I’m not sure why it has taken so long, but this Memorial Day Weekend, our family made full use of the Cattail Trail/Northwest Greenway Trail in West Lafayette/Tippecanoe County. I think it amounts to 4 – 6 miles of paved trail. It runs through a natural feature in West Lafayette called the Celery Bog — kind of a swampy area that’s been turned into a nature preserve. That area has a network of foot paths as well.
On Saturday, the kids and I mainly just walked around the foot paths; the highlight being when we hunkered down near a pond and chucked sticks into it. There is something deeply satisfying about throwing stuff into water — my preference is rocks, but sticks are fine. On Sunday, Cole and I took his bike there. He’s not yet fast enough where it makes sense for me to ride with him, but I can run along side him easily enough unless he hits a steep downhill grade. He’s four, and by my calculations, he rode his bike a good three miles. On Monday, I went for a 6 mile run.
It’s quite a luxury to have a resource like that. My only problem is that these trails are probably 8 miles from my house. So, they are available for exercise, but I am not saving any energy. And, I wonder how much the average family would use a network of trails if given the opportunity — particularly if such trails were within close proximity to their home and, more importantly, took you close to the places you wanted to go: grocery store, restaurants, downtown, whatever. In other words, would an extensive network of trails be more likely to be a fuel saving, health enhancing public resource or an expensive boondoggle for elitist outdoor fitness enthusiasts?
In any event, it’s clear I need something since my house has a “Walk Score” of 14 out of 100; meaning it is not conducive at all to performing daily activities by walking.
I have a Walk Score of 51. As I don’t drive, I can attest that I’m in a fairly decent walk zone. However, I think their efforts needs some tweaking: McDonalds Convenience Stores are *not* grocery stores, the carry-out Dominoes Pizza is *not* a restaurant, and unless things have changed significantly, Planned Parenthood shouldn’t be listed under Libraries.
“In other words, would an extensive network of trails be more likely to be a fuel saving, health enhancing public resource or an expensive boondoggle for elitist outdoor fitness enthusiasts?”
It’s both. But your point is well taken that trails need to go from someplace to someplace else rather than just be a linear park that doesn’t serve a practical need. I live just a few blocks from the Rivergreenway in Fort Wayne and use it both for fun/exercise and to ride to work. There’s nothing wrong with a park but trails need to be in practical places if they are to serve more than recreational needs.
I seem to have a “Walk Score” of 57 where I live. But, a lack of sidewalks outside of my neighborhood proper would deter all but the most motivated from accessing most of the businesses listed.
And like Brenda, I can’t credit La Petit Academy as being a school. Some of the distances seem to be “as the bird flies” too.
Don’t feel bad, I scored zero.
Of course, even if we were to move right to the middle of our town, the score would only be 40. Of course that is probably a function of how crappy our downtown is since both downtown Noblesville(62) and downtown Fishers(71) score very well.
It looks like this is solely distanced based, so it doesn’t take into account infrastructure, which is lacking in most places in Indiana.
To the question, we would use paths much more if they were better laid out and located. We have a small path in town and it is basically inaccesible except at trailheads and leads no where in particular.
When you look at places and there are viable networks of paths to commute and shop, even in very large towns and cities, and then you look at the Central Indian area it is very depressing.
I’m wondering if and how much a network of trails would lose their appeal if a large cross section of the community were using them. Currently, my experience with such places is that people tend to be friendly and non-threatening.
Would an expanded network lead to an influx of, say, homeless people and scary adolescent males? Would that, in turn, lead to more cautious soles abandoning the network for the isolated safety of their enclosed vehicles?
Just a thought.
I have 0 of 100, and I bike to work at least 3 days a week.
Working on the bike and ped planning in Coumbus, it has been very eye-opening to see how things changed in the 50’s to 70’s. We went from sidewalks being everywhere to none being built at all.
The general assumption was that with cars and gas being so available, we could just drive everywhere and there would be no need for sidewalks or trails. We were reminded how dumb of an idea that was in the 70’s and started to make progress but forgot again in the early 90’s, and are just now remembering again.
However, the plans we have worked on will take 20 years to complete 100%. Now that we’re at $4 gas and people want to use them, everyone gets to pay for the lack of planning 50 years ago.
I include myself in that. I built a house in a suburb with the goal of being “away from the noise of the city but not too far away from the services”. I did that, but for a car. I should have bought a house downtown (for less money, too). Too many of us have done that, and now find that we have designed the way we live around our cars.
