Great Rivers Greenway is weeks away from completing an extension of Grant’s Trail linking it to the River Des Peres Greenway. The completion of this important connection is a chance to look back at Trailnet’s history with this fixture of St. Louis biking and walking.
Over the years Trailnet members have supported the core mission that led to Grant’s Trail and our work to advance biking and walking access and connections throughout the community.
This vital space for safe biking and walking was made possible by the dedicated work and efforts of Trailnet members, volunteers, and supporters over the years.
From the initial purchase, to its role in the lives of thousands of visitors every year, here’s a brief history of Grant’s Trail.
Rails-to-Trails
In 1992, Trailnet purchased a 6.2 mile stretch of the Union Pacific Railroad, to convert it to a multi-use trail. This 100-foot wide corridor of land stretched from Hoffmeister Avenue in South St. Louis County near I-55 to Pardee Road in Crestwood.
This was part of a nation-wide rails-to-trails movement to convert disused railway lines into trails for biking and walking.
All the way to the supreme court
In 1993 – as plans for the trail developed – the municipality, Grantwood Village sued to stop the construction, claiming the original land transfer to the railroad was improper. This case advanced to a Federal appeals court that ruled in Trailnet’s favor. Grantwood Village then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which rejected the challenge, maintaining the lower court’s ruling paving the way for construction to begin.
Construction
Paving and landscaping on the trail began in 1994 with a $500,000 federal grant.
In 1997, the first four miles were completed with funding from the federal government and St. Louis County between Orlando Gardens to Tesshire Road. That same year, Trailnet entered into a 99 year lease with St. Louis County, for the county to operate the trail under the parks department.
In 2000, Trailnet purchased an additional 2 miles of former rail line from Tesshire Road to Pardee Road. St. Louis County then paved the new stretch with a combination of county and federal funding.
Prop C and Great Rivers Greenway
In 2000, Trailnet and other advocates successfully pushed for a ballot initiative creating a one-tenth-of-one-cent sales tax to finance the construction of greenway trails in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County. This became Great Rivers Greenway, a public agency tasked with the planning and execution of a network of greenways connecting the region.
With the creation of a GRG and a steady stream of public funding dedicated to building greenways, Trailnet’s work shifted from building trails to focus on advocacy, education, community planning and engagement as a way to improve biking and walking in the region.
In 2006, Great Rivers Greenway completed a 2 mile extension on the western end of Gravois Greenway: Grant’s Trail across I-44, bringing it to a new trailhead at S. Holmes St. and Leffingwell Ave. in Kirkwood.”
Grant’s history and legacy
Grant’s Trail passes by Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site and his home White Haven, and the trail crosses land owned by Grant. Grant, served as a U.S. president and commanding general of the union army during the Civil War.
At a time when America and the St. Louis region are grappling with the effects of racism and slavery, Grant’s legacy and the history of this property is important to note.
Reviewing the history of Grant’s Trail, it is important to acknowledge both Grant’s role fighting the confederacy and supporting formerly enslaved people, as wells as his own profiting from slavery and his actions harming Native Americans. These factors need to be acknowledged, understood, and held in tension with each other.
Future of Grant’s Trail
Today, Grant’s Trail is a vital space for people to safely walk, bike, roll. It has showcased the desire for safe, car-free spaces and has been a model for much of the growth in trails and greenways across the region.
The final bridge linking Grant’s Trail and the River Des Peres Greenway is weeks away from completion. This will undoubtedly bring more people, connect more neighborhoods, and show the importance of connected, healthy, and sustainable mobility throughout the region.
As an organization we are proud of the hand we played in the creation of Grant’s Trail. We are grateful for the dedicated support of our members and volunteers who helped see it through and appreciate the work of our partners to advance it to its place in the community today.
Most of all, we are thankful for the people who use it every day.
Bikes for Essential Workers: Bike Match
Trailnet is partnering with the national platform Bike Match to connect people who have extra bicycles with essential workers who need them.
We know how powerful and transformative a bike can be.
Help support the people keeping our community running during the pandemic. A bike can allow them to continue their work without needing to get on a bus or train that may increase their risk of exposure. Whether you have a bike or need a bike, we want to help.
If you have a bike to donate but it’s not ready to ride and needs some work, please consider donating it to our friends at St. Louis BWorks who will refurbish your donated bike.
Yesterday’s high-profile video of a crash where a person on a bike was hit by a person driving a car in St. Louis City has received significant attention.
This video is incredibly real, visceral evidence of the broader reality that people who ride or walk in our communities know first hand: that our streets are not as safe as they could or should be and people who drive carelessly continue to threaten other people using our roads.
