Introduction
Rails to trails is a concept that promotes a green and healthy lifestyle, including the physical activity of the population using natural and municipal resources. Interestingly, the US railroad system, which reached its peak in 1916, constituted the nation’s major trade routes that moved goods, fossil fuels, and passengers over more than 270,000 miles of railroads (Ferster, 2006). Subsequently, rail companies have been forced to close many routes due to the shift in logistics demand to air and trucking. The result was an urbanized but unused space that spanned many thousands of miles across the country and was the prerequisite for the rails to trails initiative to emerge. This paper aims to discuss how the rails to trails movement affect community recreation.
The History of the Issue
The abandonment of the railways started after WWII after the shift in transportation. The fitness boom, which reached its highest point of popularity in the 1960s and was presumably related to the hippie movement, increased the demand for parks and trails (Morgan, 1994). The communities were eager to participate in outdoor activities, such as cycling, jogging, and cross-country skiing (Morgan, 1994). Wisconsin was one of the first states that saw the decision of the problem of using abandoned rail-trails that were not otherwise used (Morgan, 1994). Rail trails provided unique opportunities for outdoor activity in scenic settings and with the function of alternative urban transportation since all the rail trails connected the big cities, including the spaces within the city limits. Over the decade, more companies continued to abandon their rails, which became an across-the-state issue. Therefore, Congress and local governments started to enact laws that regulated the use of rail trails in the interests of community recreation.
Legal Aspects
The first states to pay attention to the issue had developed railroad systems and a significant percentage of the urban population. The legislation has predominantly streamlined the transfer of “about-to-be abandoned rail corridors to recreational trails” (Morgan, 1994). The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 was one of the first laws that were authorized by the Interstate Commerce Commission and implied the 180 days of delay in the disposition of the rail property after the decision of abandonment was held. It thus stimulated the sale for public purposes, including for recreational trail use, since such a sale did not require a 180 days delay (Morgan, 1994). Another important piece of legislation was the National Trails System Act of 1983 which encouraged the creation of legal prerequisites for the transfer of land allocated for railways to recreational use. Interestingly, the ICC played a critical role in providing the regulation services.
Given the relevance of the topic, legislative decisions of converting the rights-of-way rails to recreational-purposed trails have become popular and were made within the framework of the National Trails System Act of 1983 (Allen, 2003). However, the question of ownership of land 60-70 years ago suddenly arose. Many railroad companies bought or leased land from local farmers to build railroads. Therefore, because of the popularity of the movement, farmers began to express dissatisfaction with the fact that instead of recreational purposes, the land should have been returned to its original owners, given that the companies stopped the intended use of the land.
In other words, two opposing groups of citizen trail organizations and opposing property owners have emerged in society. However, the farmers were not able to fully defend their ideas, since the transfer of land for public use for recreational purposes was already regulated by many laws. These laws consider abandonment procedure (federal laws), state laws for regulating rail banking, and state statutory controlling when the abandonment occurs, and whether the rail should pay fees, or not, to pacify the rebutting owners.
Trends
Despite some setbacks, the movement rapidly gained popularity, and trail systems expanded in many states. By the 1980s-1990s no less than 2400 miles of former railroads were in recreational use (Rails to Trails Conservancy, 2022). Today, the citizen trail organizations, such as “Rails to Trails Conservancy” report such phenomena as the Great American Rail Trail that crosses 12 states and serves some 50 million people across 3700 miles (Rails to Trails Conservancy, 2022). Other trends include using Google Maps for trail mapping – an activity of determining the future bicycle travel routes by searching for the trails that can be united.
Modern US citizens can get to natural and historical destinations using rail trails and trails. These include the Idaho Weiser River National Recreation Trail, Trails in the Evergreen State, and the National Water Trails system (Rails to Trails Conservancy, 2022). Other remarkable destinations include Howard Tunnel, Freeport Community Trail, Sandy Creek Trail, and Heritage Rail Trail Country Park (Rails to Trails, 2022). There is also plenty of bike shops that support the trail movement and sell trail gear. No less interesting, the trails led to the development of inns system along the popular routes, so that the trail-lovers could travel with comfort (Rails to Trails, 2022). Therefore, the popularization of the trail movement led to the development of green tourism and an increase in the levels of population well-being.
