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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:04 - 00:00:25:29
Allison Burson
By the end of this year. And it may I may just be behind on following all of the planning studies they're doing in the Kim who you see in this photo with our exact director, Dennis Kim, has been sort of huge leader on this with her work at the Treasure Coast CPO. But that whole three county region. So a huge stretch of South Florida, that area has almost the entirety of the greenway planned or designed or built.
00:00:26:00 - 00:00:47:09
Allison Burson
So when we talked about, oh, there are these places where we have gaps, we don't know where the trail will be. This area, as they've had so many people moving there, so much construction, so much growth, they've prioritized. We're going to plan for how we're going to build the trails. So each time there's a new developer that wants to build a building, they're ready to go to say, hey, can you build a trail in front of this building to here.
00:00:47:15 - 00:01:11:08
John Simmerman
Welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Allison Burson, the National Greenway director for the East Coast Greenway. And we're going to be talking all about that East Coast Greenway that goes all the way from Maine down to Florida. But before we dive into that conversation, I just want to say, if you're enjoying this content here in the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an Active Towns Ambassador.
00:01:11:09 - 00:01:34:13
John Simmerman
Hey, super easy to do. Just click on the join button right down below I here on YouTube or navigate over to Active Towns, or click on the support tab at the top of the page. And there's several different options, including becoming a Patreon supporter. Patrons do get early and access to all this video content. Okay, let's get right to it with Allison.
00:01:34:15 - 00:01:38:15
John Simmerman
Allison Burson, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
00:01:38:18 - 00:01:41:08
Allison Burson
Thank you for having me, Allison.
00:01:41:08 - 00:01:47:08
John Simmerman
I love giving my guests just a little bit of time to introduce themselves. So who the heck is Allison?
00:01:47:08 - 00:02:02:21
Allison Burson
So I am Allison Burson, and I am the National Greenway Director for East Coast Greenway Alliance, where I'm really, really lucky to get to full time for my job, get to work on planning and design and advocacy for Trails Me to Florida.
00:02:02:24 - 00:02:18:03
John Simmerman
I love that, I love that that that is so cool that, you know, next to being, you know, you know, the the Active Towns YouTube content creator, which is the best job in the world. You probably have the second best job in the world.
00:02:18:06 - 00:02:30:06
Allison Burson
It's really amazing to get to, to get to see and work with so many different communities, working on projects that are so close to their hearts and to get to help those communities.
00:02:30:08 - 00:02:38:08
John Simmerman
So talk a little bit about your background. What's kind of the origin story? How did you come to this work?
00:02:38:10 - 00:02:55:19
Allison Burson
So I think the origin story is for as long as I can remember, when I was three, I remember watching the other kids in my neighborhood were biking on the street. My dad was bike commuting to work in Seattle, and I wanted to be big enough to go to ride with the other kids on the street and ride with my dad.
00:02:55:19 - 00:03:21:18
Allison Burson
And when I turned four, I was just ecstatic to be big enough to graduate from a sort of little tricycle to two wheeled bike. And my mom taught me to ride. And since then I've been I wanted to go to my friends houses by myself. I had wanted to get to the park. I wanted to go Seattle does a street closure for motor vehicles and opening for people and bikes right along Lake Washington on the weekends.
00:03:21:18 - 00:03:28:25
Allison Burson
So I would do that with my dad. So from very early on. Yeah, if I could pedal, I wanted to be pedaling.
00:03:28:27 - 00:03:53:16
John Simmerman
That's that is amazing. That's me. I love the I love the origin story. I just like remembering back and going, yeah, this was pretty much a part of our lives since the very, very beginning. So that's super, super cool. So wow. So you started out on the far west coast and you are now living in Maine. We're abouts in Maine are you?
00:03:53:19 - 00:04:03:18
Allison Burson
So I'm in Freeport, Maine. So I'm just north of Portland. And Freeport is the home of L.L. bean, which that's a destination many people can find on the map.
00:04:03:19 - 00:04:13:10
John Simmerman
Yeah okay. So let's let's zoom in here so you can see where I am at. I'm in the middle of the ocean there where it says home on Hawaii Island. And if we.
00:04:13:15 - 00:04:15:21
John Simmerman
Win on Maine.
00:04:15:24 - 00:04:32:13
John Simmerman
I cheated. I starred you out. There you are. You're that star there in Freeport. Just just northeast of Portland. There. Right on the water. And. Yeah. What's it like living in Freeport, Maine? And how the heck did you end up there all the way from Seattle?
00:04:32:15 - 00:05:01:08
Allison Burson
So I ended up in Freeport because for work at the East Coast Alliance, I needed to live along the Greenway. And I grew up half in Seattle, half in the greater Boston area. I had a chance to live and work in the UK for a bit. When I joined work at East Coast Greenway Alliance. I could live anywhere along the Greenway, and I wanted to be somewhere that has a real passion for trails and a place that's really great for cycling and midcoast.
00:05:01:08 - 00:05:25:07
Allison Burson
Maine really is wonderful, and Freeport's a spot where, in addition to there being some good coastal riding, there's some big trail projects underway now to the north and the south of me. That's exciting to see those those slowly moving toward planning and design and greater Freeport. There's really good gravel road writing as well, so lots of bike access and outdoor access as we brought us here.
00:05:25:09 - 00:05:55:03
John Simmerman
I think I'm just realizing, too, that, you know, we've got the East Coast Greenway and again, we'll talk, we'll dive deep into what that's really all about. But it's I, I'm like, oh, wait a minute. There's like two major trails that terminate in Maine. We've got we've got the Appalachian Trail, which terminates. Doesn't it terminate at Mount Washington or, or is that just one of the final stop stops.
00:05:55:06 - 00:05:57:12
Allison Burson
Mount Washington's in New Hampshire?
00:05:57:13 - 00:05:58:28
John Simmerman
Oh it is. Let's see, where.
00:05:58:28 - 00:06:00:18
Allison Burson
Does it terminate at Katahdin.
00:06:00:19 - 00:06:03:07
John Simmerman
I don't know where it terminates. Yeah.
00:06:03:08 - 00:06:05:09
Allison Burson
But it does terminate in Maine. Yes.
00:06:05:09 - 00:06:06:18
John Simmerman
It does terminate in Maine.
