Urban Trails Research Articles

Neighborhood Correlates of Urban Trail Use.

To model urban trail traffic as a function of neighborhood characteristics and other factors including weather and day of week. We used infrared monitors to measure traffic at 30 locations on five trails for periods ranging from 12 months to more than 4 y. We measured neighborhood characteristics using geographic information systems, satellite imagery, and US Census and other secondary data. We used multiple regression techniques to model daily traffic. The statistical model explains approximately 80% of the variation in trail traffic. Trail traffic correlates positively and significantly with income, neighborhood population density, education, percent of neighborhood in commercial use, vegetative health, area of land in parking, and mean length of street segments in access networks. Trail traffic correlates negatively and significantly with the percentage of neighborhood residents in age groups greater than 64 and less than 5. Trail traffic is significantly correlated with neighborhood characteristics. Health officials can use these findings to influence the design and location of trails and to maximize opportunities for increases in physical activity.

Urban Parks and Trails and Physical Activity

Urban parks and trails offer a significant venue for promoting active living. Public parks are accessible to most people, generally offer free year-round opportunities, and have the potential to play an essential role in promoting physical activity to contribute to healthier people and to prevent cardiovascular disease and obesity. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative summary of the research, within leisure studies and in related fields such as public health and urban planning, that describes the relationships between urban outdoor recreation venues, including parks, trails and green-ways, and opportunities for physical activity. Research is emerging that documents the associations that exist between urban parks and participation in physical activity. Limitations are noted and a rationale is made for conducting further research to explicate more clearly the links between urban parks and physically active people.

Recreation and Leisure Research from an Active Living Perspective: Taking a Second Look at Urban Trail Use Data

This paper examines recreation and leisure research within the context of active living, and highlights an apparent gap between the current involvement of recreation and leisure researchers and the potential they could offer to this important and expanding area of inquiry. To illustrate this potential, I looked at two previous studies that focused on the recreational use of urban trails and reanalyzed the data from an active living perspective. In Study 1, individual, social and environmental factors helped distinguish between low, moderate, and high activity level trail uses. In Study 2, use patterns helped distinguish between health-motivated trail users and individuals using trails for recreation and other purposes, but perceptual and demographic data were similar among groups. Findings from similar studies can help inform active living research, and recreation and leisure studies can provide leadership and contributions to a transdisciplinary understanding of active living.

Use of Greenway Trails in Indiana

The quality of existing data about the use of urban trails is poor, and planners need better data to plan new trails and manage existing ones. This note presents descriptive analyses of pedestrian and bicycle traffic counts taken with infrared counters on urban multiuse greenway trails in Indiana during the fall 2000 and spring 2001. Monthly traffic, average daily, weekday, and weekend traffic, and average hourly and peak hour traffic are presented for trails in six municipalities and for five locations on one trail in Indianapolis. Trail traffic was higher in municipalities with larger populations and higher on weekend days than on weekdays. Peak hour traffic accounted for higher proportions of traffic on weekdays than on weekend days. Traffic at different locations on one trail in Indianapolis varied considerably. Planners can use these results to estimate the demand for proposed trails, describe congestion, as inputs to benefit–cost analyses and level of service studies, and help manage use.

Commute Rates on Urban Trails: Indicators from the 2000 Census

During the past 10 years the U.S. Department of Transportation has spent $3.9 billion on bicycle and pedestrian facilities through the Transportation Enhancements Program. These funds have been distributed to 11,456 projects. Of these funds $2.53 billion has been spent on off-road trails, for 6,537 projects. Many of these projects have been built, and the question of the degree to which these trails are being used for transportation can be asked. The term "transportation trip" means that a person riding a bicycle on a trail is headed for a destination, such as work, shopping, or school. To explore the question, a geographic information system-based analysis using the block-group level of journey-to-work data from the 2000 census was performed on 13 trails in urban areas. The research explores the overall bike-to-work rate for households in the county in which the trail is located and compares that rate with that of the subset of households that are within 0.5 mi of the trail. The hypothesis that households closer to the trail would have a greater bike-to-work rate is supported by the data in 9 of the 13 analyzed trails. For those 9 trails, households within 0.5 mi of the trail show an average bike-to-work rate of 1.55% as compared with the average of the whole county of 0.52% and a national average of 0.4%. Additionally, fully 25% of bike commuters in those counties live within 0.5 mi of the trail. Factors that influence bicycle commute rates on trails are also reviewed.

