Barriers and Opportunities for Using Rail-Trails for Safe Travel in Rural, Isolated, and Tribal Communities

This project explored barriers and opportunities for more effectively using rail-trails for safe travel in rural, isolated, tribal, and indigenous communities. The authors investigated using crowdsourced data from a fitness app to estimate bicycle volumes on trails. For 10 locations this new method produced suitable results, but for 19 locations the method was not satisfactory. Future research could identify situations in which this new method is feasible. The authors also created a new mapping tool to get demographic data surrounding locations where new rail-trails could be built. The authors identified 8,616 miles of potential rail-trail in the Pacific Northwest and explored the surrounding demographics for 12 locations in rural communities in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The authors conducted two separate surveys to solicit community member opinions and usage habits of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.

• Record URL:
  http://hdl.handle.net/11122/12528
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/61028
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Center for Safety Equity in Transportation

  University of Alaska Fairbanks
  Fairbanks, AK  United States  99775

  Department of Transportation

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration
  ,    

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Lowry, Michael
  • Chang, Kevin
• Publication Date: 2021-11-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Research Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 70p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle counts; Bikeways; Crowdsourcing; Demographics; Pedestrian areas; Pedestrian counts
• Geographic Terms: Pacific Northwest
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01789287
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: INE/CSET 21.12
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747129
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Nov 23 2021 9:01AM