Newton Trails

Riding with two friends Sunday afternoon on the final leg of the Covington Community Bike Ride, we were chatting about public health, the role of trails in providing a response to the growing American obesity epidemic, and the difficulty of getting folks to see the connection.  "Personal health is a choice," one said.

And, that started me thinking.  (I do actually do that from time to time, despite what some might say.)  Just what kind of choice are we really giving people?

Since 2009, Newton County has added 33 acres of recreation space.  We've built 1.2 miles of paved trails in Oxford (largely with private funds and investment by the city and college).  Oh, and we've added some 40,000 people in the past decade!  We fall farther behind every day, while our county lags at the bottom in most public health measures, in a state that is near the bottom nationally.

Meanwhile, we've gone from one McDonalds to five -- soon to be six.  My parents live in Dunwoody, and they have to drive several miles or more to find most fast food restaurants.  We can find multiples of most chains within walking distance.  Not that walking is an option, mind you, with US-278, the Covington By-Pass, Washington Street, Brown Bridge Rd, Salem Rd, GA-36, and GA-212 all presenting quite formidable barriers to travel by foot or by bike.  Sure, people can choose, but the combination of fast food proliferation and streets designed for auto-only travel determines what the realistic choices are.

Recently, a Cobb County woman was prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter -- even though she didn't own and could not drive a car!   She was prosecuted and convicted by a jury because she chose to cross a busy five-lane highway with her three kids, rather than walking an extra 6/10ths of a mile at sundown to get home to her apartment complex just across the street from the bus stop.  When her youngest broke away and was struck and killed by a driver with prior hit and run convictions, who confessed to drinking and taking painkillers that day, the mother was prosecuted.  Her choice, right?

These are the kinds of choices we give pedestrians and bicyclists every day.  We engineer our roads to be dangerous by design.  We place unhealthy food choices on every corner.  And, we treat funding for safe walking and biking like it's a precious commodity of which the public is just not worthy.  Healthy living is a choice, you know.  Kind of like dissidents  speaking out in China, or women's rights advocates speaking out in Iraq or Iran...  It's a choice.  A sad an unnecessary choice.

I know...   Don't go there...  But I can't help peeking online to read comments responding to a local news story, editorial, or letter about trails.  That's one way the internet has changed our media world -- now everyone is part of the story.  And, the comments are telling.

Of course, I most like the ones agreeing with me.  I am human.  But, I also enjoy sincere, thoughtful statements sharing an opposing view or a different take.  It reminds me of a time when we actually gathered and talked as neighbors about things that mattered.  We listened to each other, we aired our differences, and we found ways to work together.

So, there's the good ("you agree with me!"), the bad ("aw, how could you not agree with me!?"), and then, there's the downright ugly.  They're the statements that leave you shaking your head (as another poster said).  For example, this comment to the recent Newton Citizen story about our Newton Trails Walk About series.

"I WOULD LOT RATHER HAVE A TRAIN PASSING THROUGH MY BACKYARD THAN A GROUP OF THUGS BREAKING INTO MY HOUSE WHILE I'M AT WORK..NO TREES OR FENCE IS GOING TO KEEP THEM OUT..YOU BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!!!"

Setting aside the obvious logical problems with the argument that "no trees or fence is going to keep them out," but apparently steel rails and wooden ties are keeping "them" away today...  I feel sad for someone who either (a) truly believes this or (b) is deliberately exploiting the fears of others.

How ironic I read that same day a blog post by a young father recounting his three-day, 20-mile biking adventure with his seven-year-old daughter on the Erie Canal Trail in upstate New York.  Is she the kind of thug our commenter fears?  Should this father be charged with child endangerment for putting his daughter into such a hostile environment?  From all accounts, it was the trip of a lifetime and a memory father and daughter will cherish as long as they both live.  It was an excursion he could never have attempted with a child that age on today's busy roads.

I've blogged before about other such stories, like the grandmothers, ages 48 to 76, who biked a large portion of the 98 miles making up the combined Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga trails.

Those are the tales that shape my vision and inspire my passion for an interconnected trail system within our county and beyond.  We all have the gift to imagine incredible futures and to play some small role in realizing them.  Sadly, some of us can never break free from our fears of the present to dream about the future.

