Beyond Greenways

Annotated Table of Contents

Beyond Greenways

The Next Step in City Trails and Walking Routes

Robert Searns

Prologue

After a lengthy career of planning and developing greenways and trails, particularly in urban areas, the author asked, “What’s next? Are there new ways to shape these kinds of spaces that expands outdoor opportunities to a broader population and offers ways to move about more freely on the landscape?” In contemplating this question, two epiphanous encounters led to a new vison for a next generation of the greenways concept. The first came when visiting Jeju Olle, a 271-loop trail, built primarily for walking, that encircles South Korea’s Jeju Island along its edges The second inspiration came at a citizen’s meeting in Commerce City, Colorado where two elderly ladies said they “just wanted nice places to walk, close to home where they didn’t have to dodge bikes” These experiences inspired the author to set out on foot to explore a new trails concept by trekking the entire perimeter of Metro Denver and then going on several shorter in-town loop walks. From this emerged a new paradigm: grand loops and town walks. They are not linear like most greenways but loops primarily for

walking. In addition to offering a novel type of trail, could these form a new kind of overlay park and template for green spaces

Introduction

With the barrage of breaking news, political conflict, pandemics, and climate change many feel confined. On top of this, screen time to escape has increased sedentary behavior worsening already staggering health impacts such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In the face of this, the CDC cites the need for “safe, convenient, places to walk . . . places to move about . . . protected from traffic and safe from crime and hazards.” There is also the need to just get away, to be able to roam on the land. With the overcrowding and overuse of existing parks, trails and backcountry places, this need is even more critical, including assuring access by diverse populations. We not only need more places to walk, but we also want to encourage the millions that don’t participate to also engage and realize the physical and mental health benefits. Addressing these and other concerns, this book suggests a new generation of trails: grand loop trails and town walks Grand loop trails are longer-distance routes that encircle cities running along the parameters where city meets countryside. Town walks are 2- to 6mile loops built in neighborhoods, downtowns, or other urban and suburban places. Both embrace characteristics of greenways but go a step further with a new kind of geometry. Several places including Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Denver, have this kind of infrastructure in place or planned. Building on the legacy of parks, parkways, and greenways, this book provides guidance for envisioning, laying out, and promoting more of these routes realizing the benefits: wellbeing; economic development; improving the character and property values of neighborhoods; and providing new places to just have fun!

Chapter 1: The Next Step for City Trails and Walking Routes

We seek places to enjoy the outdoors and find solace, many of us by walking or hiking, but it has become increasingly difficult to find these places. Ken Ilgunas, author of Trespassing across America, writes that “even where there aren’t signs, Americans know they don’t have the implicit permission to visit their town’s neighboring woods, fields, and coastlines. Long gone are the days when we could.” According to the Trust for Public Lands, more than 100 million Americans “don’t have a park close to home” and this applies to “income neighborhoods and communities of color.” This chapter looks at how grand loops and town walks can address these challenges to enable walkability in urban and suburban settings We explore the evolution of adaptive green infrastructure, from the boulevards of Paris to Olmsted’s parkways of the 19th Century, to the greenway movement of the late 20th Century as a counterpoint to urbanization and, these days, particularly to the dominance of the automobile) Grand loops and town walks are a next step. The nomenclature for this new walking loop geometry is laid out with four types defined. In addition to grand loops, that encircle cities, the author proposes town walks. There are three types of these of closer-in, quality, walkable pathways destination walks, community walks and doorstep walks. In creating these routes, we focus on designing a quality, pleasurable, safe experiences where so that a broad cross section of people is encouraged, enabled, and motivated to enjoy them. Rather than following geological features dictated by the terrain, these loops typically cut across the grain of the land, not confined to established corridors such as rivers or rail routes. Being more flexible, they can connect more places and landscapes together and reach more people. They also offer a way to “travel light” with a daypack not a heavy backpack. In most cases, you just need your feet to enjoy them.