00:06:06:19 - 00:06:08:10
Allison Burson
Takes the turn, heads into Maine. Yes.
00:06:08:11 - 00:06:11:25
John Simmerman
And then where does the East Coast Greenway terminate?
00:06:11:27 - 00:06:16:10
Allison Burson
It terminates. And callous Maine, right at the Canadian border.
00:06:16:15 - 00:06:17:24
John Simmerman
Wow.
00:06:17:26 - 00:06:25:10
Allison Burson
So it's fairly far east. It's sort of the easternmost border crossing.
00:06:25:13 - 00:06:32:19
John Simmerman
Very, very nice. Very nice. Yeah. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get there or not, but yeah. So I mean we're.
00:06:32:19 - 00:06:33:27
Allison Burson
Talking about. Yeah.
00:06:34:03 - 00:07:06:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. So we're talking two amazing trails that terminate in Maine. What's what's that like? You know, having grown up in in Seattle, in Washington, obviously you said you spent some time in Boston, so you figured out winters, really serious winters. But I'm sure even further north in in Maine, it it probably brings a whole different story in terms of what winters are like.
00:07:06:13 - 00:07:34:13
Allison Burson
So in terms of winter and trail use, and one of the things that's so fascinating, working for East Coast Greenway Alliance and working for a project that is spanning from Florida to Maine, in Maine in the winter, we're seeing snowmobile use. We're seeing cross-country ski use on trails. We are seeing fat biking increasingly popular. So that's sort of one parameter around trail design in Maine.
00:07:34:15 - 00:07:43:15
Allison Burson
You know, we definitely have winters here, not necessarily as much winter as the previous few years. So good to have year round recreation options.
00:07:43:18 - 00:08:10:03
John Simmerman
Now, when you say fat bike, I kind of know what you mean when in the context of winter you're talking about, you know, like the really cool surly bikes that have the big balloon tires and they'll float right through the snow and do all that. Not the fat bikes that the Dutch and the Europeans call fat bikes, which are the mini electric motorcycles.
00:08:10:06 - 00:08:38:18
John Simmerman
They call those fat bikes. And so just just to clarify for our global audience here, when Alison says fat bikes, she's, she's saying that with a sense of love of, yeah, these are a hoot. These are a lot of fun because those balloon tires help float through the snow and you're able to keep writing year round. Not the fat bikes that the kids are zipping around on with throttles and not pedaling anymore in, you know, and really, those things are are not just in the Europe anymore.
00:08:38:19 - 00:08:55:22
John Simmerman
They are spreading across North America. And we're especially dealing with some challenges with some of the tweens that are using them to get to middle school. And and so we've got some challenges with the quote unquote, those types of fat bikes, which are really motorcycles. Yeah.
00:08:55:24 - 00:09:24:28
Allison Burson
Yes. And that's that's something we talk about all the time in East Coast Greenway Alliance. I'm sort of working with statewide bike advocacy orgs, whether it's sort of in new Jersey, looking at existing new policy, looking at changing new policy, new policies that are coming in in Florida, Charleston, and we try to, you know, try to make sure that policies are as practical as possible and sort of allow for safe transit for everyone.
00:09:25:00 - 00:09:51:21
Allison Burson
Back to your question about sort of living in Maine and what Maine winters are like. Another piece I want to add is just sort of how important the outdoor economy and outdoor recreation is, both Washington state and very much in Maine and in Florida. And that's something three Schools Alliance. It's just amazing to see the number of people who want to visit states along the Greenway and in particularly Maine, in Florida for the outdoor recreation opportunities.
00:09:51:28 - 00:10:18:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And just to be clear, too, when we look at places that have serious winters, like my good friends up in Finland, they just ride all year round. I mean, they it mean the kids ride to school at rates of 60 to 70% because they have safe and inviting off street network of pathways that deliver the kiddos right to school from their homes.
00:10:18:09 - 00:10:58:10
John Simmerman
And so a lot of what you and I are going to be talking about when we get to the the actual trail here, and you and I talked about in Northwest Arkansas when we saw each other a couple of months ago, is that that's the beauty of these pathways and trail systems that we create. The off street network of trail systems is that when they connect to the communities and, you know, people who are living in various neighborhoods can easily access these greenways, they can deliver us to meaningful destinations, parks and schools and and just your friends house to two neighborhoods over, which is absolutely critical.
00:10:58:12 - 00:11:14:03
John Simmerman
Let's pull up the website here real quick. So we're here at the Greenway website. This is the East Coast Greenway Alliance website. Do a quick introduction. What is the East Coast Greenway all about?
00:11:14:06 - 00:11:59:01
Allison Burson
Is for the East Coast Greenway is a vision for a fully connected, separated, safe for people walking and biking and rolling to connect all the way from the Canadian border in Maine, all the way down to Key West, Florida. And this is a vision that came about in the 90s where our 35th year and really exciting to watch how sort of the existing trails that begun to be strung together as part of that vision, to watch more pieces opening, more communities, getting excited and wanting to work on their own pieces, and to see it come from sort of a vision to now being a little bit under 40% complete.
00:11:59:03 - 00:12:06:28
Allison Burson
So trails take time and still exciting to see the trail growing and see more and more people using the trails.
00:12:07:01 - 00:12:12:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And we can't even see Key West. We have to go further down there.
00:12:12:06 - 00:12:14:10
John Simmerman
It's down in the in the trees.
00:12:14:10 - 00:12:44:06
John Simmerman
There on this map. And so you mentioned that a little under 40% completed at this point. So we've got a lot of work yet to do to make this happen. And gosh, you know, the challenges of going across multiple states. We've previously featured Brant Boyce who used to work for the East Coast Greenway. He was down in Georgia and was part of that that little segment, it was Georgia.
00:12:44:10 - 00:12:46:24
John Simmerman
What states did he have? It was Georgia.
00:12:46:28 - 00:12:56:00
Allison Burson
He was in Georgia, in South Carolina. And I think since you've talked to him, a new segment of Tied to Town Trail, right in Savannah, where Brant lives, has opened. And I got to see.
00:12:56:02 - 00:12:57:09
John Simmerman
Saw that? Yeah.