We’ve decided to not share the video itself out of respect for the person who was hit and the potential effect the traumatic content of the video may have on people who have been the victims of traffic violence or their loved ones.
As in any crash affecting someone walking or biking, we offer our support and assistance to victims of traffic violence, when requested by them or their families.
Should everyone be outraged by this crash? Of course.
Are we outraged? Of course.
We hope to do more than express outrage over this crash.
This also shouldn’t take away from the other recent crashes affecting people walking and on bikes that have received less attention.
We are continuing our work in the community to create an environment where people can bike and walk safely, where the media and police don’t blame victims of traffic violence, where people who drive are trained and responsible, and our streets are designed for the safety of people.
This work is slow and at times frustrating, but we are committed to it and hope everyone following our work is too.
If you want to help, we encourage you to contact your elected officials: city aldermen, county officials, or municipal leaders to ask that more resources be spent on safety improvements for people biking and walking.
Public Spaces and COVID-19
Use our interactive map to report outdoor spaces and routes that don’t allow for safe social distancing or complete this online form.
Due to the circumstances surrounding COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders, St. Louis and cities across the world are witnessing an unprecedented increase in the usage of our parks, trails, and other public spaces. However, even though exercise and outdoor activities have been deemed essential, many of our public spaces don’t provide room for residents to maintain proper social distancing. This has unfortunately led governments to close some beloved public spaces.
To help address this problem many cities, including St. Louis, are closing streets and creating new spaces so people can still be active while maintaining proper social distancing during stay-at-home orders.
Our communities have the opportunity to create more public space for people to safely walk and bike. As advocates for walking, biking, and healthy living across our region, Trailnet is here to help them accomplish that.
Why do we need to convert more of our public space for people?
Creating more public space allows people to stay active while maintaining proper social distancing
More public space can help to reduce overcrowding on our park, trails, and sidewalks, preventing the need to completely close existing spaces
Maintaining social distance on sidewalks, trails, and streets requires expanded sidewalks and new ways of sharing streets and public space.
Many communities in St. Louis do not have adequate sidewalks for people to practice safe and proper social distancing
Walking in the street is becoming more common as people practice proper social distancing, however, this increases their risk of getting hit by car traffic
Families and vulnerable populations are at risk of injury and infection in over-crowded parks and trails
People who rely on public transit could have an option to safely bike or walk to their destination, avoid overcrowding, and help prevent exposure.
What can our communities do to provide more public space?
Temporarily close roads in parks to car traffic
This has already been done in several St. Louis City Parks including Tower Grove Park and partially in Forest Park, but if all area parks followed this model, it would allow residents to social distance properly while staying active.
Temporarily close specific roads to non-essential car traffic
Residents who live on the streets, delivery vehicles, and emergency vehicles should all be able to access the temporary closures.
Temporary lane conversions
As vehicle travel decreases, this provides an opportunity to temporarily convert car-travel lanes to extended sidewalks or bike lanes to allow more space for social distancing.
Provide communication to important community decision makers.
If a group of residents or a neighborhood wants to close their street to essential traffic only, community leaders should be accessible and provide an easy and hassle-free system to allow residents to create public space in front of their homes.
What Trailnet is doing to push these ideas forward?
Talking to local leaders about these challenges and opportunities
Trailnet has been communicating with local leaders to present challenges people are facing and exploring solutions to these challenges. We are also providing resources and guidance for communities that want to create more public spaces.
Collecting data on existing conditions
We created an interactive map and form for residents to use – which will identify public spaces seeing the greatest use and overcrowding. This will help identify optimal areas to convert into public spaces.
Gathering partners and recording recommendations
Trailnet and community partners are working together to identify optimal locations to convert into public space based on numerous factors and the data provided by the public.
Get educated on ideas and best practices
There are numerous articles and examples of best practices on creating public spaces across numerous countries and cities. Trailnet has been compiling these resources, which you can access here.
Reach out to your local leaders
Contact your local government personally about opportunities to create public spaces in your backyard
Provide them with ideas and solutions on how we can improve conditions during this pandemic
You’re helping build a bike lane: Tower Grove Ave
Renderings from Cortex to Tower Grove Connector (2019)
Your membership supports our work to make St. Louis streets better for biking and walking.
Your support allows our team of committed advocates, planners and educators to engage lawmakers, community members, and partner organizations to build support and excitement for bike infrastructure improvements.
