Researchers on suburban trail usage: Not necessarily all about “location, location, location” but “promote, promote, promote”
by Prevention Minnesota
Making it happen in Minnesota | 10.19.10

In an October 5, 2010, article in Miller-McCune, outdoor writer John McKinney discusses new research on suburban trail usage that shows how location, incentives and aesthetics all impact usage.

McKinney writes:
“For decades a walking/biking trail near a suburb has been considered a universal good: the most preferred amenity (more so than golf courses and tennis courts) of suburbanites and regarded as a major contributor to good health and fitness. Studies have shown that a location near a trail increases property values and even suggested that homebuyers are drawn to a specific neighborhood by the proximity of a pathway.

‘Build it and they will come,’ is a core conviction of suburban trail builders and policymakers alike from Fullerton, Calif., to Farmington, Conn. New research, however, casts that fundamental belief into doubt.”

McKinney cites several studies, including:

• In one Salt Lake City study, residents did not increase levels of walking and cycling after a new trail was constructed nearby. “Proximity to the trail had no significant effect on total physical activity; those near it were no more likely to use it than those farther away.”
• In a study in Pennsylvania, telling potential pedestrians to take a walk because it’s good for them was not a successful approach to boosting trail use. Instead, the trail partnership found that community members were more likely to be motivated to get off the couch and onto the trail by messages about fresh air and fun times with friends and family. Media efforts, cookouts, organized walks and bike rides were employed to successfully boost trail use.

Barbara Rice, program manager for the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, comments in the article, “Aesthetics matter, but it’s really connectivity that’s most important. The best trails, and the ones likely to receive the most use, are those that connect users to something desirable — to nature, to special places in the community, to other people.”

“Suburban Trail Use Not a Sure Thing,” Miller-McCune, October 5, 2010; website linking permitted.
http://tinyurl.com/2fvnqrl

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