00:12:57:10 - 00:13:18:26
John Simmerman
George? George Bennett or not? George. Oh. What was his name? John Bennett, right down in Savannah, Georgia. Just posted that that they're working on that now. I couldn't, I couldn't understand from the the post that was done was that a ribbon cutting of it was opening or was that a ribbon cutting of groundbreaking.
00:13:18:28 - 00:13:26:16
Allison Burson
It should be. I did not see the specific post, but I know that I think that that that small segment is complete. So I think it was a ribbon cutting.
00:13:26:18 - 00:13:27:06
John Simmerman
Yay.
00:13:27:12 - 00:14:05:09
John Simmerman
Yes. Fantastic. That is that is really, really good news. This is such an encouraging type of development because we're talking multiple stakes, multiple areas, many different climate zones, trying to put together what will eventually be something that, you know, hopefully all ages and abilities can, can take advantage of and go long distance, but they can also benefit day in and day out, going short distances and medium distances.
00:14:05:12 - 00:14:36:22
John Simmerman
You know, it's it's just so empowering to to be able to say yeah, I mean we're going to take some maybe some existing corridors that exist like abandoned rights of way that might be there. They could be utility corridors, they could be railroad corridors that that have been abandoned. And trying to piece this together. I mean, you as the national, you know, the person who's kind of like helping guide each of these different areas.
00:14:36:22 - 00:14:52:22
John Simmerman
You've got to be like looking at things going, okay, I got to talk with my local person down in this, this area. Okay. What are we working on now? And, you know, how do we activate these diamonds in the rough that are that are there.
00:14:52:25 - 00:15:19:01
Allison Burson
So I love when you talk about sort of those local trips being really important because to me that is sort of that is the most exciting part. And what's amazing is in every state we work in, there's a group of a few to sort of hundreds of volunteers who are so excited about the trails that will give them a chance to get outside for a walk, or would help them get to work or to a doctor's appointment.
00:15:19:03 - 00:15:47:20
Allison Burson
And it's just amazing to see how different projects look in different places and to sort of we get to jump in and provide some help, whether we're helping with some grant writing to try to get funding to build a trail. Or maybe we're helping with some community organizing to make sure people know to come to community meetings and say, yes, we really want this trail and be really helpful to have this trail of a playground along the side of it, or really helpful for the trail to go here and not here because of where we need to go.
00:15:47:22 - 00:15:48:12
John Simmerman
Yeah.
00:15:48:13 - 00:16:00:08
John Simmerman
Yeah, and I may have misspoke earlier, but I want to make sure that we get the numbers right here. It looks like 65% are completed or advancing and 35%.
00:16:00:10 - 00:16:00:24
John Simmerman
Is that correct?
00:16:00:25 - 00:16:25:01
Allison Burson
And that's a really misleading number, because if you were completely right before the numbers, you had the completed or advancing very technical language as we were sort of this is a planning project. How much of the trail is there designed for? There's been engineering drawings. There's some plan to get this built right that's included in that 65% number.
00:16:25:03 - 00:16:36:24
Allison Burson
And so the 35% that there hasn't yet been any plans yet to build trail. We don't know where that trail will go. The 65% is there's trail now. And somebody planning.
00:16:36:25 - 00:16:37:08
John Simmerman
To that's.
00:16:37:08 - 00:16:38:04
Allison Burson
The for your numbers.
00:16:38:04 - 00:16:39:13
John Simmerman
The perfect. Yeah. Yeah that's the.
00:16:39:13 - 00:16:56:27
John Simmerman
40%. And then about 25% of we add the numbers is something that's advancing meaning we're we know where it needs to go the alignment. And now we just need to hey let's get concrete on the ground. Let's make this happen blah blah blah. Okay. And the 35% is like scratching our head.
00:16:56:28 - 00:16:59:19
John Simmerman
Going, I don't know.
00:16:59:21 - 00:17:00:22
John Simmerman
It's not necessarily.
00:17:00:22 - 00:17:24:20
Allison Burson
I don't know, but it's those are places where maybe there isn't a large residential population. Right. They're saying to their local government, hey, we really would like a trail. Sorkin skin bike to school. It's often, sometimes areas where maybe there's, you know, some open space or highway or there's just lower population density often. And then sometimes it is a wow, this is so complicated.
00:17:24:20 - 00:17:36:16
Allison Burson
The East Coast is so fully built out. How were you going to get through this area that, you know, every inch of land seems to already be used, and is there a way to safely get a trail through here?
00:17:36:24 - 00:18:01:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I do want to also point out to you. So folks, please go over to the website again, Greenway dot. There's also, you know, lots of stories in there about the different areas and success stories and some of the progress that's being made, you know, so again, great, great stories. This is I'll just click on one here.
00:18:01:04 - 00:18:31:02
John Simmerman
We're looking at the Greenway bike bus drives community and nature. This is this is really fun stuff. You guys also have a YouTube channel. So folks who can pop on over subscribe to that that channel as well. And then, you know, dive into some of these great stories. And I think what I love, the reason why I love profiling efforts like this, is I hope it gives inspiration for people who might be in communities.
00:18:31:03 - 00:18:59:28
John Simmerman
Maybe they are along a potential route for the greenway on the East coast, but maybe they're completely, somewhere completely different, somewhere around the globe. But they're like, you know what? Let's let's make this happen in our community. Let's try to get one of these pathways. Let's kind of use this, this inspiration from these success stories that are outlined in the Greenway Alliance, you know, East Coast Greenway Alliance website.
00:18:59:28 - 00:19:20:10
John Simmerman
And let's do some of this. I mean, I again, you've got one of the best jobs in the world. I'm I'm sure you just pinch yourself all the time thinking about that. But it is inspirational to be able to say, hey, we can make our community more sustainable, more livable, more lovable every single day.
00:19:20:16 - 00:19:44:19
Allison Burson
And I don't want anyone to think that if I'm not on the East Coast, I couldn't be part of a trail that's bigger than a mile or two. There's so many communities in the US and around the world that have trail network plans for how do you get around this town, this region. And those plans are so helpful in mapping out how do you prioritize?
00:19:44:19 - 00:20:12:06
Allison Burson
What do you build first so that as many people as possible can get places? How do you use sort of. There's not infinite dollars to build public infrastructure projects. How do you prioritize them? And I do think sort of being part of a network or a longer distance trail, we were just cycling in Nova Scotia and got to go on the runner trail, and that's a trail that there's a number of local pieces of trail along it.