Doug, I have noticed all types of people on our trails. Some drive to the trails to run on them for fitness, others use them because (based on their appearance) they can’t afford a car, let alone gas.
What I have found is the fitness and recreational types are less friendly, on average, than the “utility” users of the trails. However, that is relative, and almost everyone has been very plesant.
That’s good to hear. I’m thinking maybe the isolation we have in our vehicles makes us more aggressive to our fellow travelers who are somewhat abstract in that context. In addition, maybe the frequent, light interaction one experiences on foot and on bike would tend to make us less fearful and less disconnected from our neighbors.
Again, I’m kind of spit-balling here. I’m sure some sociologists out there have done research into how modes of travel affect our interaction.
Here in Downtown Indy, I have a 62 walk score. I’m lucky to be right at the end of the Monon Trail. It definitely has an “Urban” feel to it and is used by a diverse group of people. There are families biking and there are crackheads biking too. It’s nice for recreation, as well as a quick shot to Broad Ripple or the State Fairgrounds on a bike. There’s surprisingly quite a lot of wildlife and scenery here in the heart of the Capitol city. The Monon connects with other trails throughout the city, and is currently being connected to the cultural trail that will encircle the mile square of downtown. Urban trails make a lot of sense all around. They promote exercise, connect neighborhoods, allow for recreation, and reduce vehicular traffic.
Scored a zero. Distances have to be as the crow flies on some of these. It would take a machete and a canoe to get to the restaurant they’re claiming in 1.9 miles, rather than the four miles or so by road.
Now that’s some solid exercise.
T brings up a good point. Most mapping APIs don’t account for walking, sidewalks or trails.
The best people trails are the ones that cut through back yards and parks, away from roads. Sometimes, that might mean a 4 mile trip by car could be a 1.5 mile walk, because of how direct the trail is and how much you have to drive around to get to your destination.
I’m curious to see how Google will attack this. I assume they’ll be first.
Here in Broad Ripple, near the park, I have a 71 walk score, which seems about right.
The monon has certainly not lost its appeal due to the fact that a large group of people use it; on the contrary, I think that’s part of the attraction. (That, and the fact that it goes to places people want to go). I always get a good feeling when I go by La Piedad or the BR Brew Pub on a nice day and see 10-20 bicycles parked outside.
FWIW, I think that elite outdoor fitness enthusiasts will get their exercise whether there is a trail or not; trails tend to help the beginners and the timid, who maybe don’t want to walk by themselves or who are intimidated by the thought of riding a bike on the road.
But, as others have pointed out, it’s best if the trails go somewhere so you can not only get some exercise, but also run some errands or at least have a nice meal afterwards.
I scored a 22, and I live within a mile of a path. To drive to work I have to make a series of west and north turns. Takes me about seven miles to get to the church. As soon as the weather gets better, I’ll ride my bike on days I know I don’t need my car. The bike path starts about a mile from my house (have to ride a short distance on side streets). The path then travels to the northwest into Griffith; about a three to four mile ride. The last mile I’ll ride on town streets; going due north, to the church. If I ride the path from end to end and loop back to my house, it makes about a 22-23 mile ride. The best exercise is to put my twins in the trailer and bring them along for the ride! Sometimes I’ll take a much shorter ride-about six or seven miles-and have my seven and six year old sons ride beside us. There’s a stretch of the trail that we do have to cross one busy street, and ride down a few subdivision streets, but then the trail goes for about four miles without a crossroad. This spring has been too windy on the days I’ve been able to take a ride to take the twins out yet. Wind is great when you’re going with it, but that trailer acts like a great big scoop when you’re going against it.
I’m all for opening up as many of these pathways as is feasible in Indiana.
I score a 55 on walkability, which makes sense. I have a convenience store, diner, liquor store, pizza place, tavern, and video store within three blocks of my house. On the other hand, my in laws’ house scored a 22 even though they would have to walk along the narrow shoulder of a state highway and cross a junction and/or walk the shoulder of a US highway to get to any business of note. As you note, the site seems purely based on proximity. Someone who lived in an apartment complex across an eight line interstate from a mall would have a great walkability score even if the closest bridge were a mile away and with no sidewalks.
