Will Missouri's Rock Island Trail benefit its communities? Experience with VA's Virginia Creeper Trail says yes
With the statewide Rock Island Trail inching ever closer to reality, Rock Island Communities and landowners along the trail have been asking the question: Does a trail really benefit to the communities it passes through?
The Virginia Creeper Trail passing through rural Virginia is one case study that gives a resounding answer--yes, it does:
Today the sleepy towns of Abingdon and Damascus welcome about 250,000 trail riders a year, more than 25 times their combined populations. The trail is an economic engine for the communities, generating business for bike shuttle services, rental cottages, restaurants and shops. . . .
“The trail has proven to be a tremendous asset,” Boucher says. The Town of Abingdon couldn’t agree more. According to Tenille Montgomery, former marketing coordinator for the town, studies show that each overnight trail visitor spends more than $700 while staying in the area.
And according to the town’s best estimates, trail-related tourism revenues stand at about $25 million a year.
Merchants aren’t the only beneficiaries. Wayne Miller, president of the Virginia Creeper Trail Club, says homeowners have seen jumps in property value, the artisans and musicians of an Abingdon-based folk-culture collective are finding new outlets, and farmers enjoy growing demand for their produce. In fact, some of the farmers who once vocally opposed the trail—Moore’s old patients—now leave baskets of free vegetables and flowers for trail users.
And trespassing on private land hasn’t been a problem: The trail’s woods, rolling hills and meadows—and 47 trestles over gorges and rivers—keep riders focused on the adventure in front of them.
Read the rest of the story--with many more details of the issues faced by landowners and trail supporters, and how they worked together to overcome them and turn the trail into a major success for the local communities and local economies, in the Winter 2015 issue of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's magazine.
More information about the Virginia Creeper Trail here and here.
More information about Missouri's Rock Island Trail here.
Creating a world-class bicycle and pedestrian transportation system in Missouri--including a complete, connected statewide trail network--is one of four major goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri.
Working towards major statewide connections like the Rock Island Trail is a very important part of our statewide advocacy work.
Your membership and generous financial support helps make our Vision become reality--and helps make projects like the Rock Island Trail happen.
Photo credit: Virginia Creeper Trail 2014 by Ell Christman (FlickR, CC BY 2.0 license)
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