00:20:12:07 - 00:20:34:00
Allison Burson
And I do think is people around the world are thinking about, I would like trail where I am. It's super helpful to think about what's right here on my block, and then what might that connect to in a mile or ten miles. And those being part of that bigger context can be so helpful for getting funding and prioritization on a project so you can be anywhere in the world, not just on the East Coast Greenway.
00:20:34:00 - 00:20:35:06
Allison Burson
Thinking about that.
00:20:35:07 - 00:21:06:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love this photo here. This is in bath, Maine. And we've got the the East Coast Greenway sign on the, the the post here, the the signpost here. And yes, sometimes the, the greenway is intersecting with and is is on the, the main street network. It's not to say that it's always on a separated off street network of Greenway.
00:21:06:07 - 00:21:09:16
John Simmerman
And this is just a beautiful, beautiful setting.
00:21:09:19 - 00:21:31:15
Allison Burson
So bath is the wonderful downtown and I do I cycle here when someone's last minute Christmas shopping. I've cycled to bath on the Greenway to do shopping. They've got an amazing cooking store as well as a number of other great stories. I do want to clarify the current conditions of what we show on Map Greenway, and this is getting very technical.
00:21:31:16 - 00:21:59:12
Allison Burson
That is showing where is their existing complete separated trail that we think is sort of really comfortable 8 to 80. And that's shown sort of marked as trail. And then we also show here is a way to connect those pieces of trail on road. And here's the most direct, least terribly dangerous way to do it. And some of those road connections are quite lovely and like getting to see downtown bath lovely.
00:21:59:12 - 00:22:24:24
Allison Burson
Some of those road connections are Tulane each way. Highway 60 mile per hour, zero shoulder. There's nothing about them that's safe, comfortable or recommended for riding. And that's what's so complicated about such a long distance project. But that's the Main Street is sort of one of the best examples of they're working on a Riverwalk right there. That'll be part of the Greenway.
00:22:24:26 - 00:22:46:07
Allison Burson
And then one of the major employers in Main Bath Iron Works is right next to that main street where that photo is. And they're thinking about how do they get multiple shifts of employees a day in and out of a very, very big facility in a short amount of time and thinking about not just single occupancy vehicles and things about to walk and bike to work super important there.
00:22:46:09 - 00:23:15:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, well, and I like to remind people to that when we look at the like for instance, the Dutch cycling network, 60 to 70% of the Dutch cycling network. And here's a photo of you in the Netherlands, the 60 to 70% of the Dutch cycling network is actually on some form of shared street, but they're incredibly welcoming environments.
00:23:15:09 - 00:23:32:22
John Simmerman
It's an all ages and abilities approach to it. And so those feats, thoughts and the ET, the local access streets that they have, their paved in brick, they're 30km/h maximum speed limit. It's very welcoming for all ages and abilities to be able to ride.
00:23:32:24 - 00:23:53:19
Allison Burson
Let me tell you a story about when I was there on this trip and that welcoming and sort of to the American mindset and to somebody who works in active transportation in the US. When I was there and this was, oh, this was like 15 plus years ago, I was able to write from sort of the middle of Amsterdam, able to ride, sort of.
00:23:53:20 - 00:24:19:24
Allison Burson
I could just follow signs. I could either put a bike on a train and follow signs back, or I could just follow signs out and go anywhere and ended up cycling past the airport at one point. And to me, the American who just it's almost inconceivable to me that there'd be safe bicycle infrastructure everywhere, even though I'd had it everywhere I was writing, I got to an intersection where the there was trail that sort of made a tiny, tiny churn.
00:24:19:24 - 00:24:34:24
Allison Burson
So it had a gentle grade to go under a highway. And I, being the American, assumed you just have to cross the highway because, oh, well, you got near the airport and there wasn't going to be safe bike infrastructure. So I tried to cross the street there. And the amazing thing is this is somewhere where it's you, it's highway, there's tractor trailers.
00:24:34:25 - 00:24:56:20
Allison Burson
Not only did everybody stop, everybody pointed and signaled to me how to find the safe place for the bike to go under it, and the the level of practicality, compassion and then just the practical infrastructure for it. It just it blew me away and it was sort of like, oh, there's some really wonderful things Americans don't always think of.
00:24:56:22 - 00:25:26:00
John Simmerman
That's great. Yeah. And as somebody who who travels to the Netherlands frequently, I will oftentimes fly into Schiphol, the, the main airport there in Amsterdam, and then just pack my, my, my bike up my Brompton and put my luggage on my bike. And I'll ride from the airport to my ultimate destination because it's it's doable. And what's great is you are able to be on off street network of pathways.
00:25:26:00 - 00:25:57:01
John Simmerman
Yes. But then also on those on street network of pathways or routes, the kind of embrace the concept of like the Euro Velo route where with Euro Velo they have a massive network of of routes that exist and they'll some of them will be off street network of pathways and some of them will be on street, but very, very much conducive to riding, ideally, to your point, you know.
00:25:57:02 - 00:26:10:10
John Simmerman
Ideally, if you're on street, hopefully it's a very welcoming environment because that's what we we want to see is when you're when you're guiding people along and then getting them back onto the actual greenway itself. Yeah, yeah.
00:26:10:12 - 00:26:12:09
John Simmerman
And I don't think I included a picture.
00:26:12:09 - 00:26:37:06
Allison Burson
Of this, but one of the most visited sections of sort of the current rooting for the Greenway is a sort of shared street, like you're talking about Neptune Beach, Florida, that runs parallel to the beach, and there's so many people roller skating and rollerblading and walking and biking and using it. It's a linear park space of street. And sometimes we're asked you, should we add separated space to this?
00:26:37:06 - 00:26:48:28
Allison Burson
And I'm like, there wouldn't be enough room for all the people on it. And I love when sort of in the context where there can be those slow streets, there's sometimes some of the most wonderful places to get out and be outside.
00:26:49:03 - 00:27:14:03
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I want to pull up this this photo. This is from Freeport. This is at L.L.Bean here. And you have it titled, you know, you're posing there with some through writers. And so getting to your point that you made earlier is that, you know, there's great opportunities for economic development, great opportunities for tourism, great opportunities for just, you know, being able to recreate.
