Sheet 2: Your Trails and Bikeways will be Used and Appreciated!

Fact: Trail activities are very popular

• The Illinois Prairie Path has at least 300,000 user trips per year.¹
• A trail opinion survey conducted at the 1994 DuPage County Fair found that 95% of the 387 respondents participate in outdoor activities appropriate for trails, including walking (74%), biking (29%), running (14%), horseback riding (10%), and others. The same survey revealed that the trails of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District and DuPage County Department of Transportation are used by 33% and 48% of the respondents respectively.²
• The Bicycle Institute of America estimates that 96 million Americans bicycled at least once in the past year. The majority (54%) of these were adults.³

• A trail opinion survey conducted at the 1994 DuPage County Fair found that 77% of the 387 respondents believe there should be additional trail links.⁴
• A local needs assessment survey for the Naperville Park District found 91% of residents expressed moderate or strong interest in biking/walking paths that link with other area paths, far exceeding the amount of interest expressed in other park district sports facilities.⁵
• Respondents to a 1991 Harris Poll "indicated that they want their government to enhance their opportunities to walk and bicycle."⁶

• A national transportation survey revealed that 48.8% of the journeys people make are three miles or less and that many of the journeys (41.5%) are for personal business. Only 21.6% of trips are to and from work.⁷ These short trips are ideal to be made by foot or bicycle.
• It has been estimated that in the United States in 1991, bicycling and walking were equivalent to between 7.6 and 28.1 billion motor vehicle miles, saving 370 to 1,340 million gallons of gasoline and 4.4 to 16.3 million metric tons of exhaust emission air pollution.⁸

¹DuPage County Highway Department, Illinois Prairie Path User Survey, (1985)

²The Conservation Foundation Trails Project, 1994 DuPage County Fair Survey, (Wheaton, Illinois, 1994), 1

³Bicycle Institute of America, Bicycling Reference Book, 1990-1991 Edition, (Washington, D.C., 1991), cited in U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, The National Bicycling and Walking Study: Transportation Choices for a Changing America, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1994), 10.

⁴The Conservation Foundation, op. cit., 1

⁵Naperville Park District, 1998 Adult Survey Report, (Naperville, Illinois: Naperville Park District, 1998), 21.

⁶Papandrea & Associates, Pathways for People, (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Inc., 1994), cited in U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, The National Bicycling and Walking Study: Transportation Choices for a Changing America, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1994), 11, 23, 31.

⁷Ibid. [The same pages as the preceding note.]

⁸C. Komanoff, C. Roelofs, J. Orcutt, and B. Ketcham, The National Bicycling and Walking Study Case Study No. 15; The Environmental Benefits of Bicycling and Walking, (Washington, D.C.: 1992), cited in U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, The National Bicycling and Walking Study: Transportation Choices for a Changing America, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1994), 18.