Mobility impaired students could face access and location problems on entering Higher Education

This case study describes a wheelchair-using mature student’s personal experiences. It highlights some access problems which still exist in HE institutions with old buildings, limiting mobility-impaired students’ use of particular course facilities. The problems surrounding such students’ field research are discussed, together with their need for inclusion in field trips. The use of a wheelchair ’urban trail’ to experientially raise disability awareness amongst fit undergraduates, is also evaluated. It is hoped that this article might encourage further discussion as to how courses could be made inclusive to disabled students.

Urban Trails, Human Traps

Urban Trails, Human Traps

Perceptual geography through urban trails

Perception of our environment is subjective. Reality is influenced by personal experience, bias, interests, knowledge, cultural background, age and disability. This concept is exemplified through the planning, implementation and evaluation of an assignment whereby students design urban trails for users with special needs such as those with partial sight, or those with a particular interest. These assignments are designed to be student‐centred, related to the three major domains of learning and formally assessed. Assessment is by an evaluation of the information utilised by the user on the trail, together with a class presentation. Student evaluation is by questionnaire analysis and group discussion.

Integrating public safety and use into planning urban greenways

Greenways provide much-needed natural corridors and environments in urban and suburban areas, along with recreational, transportation and nature education opportunities for urban residents. However, there is a tension between the natural environment and public use in urban areas. Local residents' concerns for safety through clear sightlines and the use of lighting along trails may compromise the ecological integrity and natural character of urban greenways, whereas natural corridors in the city are often considered as being potentially unsafe, and therefore essentially inaccessible to use by many residents, particularly women, children, aging people and those with disabilities. As a result, the planning and development of safe urban trails within natural greenways can be challenging and contentious. Prospect and refuge theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding the human ecological dimensions of environmental design. Within this framework, a growing body of environment-behavior research provides useful principles for planning and designing greenways that are both ‘green’ and safe. These principles include: visibility of others, visibility by others, choice and control, solitude without isolation, and environmental awareness and legibility. This paper outlines the ‘safe communities’ approach developed in the city of Toronto, Canada, and applies it to the planning and design of trails in urban greenway systems through a series of planning guidelines, with particular reference to the Greater Toronto Area experience. The paper concludes that only when public safety is paramount will the necessary community support be built which will allow the successful integration of natural greenways into the fabric of metropolitan areas.

Fieldwork as theatre: a week's performance in venice and its region

Abstract The conventions of fieldwork are reassessed in the light of teaching a week's field course on the landscape and culture of Venice and its region. The metaphor of ‘theatre’ helps conceptualise the present post‐structuralist insistence on representation in relations between land and life, as well as the more traditional geographic emphasis on observation. The metaphor of theatre is articulated through the exercises of the fieldwork, including urban trails, coach trips, discussion sessions, group projects and, not least, the experience of living for a week in an Italian city.

Pupil initiatives in urban nature trail development: PMB MOSS and the Foxhill Spruit

A brief background to Greenbelt and urban nature trail development in Pietermaritzburg is provided. Negotiations and procedures initiated by standard 9 pupils in stimulating authorities and the public to recognise the need for urban trail development and metropolitan open space (MOSS) are outlined. long-term considerations and general recommendations, based on the development of a model trail along the Foxhill Spruit, are presented.

Urban Community Trails: Using the Community as a Learning Resource

Urban Community Trails: Using the Community as a Learning Resource