00:27:14:03 - 00:27:45:02
John Simmerman
But this is, you know, this concept of, oh, yeah, we've got people who are through writers, we've got people who just like on the Appalachian Trail that we were talking about earlier. We've got people who do small segments, you know, medium sized segments, but you have people who do the entire length through hikers talk a little bit about that concept of now that the the Greenway is continuing to develop and new segments opening all the time, you're seeing people do this kind of concept of, yeah, we're going to do a long trip here.
00:27:45:03 - 00:28:10:03
Allison Burson
We I mean, we have people who want to do sort of a short walk to going all the way Maine, to Florida with this family. It was incredible and so inspiring to meet this mother's son. The son had a taxi, a which is it's basically sort of a motor skills condition, so that he didn't have the fine motor skills that some people have.
00:28:10:04 - 00:28:32:12
Allison Burson
And he really, really loved to cycle and was able to find this ridiculously cool. And these were super fast tricycles. And he really had this dream dried as much of the Greenway as he could and to get out and explore. And his mom had not really been a cyclist before the sun had taken up cycling, and he sort of he wanted her to come with them.
00:28:32:12 - 00:28:57:28
Allison Burson
And so the adventure they were having and, you know, this chance for him to have this freedom to ride, it's just incredible. And for the mom to, you know, not being a cyclist and agreeing to a very long trip to give her son this opportunity, this amazing. We've also had chances. We've had some other, you know, I met a father son riding last summer who the son had realized his dad, I think, had just retired.
00:28:57:28 - 00:29:18:20
Allison Burson
The son was very early career. The dad invited the son to ride in the sun. I don't know how he had the wisdom sort of a few years out of college to say, I'm going to take a few years, a few months away from working in an office, because I want this time with my father. I want this time to explore and, you know, just have his time with his family and get that experience.
00:29:18:20 - 00:29:29:15
Allison Burson
And I was saying to him, while I'm so impressed you were able to think about, you know, how wonderful opportunity this would be, rather than thinking like, I just need to keep going to work and getting the next promotion.
00:29:29:18 - 00:30:05:25
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. And what I love about that story, I didn't make any assumptions when I saw that this was a recumbent trike. This is an adaptive cycle. So this is again leaning into that all ages and all abilities. You have to redefine what it is you have in mind when you use the word cyclist, because it's just, you know, it's anybody who wants to get out on 2 or 3 wheels, sometimes even four wheels, to be able to, you know, roll to, to their, their, their destination and explore as well.
00:30:05:25 - 00:30:32:25
John Simmerman
So yeah, we're seeing more and more adaptive cycles being a critical part of what it means to to get around. And that puts a little bit of pressure to honor what it is and how we define what our cycling infrastructure is like. I keep reinforcing with people when they ask me, well, from an all ages and abilities perspective, how wide should we make our our bike lanes and our trails and pathways?
00:30:32:26 - 00:31:05:24
John Simmerman
And I said, well, remember that adaptive trike, you know, and the cargo bikes that are emerging, we need to make them wider than we think we do. And that's one of the lessons that the Dutch are learning from now too, is that there they are having to go back and add width to many of their feets pods, because they're too narrow for the amount of traffic and for the width, the, the various wheeling devices that are out there incurred, including the the three wheeled cargo bikes and adaptive cycles too.
00:31:05:25 - 00:31:25:22
John Simmerman
So yeah, that's good stuff. I just there's so many. You have so many wonderful photos here. I don't even know where to go next. But talk a little bit about this sense of adventure that I think has driven your life and your career.
00:31:25:25 - 00:31:44:22
John Simmerman
From probably an early, early age. So we talked early stages. You know, wanting to get out and ride and you started writing. Talk about a little bit about these adventures. I think you may we may have a photo or two from a cross-country trip. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah.
00:31:44:25 - 00:32:11:24
Allison Burson
Yeah. So this photo, I love that you're bringing up sort of adventures in past sort of what led me here. This photo is on it's sort of end of hop River trail near the airline trail in Connecticut. And this trail was actually built to do a lot of stormwater management and sort of built to when there's a lot of water that sort of floods into the trail from a river for a little bit, and then there's sort of enough space that the water can kind of move off quickly.
00:32:11:24 - 00:32:46:22
Allison Burson
But this trail now, I went to college at Wesleyan University, which is in Middletown, which is dead center of the state of Connecticut and just past where we are on this trail. It connects with the airline trail, and the airline trail is almost to the point of connecting with Middletown, Connecticut. And I just I'm so excited to think, you know, sort of, you know, 20 years or so after I graduated from college, there's now trail that could have that connect about to connect sort of from the center of phonetics, so that I pretty much could have biked home to my parents house in the Boston area suburbs.
00:32:46:22 - 00:33:13:10
Allison Burson
So I think I just sort of always have liked to have a chance to move on my own and bike and give so much freedom to. I don't need to worry about the bus time schedules. When I was at Wesleyan, most of the time I was there. The only weekend I could have taken to get home on the weekend was a 5 p.m. Friday bus, so I got much more creative about other forms of transportation.
00:33:13:13 - 00:33:37:02
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Now, did you get a chance to meet Doctor Julie Flag when we were in Northwest Arkansas? She's in Connecticut. Yeah. So she's super, super passionate. She attended seeing you and also the Strong Towns National Gathering. And one of the things that she and I have been talking about for the last couple of years is there in Connecticut.
00:33:37:02 - 00:34:08:28
John Simmerman
She really is passionate now that she's retired. She's really, really passionate about trying to duplicate what you and I saw there in Bentonville and in Northwest Arkansas, and the influence that the Razorback Greenway has had in terms of just bringing vibrancy and vitality into that entire region. But her biggest thing is because she's very, very concerned about the health and well-being of the children in the next generation.
00:34:08:28 - 00:34:29:07
John Simmerman
Coming up is we need to have those all ages and abilities. And she was just blown away by how many kids she saw as free range kids there in Northwest Arkansas, you know, out on the pathways and getting to to all throughout Bentonville and everything. Talk a little bit about that as like a passion point of, you know, the East Coast Greenway.
