What Makes a Good Trail?

To better advocate for the kind of walking and biking infrastructure it wants to see in a regional trail network, the Capital Trails Coalition has set out to define the components of a high-quality trail.

1 minute read

April 25, 2017, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Pedestrian Safety

Artem Avetisyan / Shutterstock

Bryan Barnett-Woods reports on an effort by the Capital Trails Coalition to identify and adopt consistent criteria for the evaluation of trails in the D.C. region.

"When the understanding of what a trail is varies, it's hard to create a true regional network that people of all abilities are comfortable using," explains Barnett-Woods of the problem facing active transportation advocates in the region. To better promote the creation of a regional network of trails, Capital Trails Coalition first laid out criteria for the components of a high-quality trail.

Barnett-Woods list the criteria, with more detail in the article to describe each point:

  • Be separate from automobiles
  • Be wide
  • Have paved or hard surfaces
  • Connect to other trails or destinations
  • Accommodate both transportation and recreation
  • Be a project that’s realistic to build now or sometime soon
  • Follow uniform design standards

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