XPost: rec.bicycles.misc
42-mile cycling 'super highway' in Cincinnati announced
Carrie Blackmore Smith,
csmith@enquirer.com 6:47 p.m. EST December
16, 2015
Robin Corathers hopes Cincinnati Connects, a plan for a 42-mile
continuous "super highway" trail, becomes reality in her lifetime.
"And I'm getting old, folks," Corathers joked to a roomful of trail,
health and environmental advocates from around Cincinnati and Hamilton
County, as they sipped their coffee at Coffee Emporium In
Over-the-Rhine at the plan's announcement Wednesday.
It's the first time an uninterrupted loop trail around Cincinnati has
ever been proposed, Corathers said, and it won't come cheap or easy.
It will take commitment and a dogged search for funding from people
all around town, she said.
But building the trail, which would run through 32 of Cincinnati's 52 neighborhoods, would be worth it, said Corathers, whose organization
Groundwork Cincinnati has been leading the Cincinnati Connects effort.
"We want people of all ages and abilities, income levels, throughout
the city, to be able to get on the trail and travel through the entire
city of Cincinnati without a vehicle," Corathers said.
It's about transportation alternatives, health and economic vitality;
about connecting people to job centers, supermarkets and recreation,
Corathers said.
This trail would act as a "skeleton" for connecting to other trails in
Hamilton County and beyond. It calls for connecting four trails that
have been in the works for years: the Oasis Trail, Wasson Way, Mill
Creek Greenway and Ohio River Trail West, all in different stages –
mostly early – of completion.
A map representing Cincinnati Connects, the vision of a 42-mile loop
trail around Cincinnati and connecting to existing trails in Hamilton
County. (Photo: Provided)
Click or tap here for a full size version of the map above.
The organizations have been searching for funding for years for their
trails.
They know disappointment, including the recent failure of a Cincinnati
Parks levy, which likely would have funded the four trail groups.
But Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune said now that area
governments and trail and health organizations are collaborating and
have a road map, Cincinnati Connects should get traction for state or
federal funding.
As chair of Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District,
Portune said the district will support the project in an application
next year for state funding from the Ohio Department of
Transportation.
"What benefits the city, benefits the county," said Portune, who is
also a past president of OKI Regional Council of Governments. "This
issue of connected trails is being embraced all through Hamilton
County. Small city mayors, township trustees, village administrators,
you name it.
"I know that because I've been out there meeting with them all," the commissioner said.
Without investing in trails the region misses out, Portune said.
He finds building the trail "very important; as we compete for
businesses, as we compete for new investment, and, importantly, as we
compete for people," Portune said. That depends on "where people want
to settle. Where they want to live. Where they want to raise a family.
Where they want to be for the rest of their lives."
Portune said we do not rank well compared to peer metropolitan areas
with which Cincinnati and Hamilton County competes.
The plan, not including the four long-planned trails, is estimated to
cost $21 million, Corathers said.
"This is not a pipe dream," Corathers said. The roughly 250-page
report includes preliminary designs, route options along with
cost/benefis analyses, paid for with a $186,000 grant from Interact
for Health.
"This is step one," Corathers said.
Step two is finding the money from both public and private sources,
Corathers said.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/12/16/cincinnati-bike-loop-connection-trails/77421080/
---
news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints:
news@netfront.net ---
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)