Denver and Rio Grande Rail Trail in Davis County, Utah: a great foundation, full of (missed) opportunity

I rode this trail the other day.  As a trail it's nice, although it could use more trees.  

It's an old rail corridor that was acquired by the Utah Transit Authority ("From rails to trails," Deseret News, 2005) and is a joint project with the communities it passes through.  The land use context is what I might call exsuburban, a combination of exurban and suburban in that it is in the midst of distant sprawl, with farmland converted to residential subdivisions.

All to the good, I was surprised to see that more than a handful of houses have gates so they can access the trail, some with elaborate connections because of grade.   This is important, because in many places trails are initially opposed as potential crime inducers, so having gates to the trail is an indicator of people's sense of safety and comfort wrt the trail.

Some yards are even open to the trail with no fence.  A number of subdivisions have trail connections.  Here and there were creeks, including Farmington Creek in Farmington, which did have an interpretation sign (the only one I saw).

There were incursions onto the corridor from some houses but it was pretty rare--some bad, but many would be considered acceptable--growing stuff, art works, etc.

 

I saw horses, and heard chickens and goats.  The trail passes through areas that are being built up, and were former farmland.

It connects to Salt Lake City via the Legacy Parkway Trail and the Jordan River Parkway Trail.

Negatives.  But:

1.  There is no website specific to the trail (although some government websites, in particular Farmington, Bountiful, and Davis County have information but can have severe presentation and user experience faults).

2. There is no brochure for the trail, neither printed nor digital. Although government, independent trail sites and apps have information.

3.  There is zero wayfinding signage, including map signage.  No directional signage pointing to destinations off the trail.  Inadequate distance markings.  No signage pointing to links to other trails.

4.  There is a "gateway" sign but it isn't much.  In the section I rode, from Layton to Parrish Lane in Centerville, there were no trailheads. 

5.  No rules signage.  

Note the rules sign in the background at this Virginia Capital Trail trailhead in Richmond. (Flickr)

6.  No signage for park connections abutting the trail.  And one park, in an HOA subdivision had signage specifically forbidding non residents.  It's not in operation because of covid but there is a miniature railroad park, S&S Shoreline Railroad, abutting the trail in Farmington.  They did have a sign.  But none of the local parks did.

Trail connection to a local park, with a baseball field, pavilion and other amenities, but you'd never know it.

7.  No signage on the adjoining streets directing people to the trail.

8.  There were two detours on the trail, and one provided zero detour signage.  And the connection to the Legacy Parkway Trail was blocked off, with no additional information provided.

9.  There were some amenities here and there.  Benches, dog waste bag distributors and trash cans (all in all, the trail was pretty clean).  And bike repair stands and air pumps--although most were broken.

This was the only working repair stand and air pump on the stretch of the trail I rode, probably because it was both newer and sponsored by a law firm.  Facilities such as these should be maintained as part of a trail, rather than left to degrade.

10.  Street crossings are poorly defined.  Indianapolis Cultural Trail shows the way.

 

Granted, I should have looked the trail and the connections before I set out on this trip.  

But I just presumed that local trail standards included wayfinding and directional signage and the occasional map.  That's because with the way we've designed the transportation system for automobility, you can get away with minimal pre-planning, unless you're going to an out of the way place.  Directional signage, supplemented by maps or GPS suffices.

This is the only bicycle wayfinding sign I've ever seen that includes bus stop access as an element--rail transit sure, but not bus.

By contrast the Jordan River Trail in Salt Lake County (also in Davis County and branded as the Provo River Parkway Trail in Utah County but I haven't ridden those sections) is stellar, even though I argue the signage and brochure is in need of serious updating, they have a brochure (which also needs to be updated to include the Davis County section), trailhead map signs (again they need to be updated to include Davis County), directional signage on the route, signs--albeit haphazard--pointing to the trail from nearby streets, and some amenities--I don't recall any bike repair stands in the sections I've ridden, and interpretation signage created by some of the cities through which the trail passes through, and some by Salt Lake County Parks.

-- My Flickr photos on the Jordan River Trail (still adding)

Salt Lake City's Parks and Public Lands signage program includes the city's section of the Jordan River Parkway Trail.  City sign below.  Above, a sign by Salt Lake County in West Valley City.
 

These failures on the DRGW trail are a travesty from a planning and bicycle planning perspective.  (I don't know if they are repeated on the Legacy Parkway Trail, and I wonder if the Jordan River Parkway Trail's continuation into Davis County meets the signage standards executed in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.)

The trail is definitely utilized.  I was on it from maybe 3pm to 5pm and there were cyclists, roller bladers, runners, mothers with their kids coming home from school, walkers, an older male cyclist with his little dog in a front basket.  That part was cool.  

But with active management and promotion (the kind of stuff I write about frequently, e.g., "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 18 programs"), there could be way more cyclists in that area, because it is a foundational bikeway, over 20 miles long, covering much of Davis County and into Weber County.

While there are connection from DRGW to the Legacy Parkway Trail in Farmington and in North Salt Lake City to the Jordan River Parkway Trail, these connections are obscure, or at least not signed at all and poorly marketed.

This map sign on the Virginia Capital Trail (in Richmond) presents at two scales: the immediate area and the full trail.  (Flickr)

Long range directional signage on the Virginia Capital Trail in Richmond.

Destination signage on the Virginia Capital Trail.  Photo: Phil Riggan for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Proof of concept trailhead sign for the Salt Lake City Foothills Natural Area.

MPOs and "active transportation."  In the DC area, I argued that the creation of a Capital Trails Coalition by advocates was a duplication of what the Metropolitan Transportation Organization--the conglomeration of local governments tasked by the federal government with coordinating transportation planning at the metropolitan and regional scales--should already be doing, although I later came to agree that you need both--the formal committee and the advocacy committee-because advocates can do and say things that government employees can't do.

-- ""Government" or "advocacy" approaches: either/or vs. and/and and DC area regional trails planning," 2020

The Salt Lake Valley is served by the Wasatch Front Regional Council, and the MPO function is one element of its mission.  And yes, they have an Active Transportation Committee focused on developing sustainable mobility options.  

But I guess they don't have a set of basic standards about what a regional bikeway network should look like and how it should be implemented.

The fact is the ability to cycle from Ogden to Provo--81 miles and backstopped by Frontrunner commuter railroad service--on bikeways mostly separated from traffic is an incredible accomplishment, and it's do-able because of the DRGW, Legacy Parkway, Jordan River Parkway and Provo River Parkway Trails.

But I would argue it's dis-coordinated, and addressing these omissions should be a top priority of the MPO's Active Transportation Committee.

The Frontrunner commuter railroad runs from Utah County to Ogden in Weber County.  It doesn't run on Sundays.  It's quite comfortable and trains have bike cars.  

(There is also a plan afoot to extend Frontrunner to Boise and Las Vegas ("Train corridors proposed connecting Boise, Las Vegas to Salt Lake City," Fox13) along the lines of how I suggest multi-state rail planning should be working anyway, see "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound").

And while they're at it, the MPO could begin working on my concept of a metropolitan scaled secure bicycle parking network (first proposed for DC and Baltimore), which no MPO has put forth in the US at present.

-- "Bike to Work Day as an opportunity to assess the state of bicycle planning: Part 2, building a network of bike facilities at the regional scale," 2017

Oh, and standards for dealing with trail detours comparable to that for roads and freeways.

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Also see for discussion of robust trail planning:

-- "Comments on the Central Avenue Connector Trail concept (Prince George's County, Maryland," 2015 

And a framework for sustainable mobility planning:

-- "Further updates to the Sustainable Mobility Platform Framework," 2018