I can refute crime claims about trails with a mountain of statistics and letters from law enforcement officials touting the benefits of trails.  But, why go there in the first place?  There are a myriad of possible visions for our future in Newton County.  And, I know mine is only one.  But, I also know this:  no worthy ends are found by charting a course running from what we fear.

While I can, and with the support of many, I will do all within my power to create places where children and caring parents create lasting memories and grandmothers and grandfathers find their youth once more.

Last week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) published county-by-county rankings for every US state on key measurements of community health.  Newton County's low score on adult health behaviors (143rd out of 159 Georgia counties) prompted a Covington News editorial asking readers "What will it take to make Newton County healthier?

I've sent a response I hope they run as a guest editorial.  As head of a non-profit dedicated to building community green space for passive family recreation, I take note of Newton County's low score for physical environment, where we ranked 110th.  Not only do we lack ready access to as many recreation facilities as most Georgia counties, the facilities we do have are geared largely to youth sports.  We have a significant lack of parks and greenways where adults and families can walk, run, bike, skate, or otherwise get much needed physical activity in a car-centric world.

Extensive research over the past decade has shown the "built environment" in which we live has a major impact on individual and community health.  The video below from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides a great overview of the factors that make certain communities healthier than others.  And, if we are to rise to the challenge issued by the Covington News, we would do well to pay attention to such prescriptions for building healthy communities.  (Not surprisingly, trails and greenways are a prominent element in the CDC's recommendations.)

I've spent a large chunk of the last three years talking to the people of Newton County about trails and greenways.  I've chatted with friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers -- in groups and one by one -- explaining why developing walking and biking trails will be good for Newton County.  Over the years, I've amassed quite a large volume of data from case studies, research, and success stories of other communities.  But, as compelling as the facts and figures are, I was reminded while speaking to the Covington Lions last week that, in the end, it's still personal.

I can quote statistics about people who walk or bike for transportation, and how our roads make that more dangerous than it has to be for them.  But, what really matters is Jimmy from Butler street who bikes past my house on the sidewalk several times a day, often carrying a bag of groceries or something from the drug store.  It's illegal to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk in Georgia, and I worry about a car exiting or entering a driveway striking Jimmy.  But, he is afraid to bike in the street.

There's also my neighbor who walks several miles to/from work each day at Riverside Nursing home.  They lost their car when her husband lost his job building houses.  And, there's my legally blind neighbor who rides an adult tricycle to/from the library and the Square, and who can't wait to ride to Ingle's on her own when the Eastside Trail is finished beneath the bypass.

Truth be told, people are walking and biking all around us everyday.  Most times, we don't even see them -- focused as we are on the other cars we jostle with on the roadways.  That's a major reason why an average of 20 cyclists and 150 pedestrians are killed on Georgia roadways every year.  Just this week, Newborn's 90-year-old Mayor, Roger Sheridan, narrowly escaped serious injury when struck by a car in downtown Covington.

You may not see fellow citizens who travel by foot or bike, but slow down long enough to take a look along the overgrown and littered shoulders of each of our state highways passing in and out of Covington.  There you can see the evidence of their existence in the well-worn, packed dirt footpaths they have worn.  Look long enough, and you'll also see the makeshift memorials -- the tattered wreaths and faded bouquets that mark the spot of a loved one's untimely demise.

No.  It's not about the numbers.  It's personal.

Likewise, regarding the health benefits of trails, I can quote you all the figures from the CDC and other health agencies about the obesity epidemic that threatens our young people.  I can tell you with much dismay that 32% of our youth are overweight and 17% are obese.  I can tell you health officials warn us children born today will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents.  But, again those are numbers.  It's personal.  It's the story of my college friend Robert who moved away at the end of the 1990s a 320+ lb man and showed up several years later a fit and healthy 180 lbs, all thanks to riding a bike.  Or, I can tell you about the young African American woman I saw out walking with her son on the Arabia Mountain Trail in Lithonia.  Mother and child we both significantly overweight and laboring to climb a small hill.  But, this mother was making the commitment it took for she and her son to live a healthier life.  And, that trail was her pathway back to that existence.  For her, it was personal.