00:34:29:08 - 00:34:56:09
John Simmerman
I mean, if we can get these things area and connect, you know, many of these communities and then likewise, you know, I guess you and I had had this conversation to there in Northwest Arkansas. It's not just the main Greenway like the Razorback Greenway that we were on when we were, you know, on that tour and riding. But it's also the feeder trails and the feeder greenways that that bring these things really to life.
00:34:56:10 - 00:34:57:16
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about that.
00:34:57:18 - 00:35:29:24
Allison Burson
I'm so glad you mentioned that, because I think the Razorback, really the quality of it and the way they've sort of been adding amenities and sort of park space along, it was all amazing. And I think what I was even even more blown away by and say it's by the university, there's sort of feeder trail that goes past the university president's house, past the stadium, so that there's sort of ways that people can roll from wherever they're living, to the Razorback Greenway or to the mountain bike trail network.
00:35:29:24 - 00:35:58:27
Allison Burson
And then in Bentonville, there's three different, incredibly beautifully built mountain bike trail networks that are a little, you know, a mile or two apart from each other. And in the last few years has taken done the work to do some separated some of its flex posts, some of its quiet neighborhood streets, as you were talking about with some signage, so that you can connect between the different mountain bike parks and connect into neighborhoods so that people don't need a car to get to any of these trails.
00:35:58:27 - 00:36:15:03
Allison Burson
And the the sort of from anybody's house to this world class trail network system. And they've connected those pieces. It's just sort of one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I'm so glad you sort of were seeing it and enjoying it.
00:36:15:10 - 00:36:39:12
John Simmerman
Well, I think you and I, as we were talking, you know, we were I kept getting excited. I'm like, yeah, see, there's another cul de sac that's been, you know, it's got Permian permeability there. It's like, you know, able to connect to the the greenway and the trail and be able to, you know, be able to connect other parts of the community, other parts of the region.
00:36:39:13 - 00:37:03:22
John Simmerman
I mean, you and I rode what was that was a good 27, 30 miles all the way from, from Fayetteville to, to Bentonville. And so it's yeah, if you have safe and inviting infrastructure, you can connect community to community, village to village. And again, that's one of the things that I love about the Netherlands is, you know, I have mobility choice.
00:37:03:22 - 00:37:30:20
John Simmerman
I can choose to walk to my close in destinations. I can choose to get on a bike and ride to my medium distance, you know, locations, and I can even jump on the bike and get to the next village over, the next city over. And I can mix and match with different mobility systems. I may ride and explore and go to multiple cities on a pathway and a trail system.
00:37:30:20 - 00:37:49:00
John Simmerman
And then, like we said, the all ages and abilities comfortable on bike or on street network of of pathways and and systems as well. And then I can jump on the train and come back. You know, I don't have to I can just do some really, really fun stuff. Talk a little bit about this image here that we have on screen.
00:37:49:00 - 00:38:11:12
Allison Burson
So this was, you know, on the days where I'm sort of so, so excited about my job and so feel so lucky to be able to get to do it. I got the chance to go to DC for the ribbon cutting for the bridge over the Patuxent River. So the WB and a bridge, and it's an area where basically sort of connecting sort of greater DC to Maryland.
00:38:11:13 - 00:38:37:25
Allison Burson
There's great trail network in both places, but this one river and there wasn't a bridge. It basically meant that, you know, these two counties had no connection with each other by bike. And the bridge finally being completed opens up. I think it's like 60% trail between DC and Baltimore now if you're on the Greenway. So there's still some pieces that are on road, but there's some incredibly long stretches of trail.
00:38:37:25 - 00:38:56:22
Allison Burson
And this was getting to ride from that ribbon cutting to Annapolis with two of my colleagues. And Daniel took the photo. And then there I am riding with Elliott. And just incredible to see, you know, DC is such a major urban area. Baltimore is such a big city, and you can so quickly be out in this green space.
00:38:56:22 - 00:38:57:26
Allison Burson
And I love it.
00:38:58:03 - 00:39:37:07
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I think that's one of the the things that make these types of facilities so incredibly popular. Is it even in a, in a, in a dense sort of urban environment, if you've got a greenway running through it, oftentimes it reconnects you with nature. You know, maybe it's a longer riparian chord, or maybe it's an old abandoned railway corridor, but it gives you that opportunity to get a little bit of a nature fix.
00:39:37:09 - 00:39:38:13
John Simmerman
That's huge.
00:39:38:19 - 00:40:02:07
Allison Burson
It's huge. And I'm thinking of sort of the Greenway in Essex, Edson County in New Jersey, where, you know, that's one of the densest populated areas on the East Coast, and that's a facility that sort of separated from street level. So when there's a trail there, or if there will be the sound separation, there will be green. And right now there's sort of some of it's quite overgrown, sort of very wild space.
00:40:02:10 - 00:40:10:16
Allison Burson
And it really you just sort of you can be so close to buildings housing downtown and just totally different experience.
00:40:10:18 - 00:40:31:28
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. We've got an image on screen here, which is it looks like it's a separated trail next to a street. I believe this is in a very urban environment as well. Walk through what we're looking at here and talk a little bit about this in the context of, of, of the Greenway.
00:40:32:02 - 00:41:02:15
Allison Burson
So this is sort of on the DC Maryland border. So an area, you know, urban to residential and really key connector getting people in to D.C. into jobs. And this is I love this photo because it's with a couple of our very, very long time volunteers who have been with the Greenway, I think since since founding, who were sort of mentors to me, is as I've been starting and, you know, I'll get emails are regularly with updates if there's this trail project or this closure and this happening.
00:41:02:18 - 00:41:29:20
Allison Burson
And then also some of our colleagues at while the Washington Area Bicycle Association, that's another key partner. And I also this infrastructure here is great. It sort of there had been a much wider road with I think probably two lanes each way for cars, and they were able to pretty easily just create some more separation in this space, sort of add some curbing to give you a lot more space for separated bike path.
00:41:29:22 - 00:41:34:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it. And two Brompton is there. As you know I'm huge Brompton fan.
00:41:34:26 - 00:41:41:24
Allison Burson
And Daniel had come up by train from Philadelphia to D.C. so really really helped.
