Three Cheers for Bob Thomas: Our Own Trail Champion!

In honor of its 25th Anniversary, Rails to Trails Conservancy just announced the winners of the Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions Award!  Established through the generous support of the Doppelt family, this award program honors 25 individuals who have made significant contributions to the rail-trail movement through their work, volunteerism or support—in short, people who have gone above and beyond in the name of trails.

Our own Bob Thomas is one of the recipients of this award.  Bob Thomas, of Campbell Thomas Architects, has been working since 1974 on planning, designing and building trails throughout the Delaware Valley.  He played a key role in making possible the Schuylkill River Trail, The Radnor Trail, The Audubon Loop, the Perkiomen Trail, the East Coast Greenway, the Chester Valley Trail, the Cobbs Creek Trail, the Philadelphia City-wide Ped/Bike Plan, the 1980's Bicycle Coalition map of the Delaware Valley, and Township-wide Ped/Bike Plans for Whitemarsh, Lower Merion, Upper Merion, and Thornbury Township.

Congratulations Bob!  Our region's trail network would not be what it is today without you. 

AAA Pushes to Cut Bike and Ped Funding. Speak Up Now!

Ask AAA to be part of America's transportation future! Sign the petition.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) wants Congress to cut long-standing programs that support trails, biking and walking in order to divert those funds to the highway system. (Read the background.)

These programs have played a major role in the development of more than 19,000 miles of rail-trail across the country, most likely including your favorite local trail. These trails and other walking and bicycling facilities allow individuals across the country to enjoy the outdoors and safely and easily travel without a car for many short trips—while saving money and gas, and getting exercise in the process.

AAA has forgotten that bicyclists and trail lovers drive, support AAA, pay gas taxes and want balanced transportation systems that provide the choice to get around in a variety of ways.

Help us help them remember! Sign the Petition

Petition sponsored by the Rails to Trails Conservancy

SEPTA and Lehigh Valley Communities Forge New Trail From Bucks County Line

According to an article in the December 31st Morning Call, SEPTA is signing a lease agreements with 4 municipalities in Lehigh and Northampton Counties for it's Bethlehem Branch line from the Bucks County Line in Upper Saucon Township and Coopersburg to Hellertown near the south campus of Lehigh University.

The trail which will probably will remain a gravel surface officials expect construction to be completed before the end of the year although one person interviewed had his doubts.

The plan for portion of the rail line from Quakertown and south is an extension of the SEPTA R5 from Lansdale.


View Lehigh Valley Rail Trail in a larger map

Rails to Trails--Economic Recovery Petition:

Please sign their petition to President-elect Obama and key congressional leaders, encouraging them to fund these important bicycle and pedestrian projects:

Upcoming Active Transportation Proposal

This coming Monday, October 20, 2008, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy will release to Congress "Active Transportation for America", a report calling for a greater federal investment in walking and biking. Rails to Trails is seeking an expansion of "Non-Motorized Pilot Program" under the Transportation Bill to "dozens more communities and attract a level of investment sufficient to enable active transportation to play a significantly larger role in meeting America's mobility needs." Rails to Trails is spearheading this effort under its 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation.

Also on Monday, over 40 cities and towns across the country will release their "active transportation" case statements, in which they present plans for how they will make their communities safe for increased bicycling and walking. Municipal, county and state transportation and planning departments teamed up development corporations and community groups to prepare these plans.

Camden and northern Delaware (Newark, Wilmington and New Castle County) are two communities in the Delaware Valley that prepared case statements. Altoona and Blair County, was the only PA community to prepare one. (We're not sure where PennDOT or the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission was on this effort, but obviously, it wasn't a priority).

The fact that Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Baltimore, Twin Cities, Portland Ore., New Orleans and San Diego all prepared statements speaks volumes about how much work Philadelphia needs to do to catch up with other major cities in developing a cohesive vision for how it will transform itself into a safer place to bike and walk. This underscores the importance of the planning process underway by the City Planning Commission to develop a Bicycle/Pedestrian Plan by 2010, which will propose how to close the gaps in the bike lane network, to improve pedestrian connections and to update bicycling and pedestrian ordinances and policies. The Bicycle Coalition sits on the Plan's Steering Committee and is also working to identify and promote important projects for funding in the next federal Transportation bill.

Camden Trails Planning In Today's Inquirer

Biking, walking trails planned for Camden

By Paul Nussbaum

Inquirer Staff Writer

Local planners and government officials yesterday launched an ambitious plan to create about 25 miles of biking and walking trails in Camden. The six trails are envisioned to be part of an eventual network in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties that would use old railbeds, existing rail corridors and local roads. The Camden County trails would run along the Delaware and Cooper Rivers and to Philadelphia via the existing sidewalk on the Ben Franklin Bridge. There would be a path looping downtown Camden and a path from the Cramer Hill section of Camden to the existing Merchantville bike path...


Read the Full Article Here