Denton Trails Part 2: City Trails Inspiration
This summer, my family explored two city trail systems: the Razorback Greenway in Northwest Arkansas, and the trail system in Xenia Ohio in the Miami Valley, connecting Xenia to Dayton, Springfield, Columbus, and Cincinnati. Read on to see how this experience inspired me to see the possibilities of a trail network in Denton rather than barriers.
This is part two in the Denton Trails series, a series that thinks through what a low-stress multimodal transportation network would look like in Denton. It draws inspiration from other trail systems, proposes core principles we could use in developing our own system, and envisions several trail concepts and how they could form the core of a bike and walk portion of our upcoming mobility plan. Please join me as you walk, scoot, or ride through these musings:
Part 1: Why Trails?
Part 2: City Trails Inspiration
Part 3: Recreational Trails Inspiration
Part 4: Five Pillars of Trail Success
Part 5 Concept: Locust / UPRR Trail
Part 6 Concept: Pecan Creek Trail
Part 7 Concept: University Trails
Part 8: 35E Crossing Improvements
Part 9: Concept: Downtown Connectivity
Part 10: Mobility Plan Integration
Part 11: Bond Election — Make your voice heard
While Google Maps’ biking layer doesn’t give you a great idea of the level of comfort each route provides, they provide a useful overall impression.
The central element in the success of these two designs is that they connect popular places. The top three goals in the Northwest Arkansas Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan were to connect communities, connect destinations / points of interest, and connect people to the natural environment. The Razorback Greenway proudly boasts that it connects walkable commercial centers, employment centers, universities, and residential communities. Xenia’s system accomplishes these goals by providing connectivity directly to downtown from its trails built on former railway right of ways. But how does each plan accomplish this?
Connect greenways with context sensitive design
The Razorback Greenway makes extensive use of pre-existing trail and riparian right-of-ways. The regional Open Space Plan boasts the Greenway as “an exemplary project for land conservation, multimodal transportation,economic development, and environmental stewardship.” The plan prioritizes greenways where they connect people to destinations, creating an enjoyable shaded area to walk or ride a bike. Many trails in DFW tend to blindly follow riparian right-of-ways without considering whether the trail connects people to any useful destinations.
Instead, the Razorback Greenway joins these natural areas together creatively through existing right of ways. Sidepaths are frequently used on collector streets where there are few curb cut crossings to limit potential conflict points and increase safety and comfort for trail and road users. Protected bike lanes are used in areas where existing road infrastructure was wider than necessary. In downtown areas, the trail even cuts carefully through parking lots to make necessary connections in order to make a clearly marked, safe, continuous trail. And in some areas, the trail is routed down existing, low traffic neighborhood streets. This context sensitive and creative routing method reduces the cost while providing maximum connectivity to trail users of all comfort levels.
Xenia had the benefit of many old railways coming to the historic Zenia Station in its downtown, now converted to a park. But as the city developed, the downtown business corridor grew disconnected from this hub and separated one of the key trails from the rest. Their approach was to use a protected two-way on-road cycletrack (shown in blue) to connect through the heart of downtown along Detroit Street, providing a safe path for trail users of all comfort levels from all of the trails to access their walkable downtown core.
Incremental Improvement
There were countless signs of adaptation and investment at the right time along the Razorback Greenway. From the frequency of benches and lighting to the treatment of small runoff crossings, it was evident that safety and amenities have been slowly improved over the four years the trail has been open.
When Bentonville decided to create a spur trail from the Razorback Greenway to its market district south of Downtown while widening 8th street, they invested in a tunnel to cross the busy intersection of 8th street and J street. For context in Denton, this intersection would be similar to Carroll and Eagle. But they did not do this at first. They built the Razorback Greenway with at-grade crossings using the traffic signal at this intersection. When trail usage increased and a road widening project with an added trail was planned, they built this tunnel to improve the experience for trail users and reduce driving delays. When we visited the trail in 2019, usage according to monitoring stations showed over 900 people on the weekend and over 350 people during two weekdays I was there.
The 36 mile long Razorback Greenway was built with 38 million dollars, for $1.05 million per mile. Contrast this to Fort Worth’s recent plan, which calls for building a trail system costing over $4 million per mile. The best bang for the buck comes from building a safe contiguous network that connects popular destinations by using creativity to keep the cost down. As usage increases, make improvements. Spending too much per mile can yield a system of unconnected routes that does not help anyone and goes largely unused.
These amenities such as lighting, benches, bathrooms, bicycle repair stands, public art, signage, trees for shade, and improved crossings are included in areas where they make sense due to the ridership experienced. By taking a gradual approach, the initial build-out of this trail network can afford to connect more of the popular places and ensure maximum usefulness of the system.
Road Crossings
One of the biggest barriers that prevents people from biking in Denton is the absence of safe, enjoyable crossings of our busy roads and highways. Once inside low-traffic residential areas, biking on neighborhood streets is pleasant. But going across town safely almost requires a car because of the original design and priorities of our arterial roads. These high capacity roads were built to carry high car traffic volumes at high speeds, which prove to be insurmountable barriers to future trail users who require a high level of comfort. How did the Razorback Greenway accomplish this? By creatively reusing existing crossings of these roadways to provide high-comfort crossings at a lower cost. These designs cut into the drainage areas underneath bridges and reused large drainage viaducts underneath freeways to provide safe, comfortable crossings of these barriers to walking and biking.
Many at-grade crossings were also used. They showed a context-sensitive approach. Low-traffic, two-lane roads were crossed with a simple warning sign. Higher traffic two-lane road crossings employed automated warning lights, and any crossings of roads with three or more lanes were done at a traffic light or using a HAWK beacon (A High-intensity Activated crossWalK beacon which gives pedestrians priority over cars at a crossing). And the vast majority of those signals employed a trail-only cycle in the light timing so that drivers didn’t accidentally turn into the path of an oncoming trail user.
Economic Development
These trail systems are successful not just because they connect people to places they want to go, but because they give businesses more customers and make the trail system economically sustainable. There were signs of increased development along both of these trail systems because they have become a desired amenity. Advertising signs were prominently displayed on the Razorback Greenway inviting users to new homes and apartments built within proximity to the trail. Apartment complexes by the trail frequently had bicycles in their patios, and Veoride bike share bikes were located near universities.
Ruthless Maintenance
When assets are neglected they usually end in failure. Every single day I rode this trail I saw active examples of continual maintenance, like mowing, litter pickup, and tree trimming. Other signs of past maintenance were evident, like path restriping, pathway crack sealing and seam grinding to keep the path smooth. The community values this asset and is investing in what is necessary to make it thrive.
Can it happen in Denton?
One thing to recognize is that Northwest Arkansas is not a European city. Xenia Ohio is not a politically liberal area. But they both chose to invest in a trail network that gives people the opportunity to enjoy a non-car trip to their destinations. Northwest Arkansas has many of the same large road intersections that define the DFW area. But this trail exists within that built environment, complete with huge parking lots and wide, fast roads. It uses creative crossings and context-sensitive design to affordably connect those who choose not to drive to the walkable places they want to go. And the daily ridership numbers prove it is worth it. Daily use from the Razorback Greenway numbers in the mid-hundreds of people per day. That is more people than use many of our local neighborhood streets, which we seem to be fine investing the necessary $1.7M per mile to reconstruct when they reach the end of their life.
Are you more interested in recreational trail uses? Next up is Part 3: Recreational Trails Inspiration.