Pros and Cons
During the last 20 years, scientists have been analyzing some of the problems associated with the trail type of community recreation. Stich and Miller (2012) suggested some scholarly perspectives to enhance the understanding of the related economic development. They introduced the concepts of “Thomas Friedman’s flat world metaphor, Richard Florida’s spiky creative class world, and Michael Shuman’s localism” (Stich & Miller, 2012). The scholars applied this knowledge to determine whether the revitalization of the Columbus and Greenville Railroad in Mississippi is worth turning into a recreational trail.
The scholars concluded that the governmental bodies should apply the agency perspective and support the recreational movement. This perspective will be valuable in terms of policy and rules development. Through such support, some important achievements can be made, such as promoting equality in health and wellbeing opportunities in social life, supporting local communities, and flat development with an initiative that originates from local communities. Therefore, the support of citizens’ well-being, initiative, and tendency to create and discover is among the main pros of the rails to trails movement.
Some of the cons include the need for regulation in the movements of rail, vehicles, pedestrians, and bikes. Alligood et al. (2018) implies that the more organized rails to trails system of rules and laws will decrease the growing number of conflicts between the community participants. Therefore, the conflicts based on the aspirations to get benefit from the public and recreational spaces are among the key cons related to the issue.
No less important, given the historical perspective and trends presented above, some additional controversies could be found. First, there is still some level of misunderstanding between the local land owners and tourists, and this ingrained conflict may be seen as one of the cons. The governments, especially the local governments, can overcome the problematic issue by drawing on the opportunities that tourism brings to the locals. Hotels, restaurants, bike shops, and tourism souvenirs trade are only a few beneficial ideas.
At the same time, there is still a lack of attention to the movement from the local and state governments in terms of trail marketing and organization. Although community recreation does not bring money to local budgets, this is still a service provided by the government to the population. Therefore, the state and local governments should show initiative in cooperation with the citizen groups and help them invite more participants to trail tourism. Cycling is an incredibly healthy and sustainable activity that improves the quality of life for many people. The increased levels of health and well-being will decrease mean spending in the healthcare field, and will also boost the local economies to some extent. No less important, the governments could support the civil organizations in legally protecting the rails to trails initiatives, since there are still some misunderstandings in this regard. Seeing the issue from an agency perspective will ensure a sustainable base for the further development of the initiative.
Conclusion
Thus, it was discussed how the rails to trails movement affect the community recreation. The rails to trails movement has been popular for almost 60 years. During this time, civil associations were able to assert the right of the phenomenon to exist and implement many tourism initiatives within the framework of free tourism. However, if local and state governments will adopt the agency perspective regarding this issue, they will in many ways support the civil groups, which may face some pressure from the owners’ discontent and lack of tools in engaging more community members. The increased participation in the users of the trails will mean better health indicators for the community members, and some economic boost to the districts that are located along the trails, and the end-of-the-route tourism destinations.
References
Allen, R. A. (2003). Does the Rails-to-Trails Act affect the taking of property? Transparency LJ, 31, 35.
Alligood, A. B., Sheth, M., Goodchild, A., McCormack, E., & Butrina, P. (2018). Rails-next-to-trails: A methodology for selecting appropriate safety treatments at complex multimodal intersections. Transportation Research Record, 2672(10), 12-27.
Ferster, A. C. (2006). Rails-to-trails conversions: A review of legal issues. Planning & Environmental Law, 58(9), 3-9.
Morgan, S. H. (1994). Rails to trails: On the right track. Property Issues, 8, 10. 4
Rails to Trails. (2022). Rail to trail destinations. Web.
Rails to Trails Conservancy (2022). Trail#Moments. Web.
Stich, B., & Miller, C. R. (2012). Economic development perspectives and the policy process: The case of railroad revitalization versus rails-to-trails. Administration & Society, 44(4), 438-457.