Cortex to Tower Grove Connector
Together with the City of St. Louis and other partners, we’ve developed this $9.3 million project and applied for a $6.5 million federal grant. This combination of public and private dollars would fund a two-way protected bike lane along Tower Grove Ave. and Vandeventer Ave. with additional bike and crosswalk improvements along Tower Grove ave and Sarah.
At every step along the way, our staff has been meeting with city officials, developers, community non-profits, neighborhood associations and other stakeholders. This was only possible through your generosity.
The Cortex to Tower Grove Connector would upgrade one of the busiest bike routes in the city, connect more people to Metro Link and make riding and walking along this route safer for people of all ages and abilities.
This grant is part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program from the US Department of Transportation. This is a competitive grant aimed at reducing traffic congestion and improving environmental air quality. We will likely know this June if this project is recommended for funding with a final grant decision in August.
This started with you and it takes time.
Five years ago we surveyed our members to find out what would make you feel safe and comfortable riding bikes in St. Louis. Overwhelmingly, Trailnet members supported a connected network of protected bike lanes.
This led to the two-year Connecting St. Louis project that engaged 4,000 individuals in our community and 60 partners groups to identify the areas of greatest need for on-street bike improvements. Your support made this process possible.
As a result of all that community input, we published a network of recommended protected bike lanes, bike routes with traffic calming infrastructure and policy recommendations. These route and policy recommendations have been our roadmap for pushing the City and community partners to improve biking and walking infrastructure.
Following this roadmap and the priorities of members like you, we held meetings over the last year-and-a-half with aldermen, the streets department, community members and more to assemble support for these corridors, with Tower Grove Ave. as a key priority.
Design and Tradeoffs
The proposed Cortex to Tower Grove Connector is the result of blending ideal bike infrastructure designs with the real-world restrictions of the space, existing needs and cost.
Currently, Tower Grove Ave (between Tower Grove Park and Vandeventer) has two lanes of car traffic, two painted bike lanes, and two lanes of parking heading north and south.
The proposed design would shift both bike lanes to the west side of the street as a two-way protected bike lane, paralleling the park and continuing north. It would then shift to the east side of the street at the McRee intersection, with special traffic signals, and continue north to Vandeventer. At Vandeveter the protected bike lane would then continue on the east side of Vandevener up to Sarah, where it would shift back to the west side of the road. The route would then continue north, switching to a Calm Streets style treatment, North of Forest Park Parkway.
This two-way protected bike lane creates separate space for people riding bikes from car traffic and people walking on the sidewalk. Along with the physical barrier between bike and car traffic, this project also includes intersection and traffic signal upgrades, accounting for bike traffic, high-visibility crosswalks for people on foot, and a fiber-optic connection between each traffic light, allowing for the signals to be optimized to improve the flow of traffic.
Existing infrastructure, rain-water management, parking, construction costs, building standards, and numerous other competing factors lead to this current design. The two-way protected bike lane was chosen as a compromise between maintaining parking and car traffic lanes along the route. This kind of consensus and user-focused design is only possible when committed advocates like our staff work with engineers, stakeholders and neighbors to balance everyone’s needs while shepherding this project along from its initial conception.
Thank you for enabling us to do this work.
Moving Forward
We are confident that the Cortex to Tower Grove Connector is a strong candidate for federal funding. Following a potential announcement of funding in August, this project would then undergo a professional engineering study designing specific intersection and route improvements tailoring it to the needs of people who bike, walk, use wheelchairs or other mobility devices. This step could take up to a year, followed by another year of environmental review. Barring, potential delays, construction on this project could begin in 2022 or 2023.
This is an undoubtedly long and slow process, as are most infrastructure projects, however we are committed to follow this at every step along the way, ensuring it meets the needs of people of all ages and abilities.
Time is the most important tool to building streets for all people, and while we wish we could snap our fingers and start building, this patient advocacy and accountability are key to building a region where biking and walking are a way of life.
Thank you for your support of Trailnet and our focus on improving walking and biking and getting people moving.
Strawberry Ride | COVID 19 Cancellation
In light of the growing number of COVID 19 cases in our region, we have decided to cancel our 2020 Strawberry Ride in St. Jacob, Illinois scheduled for May 17th.
While this event was scheduled to begin after Missouri and Illinois’ existing shelter-in-place orders, it appears likely that these orders could be extended. There is currently not enough information about the future of this crisis for us to confidently host an event in May.
Our priority is and always will be the health and safety of our participants and host communities.
We contacted people who have already signed up to give them different registration options.
We are also working with our event partners to reschedule this ride and will keep you informed.
This is a very uncertain time, and while we hope to host as many of the 2020 Trailnet Classics as we can, we will continue to prioritize public health needs.
