Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter March 2006

Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
March 2006

It’s 20 March 2006 and the crocus in our yard our blooming! I think Spring is here!
I have new information for you about the trails in the Miami Valley. Please read on.

Trail Construction and Improvements.

Website Changes and Improvements

Did You Know Department

Announcements of Upcoming Cycling Events

Trail Construction and Improvements

Milford to Avoca Park Construction Starts – In a previous newsletter I told you that Hamilton County Parks was planning for the extension of the Little Miami Scenic Trail from Milford (current trail’s end) to Lunken Airport about 9 miles. I added a webpage to my website Milford to Lunken Airport and provided information and construction pictures. As of 1 March 2006 construction has started on the 2.5 miles of trail from Milford through the City of Terrace Park (At last!) to Avoca. It will be finished this year.
- I have updated my webpage with new photographs to show the current round of construction. The new photos were provided by my “spies” in the area; Mr. Mike Mueller and Mr. Dave Dumbacher. When you look at the webpage, be sure to click on the “Hamilton County Parks Map” to see all of their plans for construction. I am told that South of Lunken Airport that trail is called the Ohio River Trail. The Hamilton County Parks District reported the following"
- “The State of Ohio, Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has started construction on the trail segment from Milford through Terrace Park to a point east of the new trailhead at Avoca Park. ODNR is scheduled to complete its segment by September 2006. The Avoca Park trailhead restroom will be operational starting in spring 2006. The Hamilton County Park District has completed a trail segment from the Avoca Trailhead to Bass Island on the south side of the Little Miami Scenic River. In spring 2006 the Park District will pave a short segment from Bass Island to Little Miami Golf Center.
- The Park District is working on engineering for the trail segment from Little Miami Golf Center to Clear Creek Park on Route 32. This segment is currently scheduled to begin work in late 2007. Anderson Park District will construct a short segment through their soccer facility to reach Route 32. The Park District is continuing to negotiate with a property owner for a portion of the corridor needed along Route 32 to Beechmont Ave.”

Website Changes and Improvements

New Webpage for Approved Trail Projects - I have added a new webpage to the site for approved CY 2005 bicycle projects. So far I have added only those projects funded in Montgomery, Miami and Greene County. The projects in these three counties are funded by Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) which is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for those counties. I am hoping to get funding information about the other counties in the Miami Valley from their respective MPOs.
Milford to Lunken Airport Webpage Updated - I received new pictures of the trail from my correspondents Mr. Dave Dumbacher and Mr. Mike Mueller who live in the area. I have updated this webpage showing new construction, new maps and new aerial photos of the work in progress. (See above article more information).
New Webpage for Ohio River Trail - This trail will run along the Ohio River West from the Village of New Richmond 16 miles to downtown Cincinnati. As it passes Lunken Airport a spur from it will connect this planned trail to the Little Miami Scenic Trail (LMST). As many of you know the LMST has been stopped for years at Milford, Ohio. But now the trail is being built South to Avoca through Terrace Park (see article above). Eventually the LMST and the Ohio River Trail will meet near State Route 52 (Kellogg Ave) and Salem Road just South of Lunken Airport. OKI has a beautiful brochure on the trail. You can get a copy by going to OKI’s “Ohio River Trail: Feasibility Study Recommendations" at: http://www.oki.org/transportation/bike/ohioriver.html Call the number at the bottom of the page or email Mr. Don Burrell for a copy.

Did You Know Department

Bike Trail Users Statistics – I was doing some research on the number of persons that use bicycle trails and found the following:
- Little Miami Scenic Trail - I was looking for data on the number of trail users on the Little Miami Scenic Trail. The users on the Little Miami Scenic Park portion of the LMST were estimated to be 539,000 users in 2005! The data came from Caesar’s Creek State Park the organization that manages the Little Miami Scenic Park. About 50 miles of the Little Miami Scenic Trail in Greene, Warren, Clermont and Hamilton counties are managed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Compare that to an estimate of 155,000 users in 1999 developed by the Warren County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
- North Carolina Study - In North Carolina the trail on the Outer Banks provided over $60M in revenue to businesses in the area. They estimated that the area received nine times as much in revenues as the trails cost to build. Three-fourths of the study respondents indicated that more bicycle facilities should be built, and nine out of 10 surveyed believe state and federal tax dollars should be used to do it. You can download and read the study: Click Here|
Downtown Dayton Whitewater Park Feasibility Study - I have recently been asked to publicize this meeting. The meeting will be held on Thursday 30 March, 2006 7:00 PM at Wegerzyn MetroPark 1301 Siebenthaler Avenue, Dayton Ohio 45414-5357. Call 937-275-PARK for more information. As some of you remember Five Rivers MetroParks has started a study to determine if they should build a whitewater park on the Mad River. All those interested should come to the meeting. See the link above and here for the Meeting Flyer (Adobe File)
Five Rivers MetroParks Acquires More Land – Recently our parks district purchased more land in two locations.

