Bicyclists Prominent At Important Trails Conference
IMBA Trail News
Volume 11, Number 1
March-April 1998
By Gary Sprung
The First International Trails and Greenways Conference, held in late January in San Diego, California, demonstrated that mountain bicycling is increasingly accepted as a credible element of the rapidly growing trails movement.
Several national, state and local IMBA leaders joined almost 700 people to celebrate our shared mission of linking the nation -- even the world -- with trails. The Rails To Trails Conservancy (RTC) organized the event.
IMBA board member Jim Hasenauer presented the efforts of the National Mountain Bike Patrol. Daniel Greenstadt, director of the San Diego Mountain Bike Association, staffed a booth to emphasize the responsible, active role cyclists play in that city's trail community. I served on a panel with an equestrian from San Diego and the editor of Walking Magazine to demonstrate the process of resolving trail user conflicts (but we often agreed with each other, so much that there was little conflict to resolve). Perhaps the best sign for mountain bikers came at the one-day California Trails Conference, held at the beginning of the big event: Fewer participants seemed hostile to our sport compared to previous years' conferences.
The RTC conference focused more on urban areas and railtrails than on the backcountry and singletracks. That probably helped bicyclists, because just about everyone in the trails movement understands the potential for bicycling to help solve transportation problems, and bikes are allowed on most urban greenways and railtrails.
Signs of success were plentiful. For example, California has increased trail funding from $360,000 per year, to $1 million this year, and plans to spend $5 million by the year 2000. RTC President David Burwell noted that the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Act (ISTEA) created a 4,000 percent increase in trails funding in the last six years. Much of that went to bicycling facilities.
Burwell called trails and greenways "a new form of public space." He suggested, "The future of transportation in this country is community based. Communities will build small scale projects that enhance the landscape, not obliterate it." The U.S. total of built railtrails reached 10,000 miles just before the conference, he announced.
Even the U.S. Department of Transportation is now supporting trails. John Horsley, DOT's assistant secretary for government affairs, commented, "How many people turn out for the dedication of a highway off-ramp? They turn out in droves for the dedication of a trail or a restored canal." Horsley announced the release of another $7.3 million for the first half of 1998 funding for the National Recreational Trails Fund -- the federal program most important to mountain bicyclists because it funds backcountry trails -- and he noted that both the U.S. House and Senate are planning higher NRTF funding in the next version of ISTEA.
The international component of the conference introduced us to wonderful trails efforts in Europe, Canada and Australia. On January 8 of this year, activists in eight nations came together to create the European Greenways Association. The Belgian National Railways recently donated to the EGA several thousand miles of abandoned rail corridor, along with a railway station to serve as EGA headquarters. Canada is planning a 15,000-mile trail from coast to coast and north to the Arctic. The Trans Canada Trail Foundation has already raised $3.5 million from 70,000 donors.
Most impressive was the National Cycling Network now under construction by Sustrans, the British version of RTC. Sustrans began as a bicycling organization, but now has evolved to the become the best hope for decreasing automobile gridlock. In 1995, the national government gave Sustrans 42 million pounds -- roughly $65 million -- to convert abandoned railway grades and canal towpaths to trails. At least 4,000 miles will be constructed by 2000, with much more on the way. John Grimshaw, founder and director of Sustrans, noted that traffic in the English countryside is forecast to triple within 20 years. "We use greenways as a catalyst. We want to bring about a wider change," he commented. Another English group is developing a 300-mile mountain bike trail along the spine of the Penine Mountains.
Despite all this progress, conference participants remained acutely aware that trails receive minimal funding compared to roads in our Western Civilization. Keynote speaker James Kuntsler, author of "The Geography of Nowhere," warned of the perils of suburban sprawl. "We have created tens of thousands of places that are not worth caring about. They may add up to a nation that is not worth defending."
Kathy Spangler of the National Recreation and Parks Association pointed to the Surgeon General's data which indicates that 80% of adult Americans do not get enough physical activity to improve their health. She worried that trails may "only serve that twenty to thirty percent who are highly motivated." She suggested that by "creating connections to health, we can present, promote, document and communicate the value of parks and trails." And, she added, we can make it fun.
The Fun Angle is perhaps the biggest contribution which mountain bicycling can offer the trails movement. I finished the conference feeling quite confident in our future role.