At this point, we have paused registration for our rides later this summer. Currently, all our other rides are set to continue as scheduled, but we will continue to monitor the situation and announce the decisions of our upcoming events.
These rides are important to us, our riders, and are part of our work to get more people biking in our region. Because of the support of our participants over the years, these rides have also grown to be a vital source of funding for our educational, planning and advocacy programs.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, we will keep you up to date on our plans as they evolve.
Stay safe.
Voice Your Support | Cortex to Tower Grove Connector
Act now for safer biking on Tower Grove Ave. Add your voice to those supporting a protected bike lane connecting Tower Grove Park to the Grove and Cortex.
You can help this project by submitting your comments for protected biking and walking infrastructure with the sample email below. The public comment section is open until this Thursday, March 26.
Last month, together with community partners, Trailnet worked with the City of St. Louis to apply for a $6.5 million federal construction grant to build a two-way protected bike lane (two-way cycle track) along Tower Grove Ave. and Vandeventer Ave. with additional bike and crosswalk improvements along Tower Grove Ave. and Sarah Ave., as well as signal optimization to decrease congestion.
This project which grew out of our Connecting St. Louis recommendations: the Cortex to Tower Grove Connector, would upgrade one of the busiest bike routes in the city to a protected bike lane, connect more people to Metro Link and make riding and walking along this route safer for people of all ages and abilities.
This grant is part of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program from the US Department of Transportation and managed by the East West Gateway Council of Governments (EWGCOG).
This is a competitive grant aimed at reducing car traffic congestion and improving environmental air quality, and you can help!
Help make this project a reality, add your voice today!
How To Comment:
We’ve included some draft language you can personalize to voice your support.
Follow this link (this doesn’t work in all web browsers). If directed to the EWGCOG site, select [St. Louis City] and [CORTEX-TOWER GROVE CONNECTOR] to submit a comment.
Or
Send an Email to: TIP@ewgateway.org
SUBJECT LINE: Comment on TIP 8218-23, CORTEX-TOWER GROVE CONNECTOR
-Copy and paste this subject line
-Copy, paste, and personalize the draft comments below:
Do you live or work in the community where the project is proposed?
I (live/work/travel through) near the Tower Grove Connector project.
Do you support, have concerns about or oppose this project?
I strongly support the Cortex-Tower Grove Connector Project (project number 8218-23)
What are the key reasons for your position?
This project will increase safety for people biking along Tower Grove and Vandeventer by providing physical separation between people biking and people driving. Tower Grove is currently one of the busiest corridors for biking in the City, and could really benefit from increased separation and more defined space for people who bike on this corridor.
The high visibility crosswalks along the corridor and new pedestrian crosswalk signal at Sarah will make it easier and safer for people walking to get across the street.
The traffic signal optimization will help alleviate congestion along the corridor and provide benefits to people who drive along this route, making this a winning project for all users.
This project will help address the poor air quality concerns we have in St. Louis by decreasing congestion through better-coordinated traffic signals (through people idling in cars) and providing people with safe transportation options other than driving a car in accordance with the City of St. Louis’ Sustainability Plan.
Anything else you’d like us to consider or comments you’d like to share about this project?
Name or organization:
Your first and last name
Workzone Mobility Ordinance | St. Louis City
Last week, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved legislation to update how the city handles construction sites and their impact on sidewalks and bike lanes.
Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia sponsored the proposal that gives the city’s streets department more authority to keep sidewalks open and guidance to developers creating safe accommodations in the case of construction impacting sidewalks or bike lanes. These accommodations can include: covered sidewalks, fencing, scaffolding, and other safety improvements.
We support this change as an important step to prioritize the needs of people who walk, use wheelchairs or ride bikes. Our sidewalks belong to everyone and should safely remain open during construction.
We look forward to working with the streets department on incorporating some of our priorities into these changes, including: minimum sidewalk widths, bike lane accommodations, specific considerations for people with visual impairments or people who use wheelchairs, and appropriate lighting requirements.
The legislation also updates the permit fee structure creating a higher-fee for developers that want to close sidewalks on major roads and around downtown. The increased fees will allow the streets department to hire two additional inspectors to enforce the ordinance and an additional plan reviewer to give guidance to developers on creating safe and continuous temporary connections for non-automobile transportation users during construction.
St. Louis County Bike Reforms
St. Louis County is on the verge of prioritizing the safety of people on bikes, and other vulnerable road users through a change to the county traffic rules.