Dayton and MVRPC Considering Traffic Flow Change in Downtown - (Repeated from Feb. newsletter)

(Mar. 06 Added) See Ken McCall's Get Out Blog (Dayton Daily News 10 Mar 06) for another article about the "One Way to Two Way Study".
The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC) and the City of Dayton recently embarked on a study of the downtown Dayton street grid to examine the feasibility of converting as many streets as possible from one-way to two-way traffic. The city established the one-way streets back in the mid-1950s when downtown was the employment center of the Miami Valley. This was pre-I-75, when NCR alone employed 30,000 people. Besides NCR, there many other major employers in the downtown area, including Harrison Radiator, Frigidaire, Dayton Tire, McCall's and Dayton Press. Literally thousands of people flowed through the Dayton street grid to jobs every day. Those companies and jobs, except for NCR, are all gone.
        Today the traffic flow in downtown Dayton is very different from that era. There is little congestion and traffic jams seldom happen. The streets have more capacity than is needed for current traffic. Since there is now excess traffic capacity, there is an opportunity to consider changing lanes on some streets from automotive to bicycle use. Please consider adding your support to this idea which I feel has a great deal of merit.
        In the City of Dayton four significant trails meet. They are the Wolf Creek Recreational Trail, Mad River Recreation Trail, Stillwater River Recreation Trail and the Great Miami River Recreation Trail. The street system and the trail system have no current connectivity. That could change as a result of this study. Consider what could happen if the trail system and the street system were tied together in a meaningful way. That would allow a much greater level of bicycle use for commuters and other trail users who want to get from one place to another without using an automobile. If the study were to include consideration for:
        1. Lanes converted for bicycle use
        2. Connections between streets and multi-use trails and
        3. An integrated signage system to tie the two together
then transportation in the City of Dayton could be greatly enhanced for cyclists.
        I am asking my readers to write to the planners conducting the study to support these ideas as critical to their two-way street study. Five Rivers MetroParks and the Miami Conservancy District have already endorsed the idea about the two-way study at public meetings, but we need all the support we can get from both the cycling community and the general public to add these additional considerations to the two-way study. I encourage you to send your written support to:

MVRPC
Mr. Paul W. Arnold
One Dayton Center, Suite 260
Dayton, OH 45402
parnold@mvrpc.org

Tetra Tech
Bryan Newell, AICP
1328 Dublin Road, Suite 201A
Columbus, OH 43215
Bryan.Newell@ttmps.com

You can see information about the study at MVRPC. You can read about the study and its schedule as well as download or order the Downtown Dayton Street Grid Street Direction Conversion Study. Please support what I have outlined above, by reading about the plan and then writing to lend you support to adding cycling considerations to the existing plan.

Announcements of Upcoming Cycling Events
(Also See Events Page )

None this month

Regards to all,

Thomas J. Recktenwalt
Webmaster
Miami Valley RailTrails
http://www.miamivalleytrails.org

If you find these newsletters and my Miami Valley RailTrails website of use to you, please pass the information on to your friends and neighbors who might enjoy our wonderful system of multi-use trails in Southwest Ohio. Then they can write me and get on the mailing list to get their own copy of the newsletter. Our trail system is wonderful for walking, running, in-line skating, birding, fishing and cycling and on some trails horseback riding. You see more wildlife from one of our trails than most anyplace else. All of my newsletters are posted to my website at the same time I send you this text version. The URL for your use is: http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/join_our_mailing_list.htm

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