Sheet 5: Trails and Bikeways Provide Many Economic Benefits

Fact: Trail and bikeway users spend money at local businesses

• Baskin-Robbins in Batavia sees a large increase in business due to Fox River Trail users in the summer time.¹
• It is estimated that 40-45% of the users of the Kane County part of the Fox River Trail come from outside the county.²
• A summer 1998 weekend county of Fox River Trail users in Batavia was over 10,000.³
• The outdoor deck at Erik & Me, a restaurant in St. Charles, gets 50% of its weekend business and 20% of its weekday business from bicyclists off the Fox River Trail.⁴
• Local businesses are supported by the purchase of supplies and services of the agency or nonprofit organization responsible for building and maintaining trails. For example, "users spent an average of $9.21, $11.02, and $3.97 per person per day as a result of their trail visits tot he Heritage, St. Marks, and Lafayette/Moraga Trails, respectively.⁵

• A survey was conducted at the 1994 DuPage County Fair found 84% of those polled "feel it is an asset to live adjacent to or near a trail."⁶
• A study was conducted by the Seattle Engineering Department - Office of Planning to determine the effect of the Burke-Gilman Trail on property values. Almost 70% of the real estate agents (surveyed) said that being adjacent to the trail would have a positive or neutral effect on selling a home. The same survey of real estate agents indicated that homes within two blocks of the (Burke-Gilman) trail.⁷
• An article in the Wall Street Journal included results of a national survey of recent home buyers. Those surveyed were asked to rank various amenities often included in new home developments. Walking and biking paths were ranked as most popular by 74% of those surveyed.⁸

¹Manager of Baskin-Robbins, Interviewed by Ed Barsotti, Batavia, Illinois, March 1996.

²Jon Duerr, Director, Kane County Forest Preserve District, Interviewed by Ed Barsotti, Geneva, Illinois, March 1996.

³Members of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, Interviewed by Ed Barsotti, Batavia, Illinois, March 1996.

⁴Manager, Erik & Me Restaurant, Interviewed by Ed Barsotti, St. Charles, Illinois, March 1996.

⁵National Park Service, Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program, The Impact of Rail-Trails: A Study of Users and Nearby Property Owners from Three Trails, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, February 1992), ii.

⁶The Conservation Foundation Trails Project, 1994 DuPage County Fair Survey, (Wheaton, Illinois, 1994), 2.

⁷Brain Puncochar and Peter Lagerwey, Burke-Gilman Trail's Effect of Property Values and Crime (Seattle: Seattle Engineering Department, Office for Planning, May 1987), 22-23.

⁸June Fletcher, "Is This Disneyland? No, the New Suburbs," Wall Street Journal, 4 June 1999, W12.