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Reducing Crime One Trail at a Time

This webinar explored methods for enhancing trail security and safety perceptions through environmental design. This webinar was a concurrent session at the 2017 International Trails Symposium.

Presented by:

• Brittain Storck, ASLA, PLA, CPD, Senior Associate, Alta Planning + Design
• Jamie Rae Walker, Ph.D Texas A&M Extension

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Webinar Partners

Webinar Outline

Since trails are often community focal points, crime on the trail can be perceived differently than crime on the street—it may generate more attention that prevents or inhibits use on trails.

While studies have shown that trails themselves do not generate crime, in many urban areas, perceived safety is serious, and even the perception of trail safety creates a stigma for trails as a public facility. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a proactive crime fighting technique in which the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear of and incidents of crime.

Using a multi-disciplinary, multi-pronged approach to trail planning and design, law enforcement, landscape architects, city planners, and resident volunteers can create a climate of safety on trails. This session will explore methods to enhancing trail security and safety perceptions through environmental design.

Presenters will discuss tackling CPTED design strengths and challenges, using programs and partnerships, and the nuts and bolts of safety audits, corridor assessments, and design review.

Presenters

Brittain Storck, ASLA, PLA, CPD, Senior Associate, Alta Planning + Design

Brittain Storck is a professional landscape architect with a background in natural resource-based recreation projects, greenway and trail design, and active community design and planning. Britt is Alta's trail expert and NICP CPTED professional. She manages an interdisciplinary team in Alta’s Atlanta office. During Britt’s 12 years in practice, she has managed projects across the nation and cultivated an instinctual understanding of the complexities associated with design of open spaces and public trails in all landscapes. She approaches her work with the belief that each project provides the opportunity for community to activate, transforming its health, stimulating its economy, and boosting overall quality of life of its people.

Contact: brittstorck@altaplanning.com

 

Jamie Rae Walker, Ph.D Texas A&M Extension

Jamie Rae Walker is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M Extension. Jamie Rae Walker, Ph.D. has worked in community planning and implementation for over 17 years. She provides community technical assistance in evidence based planning. She has presented and facilitated over 150 sessions. Jamie’s professional involvement includes TRAPS, Extension Specialist Association and recipient of Center for Disease Control grant projects for improving access to physical activity amenities. Jamie was honored with the TRAPS Educator Award, AgriLife Superior Service Team Award and USDA Team Awards.

Contact: jamie-raewalker@tamu.edu

 

Webinar Resources

• Rail-Trails and Safe Communities: The Experience on 372 Trails Rails to Trails Conservancy & National Park Service 1998 Rails-Trails and Safe Communities, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (1998) - Comparison of crime statistics on and off trails (see Table 1)

• Preliminary Assessment of Crime Risk along Greenways in Charlotte, North Carolina 1994-2004 Walter Martin, Tom Ludden, Owen Furuseth, Shane Nixon Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte 1994-1996 2001-2004 2005 http://carolinathreadtrail.org/assets/files/Safety GreenwayCrime04_paper from UNCC.pdf

• The impacts of rail-trails: a study of Roger Moore, Alan R. Pennsylvania State 25 users and nearby property owners from three trails Graefe, Richard Gitelson, E. Porter University and the National Park Service 1992 http://www.nps.gov/ncrc/programs/rtca/helpfultools/impact_railtrail_final.pdf

• Bicycle Plan 1999: Reviewing the Past, Planning the Future City of Vancouver Engineering Services 1990s (various) 1999 http://velobg.org/docs/Vancouver_1999_bike_plan.pdf

• Recreation Trails, Crime, and Property Values: Brown County’s Mountain-Bay Trail Brown County Planning Commission 1980-1998 (various) 1998 http://www.foxrivertrail.com/fox_river_trail.pdf

• Omaha Recreational Trails: Their Effect on Property Values and Public Safety Donald L. Greer University of Nebraska with support from the National Park Service Late 1990s 2000 http://atfiles.org/files/pdf/omahastudy.pdf

• The Impact of the Brush Creek Trail on Property Values and Crime Michelle Murphy Sonoma State University 1983 - 1992 1992 http://www.brucefreemanrailtrail.org/pdf/brushcreek_final_sm.pdf

• The Effect of Greenways on Property Values and Public Safety Sydney S. Macy, Leslee Alexander, Stuart MacDonald The Conservation Fund and Colorado State Trails Program 1995 http://www.broward.org/Greenways/Documents/coloradostudy.pdf

• Effects of Three Cary Greenways on Adjacent Residents Lauren A. Tedder Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill early 1990s 1995 http://www.americantrails.org/trailtracks/Spring97TT/CaryGrnwyStudy.html

• Evaluation of the Burke-Gilman Trail's Effect on Property Value and Crime, City of Seattle (1987) - "The existence of the trail has little, if any, effect on crime and vandalism..." (p. 3)

• The Effects of Greenways on Property Value and Public Safety, Colorado State Parks (1995) - "No public safety issues could be directly linked to the trail." (p. 3)

• Study: Cars in Prospect Park Means More Danger, Not Less Crime (2001), Transportation Alternatives - "Cars in the park means more danger, not less crime. Runners, walkers, cyclists or other park users are much more likely to see and deter a crime than a driver speeding past."
• Crewe, K., 2001. Journal of Urban Design 6, 3:245-264. “Linear Parks and Urban Neighbourhoods [sic]: A Study of the Crime Impact of the Boston South-West Corridor.” Study examined crime along 5-mile greenway in Boston. No significant increase in crime was found for those living next to the corridor. In fact, there was less crime, as compared to houses bordering quiet commercial streets, and significantly less crime than for those buildings abutting a busy arterial street.

• Univ. N. Carolina, Charlotte. 2005. Preliminary Assessment of Crime Risk along Greenways in Charlotte, NC 1994-2004. A systematic analysis of property crime on or adjacent to a greenway during a 4-year period within Mecklenburg County, NC. Data suggest that greenway-adjacent properties do not incur greater risk of crime than other properties within the same neighborhood statistical area. On the contrary, greenway-adjacent properties had lower crime rates 75 percent of the time and in one year 2001, greenways actually appeared to be safer than the broader community.

• Greenways and Crime on Nearby Properties: An Investigation of Reported Crimes along Three Greenways, UNC Chapel Hill Master Thesis (2005) - "...although the Lower Booker Creek Trail did not increase the crime rate in the surrounding area, crime may have fallen more had the trail not been present. However, the examination of incidents occurring on the parcels within 150 meters of the trail does not support that conclusion. The proportion of incidents in the study area that this trail buffer captured decreased from 12 percent to 10 percent after the trail was completed (see Table 3), indicating that the crime rate for the buffer decreased even more than for the overall study area. " (p. 30)

• Heritage Rail Trail County Park - 2007 User Survey and Economic Impact Analysis, York County Department of Parks and Recreation (2007) - Almost 92% of users rated trailsafety and security as being good to excellent.
• Perkiomen Trail: 2008 User Survey and Economic Impact Analysis, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (2008) - Over 85% of Perkiomen Trail users rated safety and security along the trail as being good to excellent.

• Bucombe County Greenways and Trails Master Plan, Connect Bucombe (2012) - “The incidence of crime along the Mallard Creek Greenway and adjacent properties was nearly half that of the surrounding police district and only 12.7% of the countywide crime rate (1997 study). An extended study explored recent crime rates along all 14 greenways in Mecklenberg County between 2011 and 2003. The data suggest that greenway-adjacent properties do not incur greater risk of crime than other properties within the same neighborhood statistical area. On the contrary greenway-adjacent properties had lower crimes rates 75% of the time.”

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