Jason, if you are trying to figure out your mileage, you might Google “gmaps pedometer.” It’s a site that isn’t produced by Google, but relies upon an older version of Google maps. It allows you to plot points and draws a straight line between points. I’m not aware of anything sufficiently sophisticated to map the bike route between points, but if you are trying to figure out how long your neighborhood walk is or your specific bike ride to work, it’s great. For instance, I just used it to determine that I walked 3.7 miles at the 500 on Sunday.
Oh, I’ve used gmaps pedometer and many others to log bike miles.
What I was saying is that no online mapping program has the ability to ROUTE along trails.
In other words, I want to be able to tell Google that I’m walking, and I want to know the fastest way to lunch. It would then know that unlike a car, I can take the people trail and give me directions.
They don’t know where the sidewalks and trails are. I think they don’t know becuase we as a country don’t map them. We have the Dept. of Transportation that does ROAD maps, but they don’t put the same standards to ped or bike maps. I think the solution should come from them, but I can see Google taking the short-cut and doing it on their own.
Whoo hoo! Masthead hyperlink and Comment Preview are back!
I live just three blocks from the Monon and use it frequently for doing errands by bicycle. Unfortunatley, that is a weekday only option as it is waaaay too busy on weekends (at least six months of the year). Some well-thought-out linking paths would be needed to take it from exercise path to errand path for most people. They are working on that downtown (as eclecticvibe mentioned above) but a 1-mile segment between the Monon and the newly refitted Glendale Mall, for example, would gain you access to a Marsh, Target, Staples, and Lowes.
And MORE BIKE RACKS PLEASE!!!
Brenda,
Columbus has a draft recommendation for enforcing bike racks much in the same way that handicap parking is done:
1 – 25 car parking, 0 bike parking
26 – 200 cars, 4 bikes
201 – 500 cars, 8 bikes
over 500 cars, 12 bikes
The idea is that if you’re going to build a new place with parking for 26 or more cars, you can afford a $400 bike rack and you should install one to make sure that everyone is served.
We’ll see if an ordinance actually makes it. I’m hopeful.
What a cool idea. It’s very frustrating not finding a place to tie up. Downtown Indy is horrible (there are actually signs around the downtown mall that say “no bikes”).
West Lake County is in a bit of a “pipeline alley”, being so close to the BP refinery. All the pipeline right of ways could be developed into trailways, if you got past the objections of BP, the other pipeline owners, and the adjacent landowners. It is a straight shot north from my house to the refinery, along an existing ROW. You’d be at Lake Michigan, not a bad place to be.
All the various ditches that turned the swamp that is the true Northwest Indiana into productive land could also be trailed on the banks of the ditch.
Not to mention all the abandoned rails like the Pennsy, which is almost literally in my back yard (the BP pipeline IS in my backyard).
Of course, if this oil thing plays out, we all might be biking on roads! Nobody will be able to afford to drive!
As for the safety aspect, on my first day of college <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18bike.html?_r=1&&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin”Linda Yalem was raped and murdered on the bike path that runs along the Erie Canal behind the University of Buffalo. Her murderer got away with it for 17 years.
So I don’t take bike path safety lightly. I wouldn’t jog alone if I were a woman.
But Indiana is a conceal carry state, and I myself would not feel threatened, as long as I was packing.
Just so you know what the bulge in my spandex pants really is. ;)
Damn link.
here
Take it you live pretty close to Munster Steel and the new Centennial Dump, er. I mean, Park.
I got a 32, which is rather deceptive. It’s difficult to walk a block or two here in Aboite without crossing a trail! We all walked to the local shopping center yesterday (one mile away), and barely touched any streets.
Mine is a 38. Here are the tweaks:
The school may be within walking distance, but local ordinance prohibits the kids from walking to it. Gotta take the bus.
Sure, there are two real grocery stores within a mile, but even though I do walk to the library, ice cream store, and post office, I’m really not going to haul all the groceries we buy a mile.
I could have a nice trail on the nearby Nickel Plate that we absolutely would use, as we did when we lived in Marion County closer to the Monon, but the damned track is going to stay and be used for a pointless light rail starter. We were praying it would be torn up and converted to trail. The Monon was the one thing (only thing for me) that seriously gave us pause about leaving Indy.
Far enough away from Centennial Dump that I can’t smell it!
That park is pretty awesome, though. Can’t wait for golf to open. My kids love the playground. If I had a dog, he’d be all over the dog park.
It’s right on the Pennsy, BTW. It will be a nice destination for riders at some point.