that 54% commute to work, 75% are male, and trail usage has increased between 5 and 10% each year.

The National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project is a great place to learn more about counting methods and data collection equipment.  San Jose’s Trail Program website is also a good resource: we post a Fact Sheet annually and have also included several highly detailed Summary Reports that offer lessons learned and guidance for persons conducting their first count.

The City of San Jose has one of the nation’s largest urban trail networks within its geographic boundaries. The network is comprised of 35 interconnected trail systems with over 53 miles open to the public. Through its Green Vision and General Plan, the city is seeking to develop a 100-mile interconnected trail network by 2022. Yves Zsutty has managed San Jose’s Trail Program for the past 10 years and has spoken on the subject of Trail Counts and trail development at State and National conferences. 

Follow San Jose Trails on Twitter at SanJoseTrails or learn more at www.sjparks.org/trails

I’m sure everybody is tired of alerts to call your members of Congress. Now, we think it’s time to shift attention from Washington to the State capitol and the county courthouse. Our attention needs to be on our policy makers in State and local governments.

Local politics were the key to Little Rock’s Junction Bridge project

One issue with the new MAP-21 law is that half of each State’s potential funding for bike-ped facilities now goes directly to the Metropolitan Planning Organizations and communities. Who is setting the priorities for these local project grants? Who are our local allies for greenways and walkable communities?

We hope that this focus on the agencies and organizations actually planning and building trails and bikeways will yield results in the long run. Rob Puentes, a transportation analyst with the Brookings Institution, called MAP-21 “the last gasp of the traditional highway bills.” The next battle over transportation funding is less than two years away. “I think now you’ll see states and metro areas take the lead,” Puentes said. “That’s kind of the broad theme here– Washington is not really leading on anything.”

If this is the trend, our best efforts would be to spend more time with local leaders. At American Trails, we’re going to be looking for examples of effective action among our communities, trail organizations, and coalitions. We hope you’ll let us know about your local trail politics, and how you are working for  funding and long-term success.

– Stuart Macdonald, editor, American Trails Magazine and website

Read more about Transportation Alternatives, which replaces key bicycle and pedestrian programs such as Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School.