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rails and trails : background
A shared use path and an
active rail line.
In the early 1900's there were more than 300,000 miles of railroads carrying passengers and goods to all corners of the United States. With the consolidation of railroad companies and the rise of the automobile and the interstate system this network has now dwindled to less than 140,000 miles. Since as early as 1939, the corridors left behind by the railroads have been converted into places for people to walk and bicycle and the Rails to Trails Conservancy estimates that by 1999 there were more than 1,000 trails extending more than 10,000 miles throughout the United States.

The reasons why are easy to see. Rail corridors are straight, have gentle grades, and connect communities and the countryside. They provide a traffic-free environment where users can enjoy scenic views, get close to nature, rediscover the past, and gain access to downtown shopping, industrial areas, and new developments alike. Most importantly for transportation planners, the corridor is already in place and does not have to be pieced together as it would if the path were created from scratch.

Rail-trails offer a great many advantages to bicyclists and pedestrians, and also to the communities through which they pass. However, the development and design of rail-trails often take many years to complete.

In recent years, there has been a lot of interest in the possibility of having shared use paths run alongside active rail lines, with adequate separation and protection against trespassing, and on canal towpaths which share many of the same characteristics as railroad corridors.

Many of the best communities for bicycling and walking in the United States feature rail-trails as the backbone of their facility networks. The City of Seattle has the Burke Gilman Trail; in Washington DC the Capital Crescent and W&OD; trails link suburban Maryland and Virginia with the nation's capital; Boston's Minuteman Trail, Tampas's Pinellas Trail, and the Iron Horse Trail (www.ebparks.org/) in the San Francisco Bay area each carry hundreds of thousands of users every year.