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Dear Editor:
I was delighted and surprised to see our city celebrate the completion of 100 miles of trails in Noblesville last week with the unveiling of a marker stating so on the Levee Trail. Delighted because I’m a huge advocate of trails and surprised because I have trouble finding trails in Noblesville and have been unable to find any that are more than a few miles long.
In an effort to find out where these 100 miles of trails are, I wrote to a city councilor, who referred me to the Parks director. I asked for a map and received the one shown above, which shows our city’s trails in blue. Take a close look because it also shows a number of streets in blue that have nothing to do with trails. I asked what makes these streets (10th Street, Greenfield Avenue, Pleasant Street, Field Drive, Conner Street, etc.) qualify as trails even though they have no trail designation: No signs, no stripes, no traffic separation, nothing that makes them different from a regular street.
Parks Director Brandon Bennett responded that it is not an exact science and the standard definition of trail does not always apply: “They are connectors to additional trails throughout the city … If they connect to the rest of our trail system we count them as trails,” he says. “It really depends on how technical we want to get with the definition of trails. If they connect and allow access across our city then they need to be considered a trail or a path or a connector … Right, wrong or indifferent, we have connectivity from all different areas of our community and across it.”
I can only shake my head in frustration. I agree that connectivity is great, but connectivity on a street or road isn’t the same as connectivity on a trail. People like me seek out trails because they are safer and more enjoyable than roads. Bikers, runners and walkers can use a trail confident that they don’t have to contend with cars, trucks and other vehicles that have a right to be on the street. You can take the kids along safely on a trail.
A community that invests in trails is often enlightened to their benefits of healthy living and encouraging physical exercise, and that becomes a competitive advantage when appealing to young families. So, it’s disappointing to learn that our claim to 100 miles of trails is misleading. It’s based on the city’s priority of “connecting” trails instead of a citizen’s priority of keeping themselves and their kids safe. To ride our “100 miles” of trails means you might find yourself and your family riding on Conner Street or 10th Street or Greenfield Avenue, far from any normal conception of a trail.
I disagree with Mr. Bennett’s assertion that trails aren’t an exact science. It’s easy to recognize a trail when you see one. It’s only when you try to stretch the truth that things start to become inexact. A street is a street and it doesn’t become a trail just because city officials want it to be one.
It is important to celebrate our city’s milestones, but let’s wait until we actually achieve them to celebrate. We don’t have 100 miles of trails in Noblesville and it doesn’t serve the city or its citizens well to claim a milestone that we haven’t earned.
Mike Corbett
Noblesville