00:41:41:28 - 00:42:23:19
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah it's it's fun to I just did a last summer was my Brompton and Amtrak tours coast to coast. And so I was able to attend the CNN gathering in Providence. And then and I made my way all the way. They're not from Hawaii on Amtrak. No. That would be a feat. I know. I was still living in Austin, Texas at the time, so I was able to ride from my home to the Amtrak station there in Austin and then ride Amtrak up to Chicago, met with city staff there, did some filming there, and then made my way into Pittsburgh.
00:42:23:19 - 00:42:49:10
John Simmerman
Same thing there all the way to Pittsburgh or all the way to to to Providence and then up to Boston and then reversed and went back the other direction into to Denver, Colorado for a couple of weeks, then continued to Salt Lake City and then continued all the way to California to end my summer of Brompton. In Amtrak travel.
00:42:49:10 - 00:42:57:09
John Simmerman
It was about two months of of Amtrak travel. Here's here's you hanging out with your bikes and Amtrak.
00:42:57:14 - 00:43:28:19
Allison Burson
And I think I train and bike can and ought to be a really, really fabulous easy way to combine modes. And a Brompton is a really great tool for working with Amtrak and East Coast Greenway Alliance is a member of there's an Amtrak bicycle advisory task force that we've been a member of for many years, where we try to share with Amtrak information out what can make it easier for people to ride train with bike, and how can they share information about how to travel by bike.
00:43:28:20 - 00:43:49:04
Allison Burson
And, you know, this is sort of a key passion of mine, because this is a photo from when I was cycling cross country right after college in 2007, and we're in Wolf Point, Montana, and we're getting closer to the Rockies. And there were forest fires. My husband has asthma, and the air quality was getting worse and worse, and he was slowing down, slowing down.
00:43:49:04 - 00:44:09:15
Allison Burson
And we said, for safety, we really think we probably should switch to train for a little bit here. And, you know, we waited and waited. I think there's only a couple trains a day at most here. I would love for there to be more headways for passenger rail. But we waited and then we found out that this station, Amtrak, didn't allow bikes on.
00:44:09:15 - 00:44:36:20
Allison Burson
We had to get sort of another 100 miles closer to the fires to be able to get on to train. And we got incredibly lucky that a woman whose son had asthma, when I was talking with her as the visitor center in Wolf Point and telling, you know, asking her sort of if we had any other choices, incredible kindness to sort of drive us to the next train station so we could take the train through the Rockies.
00:44:36:21 - 00:44:59:13
Allison Burson
My mother in law actually called down to every train stop through the Rockies to ask what air quality looked like. And the air quality because of the fires was actually terrible through to Spokane. So we skipped the Rockies. I have not yet circled back to ride that, but got to Spokane and we were so grateful for that chance to travel with bike on train.
00:44:59:16 - 00:45:26:14
Allison Burson
And actually, as we took the train through the Rockies, we were the last train through before the fires jumped the tracks and the train was closed for a couple of days. So for anyone thinking about bike travel in regions with forest fires, you know, not generally a huge issue on the Greenway. But when I was cycling Nova Scotia, we rode through an area that had burned for almost a month last summer in an area that tends to be a very wet area.
00:45:26:14 - 00:45:37:12
Allison Burson
So it's of is super important to plan ahead and plan contingencies. And when rail can be a piece of travel, it is just an incredible amenity and benefit.
00:45:37:14 - 00:46:06:18
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And and once again, I mean that was years ago that that took place. And this summer too is turning out to be a very, very devastating year from, from the standpoint of forest fires. I know Colorado is is burning up once again. What haven't we discussed yet that you want to make sure to, to talk about.
00:46:06:20 - 00:46:32:14
Allison Burson
Who maybe we should go to some of the East Coast Greenway photos and maybe some of either the ribbon cutting, and I could tell you about some of those, or we could do the scenic ones and I could tell you, but I just love to tell you about some of this. Amazing. We tried to give you sort of a hits of some of the most amazing infrastructure, sort of beautiful project, and this one is a really cool one.
00:46:32:14 - 00:46:58:09
Allison Burson
You mentioned that you met someone from Connecticut at sea, and you this is a New haven. This is basically right under Yale's campus, and this is one of the last pieces of the trail that connects all the way from New Haven to the Massachusetts border. So connecting north south, the whole state of Connecticut, the greenway turns off that route a little before Massachusetts.
00:46:58:09 - 00:47:24:22
Allison Burson
And we had to Hartford. But just the work Hartford did on this project and Connecticut Dot's work on this whole trail, just incredible investment and incredible amenity. And this is another spot where you can go sort of from downtown New Haven to be out into green space very, very quickly. And most of this trail is incredibly well shaded, which is something I just love about it.
00:47:24:28 - 00:47:27:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love that. That's great.
00:47:27:07 - 00:47:49:13
Allison Burson
And this is a photo of the ribbon cutting for the WB and a bridge. So this is the bridge that now allows for travel by bike much more easily from Baltimore to Annapolis to DC. And this one you see there's a huge number of people at this event. This was an event that you really could only get you by bike.
00:47:49:14 - 00:47:58:20
Allison Burson
It wasn't a publicly advertised event, and I think there was still over 100 people coming to celebrate with all of the electeds in the sort of two counties that have made this happen.
00:47:58:26 - 00:48:08:00
John Simmerman
Now, as part of your job, how often are you able to celebrate with these types of ribbon cuttings?
00:48:08:02 - 00:48:33:25
Allison Burson
So we want to help every community celebrate every win with trails. So if it's a groundbreaking, we want to help them celebrate. If it's a ribbon cutting and I'm sure you know, like so often with government, it's sort of there's so little budget and time and emphasis on celebrating the wins for the things that sort of improve everyday lives.
00:48:33:27 - 00:48:52:02
Allison Burson
Like, you know, sewers are super important, but we don't always celebrate the groundbreaking of something that's preventing combined sewer overflow. And I feel like trails are often the same. So we try with our partners just if there's, you know, if there's a new half mile of trail, we want to do a big event. We want to celebrate. You see that ribbon?
00:48:52:07 - 00:49:07:14
Allison Burson
That's when we printed so that we could cut it up and people could take pieces home so they could really feel a part of it. So we try sort of when our local partners and local governments saying, oh, we're too busy. We try to say, well, can we help with some of the communications? Can we help with some of the planning?
