Quote:
Originally Posted by vid
I thought the US already had a nationwide bike trail system?
|
Yes and no. We have a nationwide national trail system in which most of the trails are multi-purpose trails (but not, for example, the Appalachian Trail), and local trail networks of varying extents and planned extents in the major metros, but no real cohesive national
explicitly multi-use trail system.
Although I would bet that, just as the Interstates were built around the extant parkways and turnpikes (like the New York State Thruway and the Pennsylvania Turnpike), the bike trail system will be built around the extant and under-construction trails already in place (e.g. the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal/Great Allegheny Passage system from D.C. to Pittsburgh or the East Coast Greenway).
P.S. According to
this page, the Great Allegheny Passage also provides a bike bypass of central Pittsburgh, via its south and west, as well as a way to get there. Pretty cool.
P.P.S. It would be cool to be a systematized bike-trail-numbering scheme, like the U.S. Highways or Interstates. It would also easily show how the extant network would fit into the eventual system.