I can rattle of stories for hours about the economic impact of trails and greenways.  I can show you the academic and government studies that demonstrate how trails attract tourist spending, provide the incentive for new businesses, and  lure major industry.  But, instead, I like to think about Frankie Pence, the one-woman tour-de-force behind Frankie's Italian Restaurant along the Silver Comet Trail in Rockmart.  Her restaurant is a must-see destination for anyone riding the trail, and her relationship with the regulars and newcomers who stop in hungry from a bike ride or hike is genuine and personal.  If you want to see what kind of businesses a trail can generate, go see Frankie.

I'd still love for you to take the time to read the facts and figures, but don't let that get in the way of what matters most.  It's personal.

It's true what they say....  You never forget your first one....  Bike, that is.  Mine was candy-apple red with a sparkling red vinyl banana seat and a sissy bar.  It was a thrill ride coming down off the hill where we lived on Oakcliff Rd in Doraville.  It didn't matter that it was freezing outside, on Christmas morning, we were riding those new bikes.  (That was after my dad finally convinced my younger brother that riding down the hallway to our bedrooms was not an option!)

We rode them everywhere... To school, to the 7-11, to the pool and the tennis courts, to football practice, and to every friends' house in our neighborhood.  Several years latter, those bikes were replaced by sleek, sexy 10-speeds, and then there really was no stopping us.  A bicycle was freedom.

I wonder, though, about the kids whose parents are at the bike shop or the super store today buying a two-wheeler to stash beneath the tree tonight once the little ones hit the sack.  Will they ever know the freedom we did when we were young?  Will they find streets safe to ride?  Or will they be confined to cranking out mind-numbing circles in the driveway until finally the bike is left against a tree to rust away?

i love to ride my bike on the road.  I love to pedal away the miles along Newton County's scenic rural vistas through the historic town and places that dot our landscape.  But, to ride safely and confidently on the roadways, children first need a place to learn that is safe and protected.  They need a trail.  It wasn't so when we were kids, but that's how it is today.  And, they deserve a chance to find the freedom we found at their age.

We owe them that.

Some local rail-trail opponents want you to think trails like the Silver Comet in west Georgia or the Chief Ladiga in Alabama are more dangerous than the Wild, Wild West.  They whisper rumors of rampant crime that leave the uninformed thinking trails are a dangerous place.

Sure, we have all the statistics and law enforcement reports to verify trails are safe.  But scaring people is always easier than informing them.  That's why I was delighted this week to have two great stories fall info my lap, each involving grandmothers biking the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Trails.  If these women, ages 48 to 76, are not afraid and genuinely enjoy these trails then...  maybe... just maybe... they're safe enough for the rest of us!!!

  I'll let these ladies speak for themselves on what you're missing if you let fearmongers scare you away:

Grandmothers Bike 62-Mile Silver Comet Trail

Read here the October Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about five women, ages 48 to 63, all grandmothers, who biked the full 62 miles of the SCT from Smyrna to the Alabama State Line and then made the return trip as well.

Lawrence septuagenarian completes 98-mile bike ride

In this story, available here, a 76-year-old woman, three daughters, and a friend biked the full 98 miles of the combined Chief Ladiga and Silver Comet Trails from Anniston, AL to Smyrna, GA.

Come on, gang.  Don't let these grannies outdo you 'cause you're scared!

In their 2010 Benchmarking Report on Bicycling and Walking in the US, the Alliance for Biking & Walking reported Georgia as the ninth most dangerous state for pedestrians and the sixth most dangerous for bicyclists, based on reported fatalities.  From 2005 to 2007, an average of 150 pedestrians and 20 bicyclists were killed each year on Georgia roadways.

But, you don't need to tell middle school students at the Montessori School of Covington about the safety issues facing those who walk or bike.  In the Spring of 2010, tasked with choosing an issue for their civic education program called Project Citizen, these kids decided to tackle the shortage of safe places to bike in Newton County.  They selected this issue after one student was alarmed seeing a bicyclist fall from the bike lane on Floyd Street into passing car traffic.

As part of the class project, students conducted a survey of 100 Newton County residents ranging in age from 6 years to over 65.  The survey found 77 percent of those surveyed rode a bike at least occasionally, but 88 percent did not feel they had enough safe places to ride. Respondents overwhelming favored building more safe places to bike, including:

• More bike lanes on existing roads (90 %)
• More biking and walking paths (97%)
• Convert the railroad into a riding and walking trail (95%)

Click here to see the full survey results.