It’s cold, it’s snowy, and it isn’t exactly sunny.
“Green” may be the last word to describe the landscape when looking out the window today, but hundreds of green options exist all year round.
The Central Ohio Greenways trails are an elaborate system encompassing more than 230 miles throughout urban, suburban, and rural areas of Central Ohio. WOSU featured the trails on an episode of Getting Outdoors, and MORPC created a vision map for how the trails could fully connect a multi-county region.
According to 2017 data, the most heavily travelled trails by mile are:
- Olentangy Trail (2.8 million),
- Alum Creek Trail (2 million),
- Blacklick Trail (1.3 million),
- Scioto Trail (1.25 million), and
- Ohio to Erie Trail (1.22 million).
Trail usage is highest in the summer, as would be expected, and overall usage is growing; up nearly 5% from 2014 to 2017.
Our assessment for increased usage is that it’s partly because more people call Central Ohio home — MORPC projects that Central Ohio will add more than 3 million additional residents by 2050 — and partly because more people are conscious of the benefits of an active lifestyle. Using the trail system improves quality of life, health and wellness, economic development, and the environment.
Personally, it’s a connection to nature, desire for exercise, and ease of use that drives my trail walks and rides.
Do you use the trails? If so, what’s your experience? If not, why?
We value our client’s bold vision for adding 500 more trail miles to Central Ohio. We can only imagine the future impact such a connected system would have on so many aspects of life for so many people — rain or shine.
Article by: Kerri Laubenthal Mollard, Founder & CEO