The proposed legislation prioritizes people’s safety and judgement when using lanes, creates a 3-foot passing rule, clearly spells out when people are allowed to ride side by side, creates protections for vulnerable road users, and extends rules for bikes to apply to e-bikes.
This week, the St. Louis County Council is set to vote on County Bill 385, introduced by Councilwoman Kelli Dunaway, which updates the county’s outdated rules on how people on bikes can use roads in the county.
Our streets belong to everyone and everyone should be free to safely use them. We are confident that these policies are an important step towards safer streets.
The original proposal was amended to include input from Trailnet and other advocates. We wish this went further by including similar language prioritizing the judgement of people on scooters, skateboards, rollerblades, and other wheeled mobility devices as well as other updates on e-bike rules. Likewise, laws are no replacement for road-design changes and infrastructure improvements, Trailnet supports this as a necessary and timely step to improve the law.
The current version of the legislation reforms the county traffic code by:
Prioritizing people’s safety and judgement
Currently, the county has a one-size-fits-none approach, requiring bike traffic to stay as far to the right as “practicable” with no exemptions. If taken by the letter of the law, this means, riding in the gutter, in the door zone or on the shoulder. People riding bikes any other way could be cited for violating traffic law.
The proposal gives people on bikes more flexibility under the law to use their judgment. It lays out different exceptions that more closely matches how people actually interact safely on the road.
It creates a default for people on bikes to ride in the same direction as traffic and to stay to the right side of the right-most lane. However, it prioritizes people’s safety and judgement when laying out conditions where people can use the full lane, shoulder, or change lanes to:
Avoid debris or other hazards
Avoid vehicles turning in right-turn only lanes
If the road is too narrow for bikes and cars to share the same lane
Preparing to make left turns
Passing slower traffic
Avoid other unsafe conditions
If people follow these rules and obey other traffic laws, they would not violate rules against impeding traffic.
3-foot Passing
It also adds a 3-foot passing law for people in cars when overtaking people on bikes. It requires people driving to:
Change lanes to pass, if there is a passing lane.
If there is no passing lane, people driving must still give the person on the bike 3 feet of space while passing.
It allows people driving to safely cross over the middle lane, even in no-passing zones, in order to give 3 feet to the person in the bike.
Riding Abreast
The legislation would also update the law to allow people on bikes to ride side by side on the street, which was prohibited under the old ordinance.
People may ride abreast if:
They don’t significantly impede other traffic
They are riding on the shoulder, bike lane, or bike path
The right most lane of traffic is too narrow to be safely shared between a person on a bike and a car
Vulnerable Road Users
The bill also defines Vulnerable Road Users including:
People walking
People using wheelchairs
People riding bikes and using scooters, skateboards, roller skates, etc.
People working on the roadway: construction workers, first responders
People walking pets
People in animal-drawn vehicles
People on mopeds or motorcycles
People driving farm equipment
The proposed ordinance also prohibits people driving in a “careless or distracted manner” if it causes injury to a vulnerable road user. This creates a penalty for distracted driving if it causes a crash, hurting a vulnerable road user. This falls short of an overall distracted driving ban, since state law currently prevents local governments from passing their own distracted driving traffic rules. This reality prevents counties and cities from exercising local control, blocking them from addressing this dangerous behavior.
E-Bikes
This bill also extends rules governing bikes to include e-bikes and motorized bikes. This is a somewhat imperfect approach, because it uses engine cylinder size and horsepower as criteria, which doesn’t necessarily capture the differences of an e-bike motor. However, its way of dealing with top-speed that mostly fits in line with state and federal approaches for e-bikes.
In an ideal situation we would like to see St. Louis County and the State of Missouri adopt the three class E-Bike system being used in twenty two other states.
Last week, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, and the streets committee advanced a proposal to create and formally recognize a Community Mobility Committee that will serve an important role advising the City on active transit and personal mobility.
Thank you Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia for introducing this resolution and to the board for supporting it.
The resolution updates the previously established citizen-based Bike Share Working Group that was created to address bike and e-scooter sharing and has evolved to take on more issues facing people who walk, bike, use wheelchairs, take transit or use other mobility devices.
The resolution transforms that group into a more-formal committee that will weigh in on transportation issues for the city, develop policies and be a conduit for residents to have a say greater say in city government.
Trailnet has been part of that working group since its creation and we welcome the continuation of its work to make sure the voices of citizens vulnerable road users are heard by transportation policy makers in the St. Louis Region.
We hope the Community Mobility Committee will be an inclusive space where residents and advocates can work with city officials for more equitable and sustainable transportation policies.
Temporarily close roads in parks to car traffic