Chapter 2: Grand Loop Trails: Configurations and Themes

Grand loop trails run along and around the edges of urban areas mostly between city and countryside. They are created primarily for foot travel, though other uses may be considered. There is no single grand loop shape or modality. Depending on site conditions, surfaces, and landscape character, the alignment will vary, and the characteristics can change. Variations in the character and geometry are part of the picture and this promotes creativity and interest and different cities may have their own unique grand loop characteristics. Grand loops can have varied configurations and geometries including a loop all the way around the outer edges of a city, a hybrid loop partly on the edges and partly through the city, or a network with hubs and spokes that link city centers and neighborhoods to a grand loop on the metro edge. There could be smaller local loops attached to a grand loop and there could be “baby grand” loops surrounding smaller cities and towns. Grand loops and town walks could be woven together forming a kind of “regional park” overlay and grand loops can connect to long distance trails that link to other cities. There is considerable flexibility and levels of development for grand loops from rudimentary pathways to fully developed trails provided they are safe, pleasant and there are no dead ends. Similarly, types of trips and trip lengths can vary from a day’s outing to a multi-week trek. In each instance visitors can “travel light” with only a daypack because properly planned grand loops offer “service nodes” in the villages and hamlets along the way to get provisions, have a meal or spend the night. Grand loops can promote “greenbelt” conservation and “urban shaping” by defining and showcasing city edge open spaces and views. They can be tourist destinations drawing both locals and visitors from afar as a great way to experience a city or region. Because this are relatively close in, they can offer diverse and equitable access to a broad cross section of the population.

Chapter 3: Town Walks: Configurations and Themes

Town walks can have different sizes, shapes, and ambiances, though, ideally, each walk should have its own special features and pleasures. The goal is to bring safe, comfortable, pleasant places to walk, run and “urban hike” to more people. It’s also about communities pursuing walkability policies with convenient, abundant access to walking routes from doorsteps, workplaces, and lodging. Though primarily for recreation and fitness, whenever practical, they should also serve as routes to destinations such as parks, schools, shops, civic centers, and points of interest. Like grand loops, there are various workable levels of development from high-end fully improved, furnished, and landscaped routes to more rudimentary walks to improvised do-it-yourself pathways. There can even be temporary designated routes created for special events or weekend use that may later evolve into more permanent routes. A town walk can be a loop around a neighborhood, a loop attached to a greenway, or a route that starts out from a transit station. Ultimately, town walks can be woven together and interconnect with grand loops forming “green networks”. Town walks can be theme based, showcasing historic, cultural, or artistic elements and become “armatures of green” lined with trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers. They can be, in effect, an “overly park”, and more. Because they overlay the human-built cityscape of sidewalks and streets, and thus more accessible than traditional parks and greenways, they can be located just about anywhere, more ubiquitous enabling and promoting routine, everyday use.

Chapter 4: Guiding Principles and Attributes

It is important to have guidelines to set a standard of quality for what will be built and a comprehensive list of attributes to consider for planning enjoyable, safe, buildable, and maintainable projects. The list in this chapter is a starting point. There are multiple

resources including trail and pedestrian master plans published by many jurisdictions often found online. Ten guiding principles are listed from planning to provide a highquality experience to promoting resource stewardship to creating a legacy resource. In addition to guiding principles there are planning attributes that will shape the trail experience and frame the opportunities, challenges, and constraints of the project. These include understanding the environmental setting of the trails and walks, who will use them and how they will them. User comfort and amenities such as access points, rest areas and wayfinding factor in. Safety, risk management and maintainability are key and equitable access as well as accessibly by people of different ability levels is considered.

Pathway continuity and connectivity also factor in.

Chapter 5: Laying Out a Route

Overcoming barriers and laying out a route is about assembling resources, solving problems, and making deals. It can be daunting but having an inspiring, workable plan and support in place helps. So does the ability to adjust, improvise, to adapt and not be discouraged. Patience, preparedness, politeness, and persistence are four important mindsets for success. Securing rights-of-way is key and there are tactics for this including finding the “low hanging fruit” like finding large existing publicly owned parcels, street rights of way and existing sidewalks that can be strung together. As part of the process, this chapter addresses tactics for making deals with land owners, city engineers and other key players. We look at the key aspects of routes layout and design including ways to enhance the experience and to buffer trails and walks from potentially incompatible adjacent land uses and activities. A range of trail tread types are described emphasizing that because grand loops and town walks are primarily walking routes there if flexibility, even mixing and matching types from natural surface backcountry trails to paved hike/bike paths to pedestrian ways integrated into low traffic low speed

streets. Techniques for overcoming barriers such as busy streets, difficult terrain, and going through unsavory neighborhoods are presented

Chapter 6: Making a Plan

This chapter lays out the ways to effectively implement grand loops and town walks by creating effective, inspiring plans, and putting the leadership in place to make it happen It outlines how to go from an idea to a built reality starting with formulating a vision and going on to the next steps including drafting an appealing concept plan and ultimately refining it into a detailed master plan. Unlike traditional greenways, grand loops and town walks usually cut across the grain. This leaves more freedom to envision potential routes, but there are new challenges because there is not a clear path like a river or rail route to follow. In this chapter, we look at professional services needed like legal serves, rights of way acquisition, design and engineering and how to work with these experts. We look at cost estimating, budgeting, and funding tactics as well as how to build constituencies of community support. There is an emphasis on planning with a mindset of implementation, organizing to make things happen, with tactics for formulating an action plan and a catalytic, logical roster of projects that can assure successive ribbon cuttings until the project is complete.

Chapter 7: Building Support, Engaging the Public, and Motivating Trail Users

To become a reality, any plan needs a constituency, particularly among those who have access to resources and decision-making regarding approvals. With the concept and action plan in hand, it’s time to assemble a team to make it happen. We look at the leadership components from the people the first envision the idea to the influential

community “champions” who will promote the project, to the “worker bees” including the project managers who will organize and shepherd the project though to completion. Several organization models are examined including: a single-agency lead; multiple agencies and jurisdictions working in concert, public–private partnerships and even private individuals building a project on private lands There is also a model where there no central authority, where one jurisdiction creates a project and other entities along and envisioned route pick up on the idea and the result is a cohesive system. The chapter then goes on the look at ways to encourage, enable and motivate uses looking a various demographic groups and levels of interest from ardent outdoors enthusiasts to those who don’t engage at all. We consider what motivates people to use trails and walks routinely and at ways to overcome the fears and disincentives many that inhibit many people from getting out there. The chapter wraps up with a discussion of building a brand and getting the word out through various media outlets from tradition print and broadcast to on-line “influencers.”

Chapter 8: Plans, Visions, and Thought Experiments

This chapter wraps up the book by considering how the template of grand loops and town walks can be replicated, how like the greenway movement, enabled by successful examples, they could spread widely to diverse places, settings, and climates. This is done with a series of “thought experiments what-ifs. To carry out this exercise, using Google Maps and other resources, imaginary grand loop routes are laid out around Dallas, TX, Toronto, Canada, Buffalo, NY and Sarasota, FL. We “trek” each of these routes in our minds envisioning the journey and enjoying the unique features of each place along the way. A town walk route is tested out in Washington, DC, a potential branded walking loop that centers on the 11th Street Bridge Park that could link the Anacostia Neighborhood of Washington, DC with the East Hill District tying together two long divided areas separated by both a river and significant income and

demographic differences. The chapter wraps up with a call to action that sets out to implement a new template for a new green layer that enhances our urbanized and urbanizing places.

Appendix: Helpful Resources

This is a list of selected manuals, plans, reports, inspiring books, and organizations that can offer handy guidance and information of those who want to delve further.