00:49:07:14 - 00:49:50:24
Allison Burson
Can we help you throw a party to celebrate? And here's another. This is one in Jupiter, Florida. Connecting this was a bridge replacement that added safe a safe side path on the bridge and those amazing views out of the lighthouse. You see the photo of there. And this now connects, I think over ten miles of connected trail. And it connects almost entirely to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which is one of the biggest, most amazing of the state parks in Florida and in Palm Beach County, Martin County and Saint Lucie County, which are three areas in South Florida that have just seen absolutely tremendous growth in the last ten years.
00:49:50:25 - 00:50:10:27
Allison Burson
They have by the end of this year, and it may I may just be behind on following all of the planning studies they're doing in the Kim who you see in this photo with our exact Dennis Kim, that's been sort of huge leader on this with her work at the Treasure Coast CPO, but that whole three county region.
00:50:10:27 - 00:50:29:14
Allison Burson
So a huge stretch of South Florida, that area has almost the entirety of the greenway planned or designed or built. So when we talked about, oh, there are these places where we have gaps, we don't know where the trail will be. This area, as they've had so many people moving there, so much construction, so much growth, they've prioritized.
00:50:29:15 - 00:50:40:06
Allison Burson
We're going to plan for how we're going to build betrayal. So each time there's a new developer that wants to build a building, they're ready to go to say, hey, can you build the trail in front of this building, too?
00:50:40:08 - 00:51:12:02
John Simmerman
So one of the things that that we deal with a lot when we talk about trying to build all ages and abilities, cycling networks and facilities, is oftentimes we we find ourselves sort of drawn into culture war issues and politics and, you know, and before you know it, it's like, oh my gosh, you know why? I mean, this should resonate with everybody regardless of their politics.
00:51:12:02 - 00:51:38:08
John Simmerman
And so we're talking about a state that is pretty much a red state, a Republican state. Trails and pathways are popular for humans. How difficult is it to navigate through, you know, the culture wars and the politics and getting getting red states and communities and red states to be like, no, we want this greenway. We want this trail.
00:51:38:08 - 00:51:47:18
John Simmerman
We need to be investing in safe and inviting infrastructure for all ages and abilities, even though it's not for a car.
00:51:47:20 - 00:51:49:25
Allison Burson
So Florida does an incredible.
00:51:49:25 - 00:52:17:27
Allison Burson
Job investing in outdoor recreation, tourism and for economic development. Kim, who you see in this photo, worked with Florida Sun Trails, which is sort of the statewide trail program to do an economic impact analysis to be able to show here's the incredible return on investment. Millions and millions of dollars for each dollar spent on trails and return on investment for housing prices, for business, for health.
00:52:17:27 - 00:52:55:08
Allison Burson
So I think Florida really sees the benefit. And in terms of, you know, Florida embraces trails, they know people are coming to visit. And I think two and a half, three years ago, when the Florida Legislature was renewing funding for Sun Trails, it was unanimous in both houses to up annual funding to 50 million a year, and to do it one time, 200 million investments, because they realized we need to do sort of a kickstart investment to put in a lot of money so we can get going, a lot more trail development.
00:52:55:09 - 00:53:22:27
Allison Burson
And that was a year where there wasn't a lot of consensus in agreement across many issues in the Florida legislature. It was a year where there was, you know, a lot of really stark and in my mind, some really heartbreaking differences of opinion. And it is nice for trails. You can be something that, you know, it just brings a lot of people together for a lot of reasons.
00:53:23:00 - 00:53:25:19
John Simmerman
Yeah. And here's a bunch more people together.
00:53:25:24 - 00:53:29:07
Allison Burson
So you celebration. So the circuit.
00:53:29:08 - 00:53:30:06
Allison Burson
Trails.
00:53:30:06 - 00:53:56:06
Allison Burson
Which is a network of trails in sort of downtown Philadelphia, Greater Philadelphia, and connecting in Camden into new Jersey. A lot of the trail is built in this section. Christian Depression was one of the two missing links that opened last summer. And, you know, the whole city came out to celebrate. That's gritty. I'm so bad at the sports, that's gritty, that's the master baseball.
00:53:56:08 - 00:54:01:10
John Simmerman
I think it's. Or is it? Or wait a minute, he looks like he's hockey.
00:54:01:13 - 00:54:01:22
Allison Burson
Hockey?
00:54:01:24 - 00:54:04:18
John Simmerman
I think he's still fliers. Yeah, yeah.
00:54:04:20 - 00:54:29:19
Allison Burson
But it just sort of, you know, huge community event, hundreds of people. And then it's so close to almost done. The one other really key gap there like almost done with construction now. And that will sort of connect from closer to downtown over toward Bartram Garden in a more residential area, in an area that has historically been underinvested in.
00:54:29:21 - 00:54:39:21
Allison Burson
So I can't wait for those sort of that second link to open, because that will really make the circuit trails sort of a true circuit for a lot of Philadelphia residents.
00:54:39:22 - 00:54:43:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. That's fantastic.
00:54:43:08 - 00:55:12:12
Allison Burson
And this is another photo. The circuit trails in Philadelphia. And with the support and sort of forward thinking leadership of the William Penn Foundation have made incredible investments in the trails along it, along the river system. And it's an amazing way to provide sort of book park as well as community gathering space in a city that doesn't, you know, it's a big city that doesn't have massive amounts of other park space.
00:55:12:19 - 00:55:17:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, fantastic. And this is the fall line. Yeah.
00:55:17:16 - 00:55:48:15
Allison Burson
Yeah, this is from the opening. So the fall line is another just incredible success stories. Sports backers has been working so hard as well as like walk on the community organizing and the public education and one of some of the best trail network planning processes and plan documents I've seen in the last 5 or 10 years. Just really forward thinking is Richmond is a city that's growing pretty quickly.
00:55:48:15 - 00:56:16:10
Allison Burson
There's been a lot of rallying around having a trail that's sort of connecting that whole region. And the first segment of it opened, I think, last year, and there's another section that's opening pretty soon. Sort of this is one that sometimes you hear these stories which took 30 years to build this trail, and there's been sort of a long time, you know, there's been work on this for a long time, but it's also amazing to me to see how quickly leadership there has been able to sort of come together and move this project forward.
00:56:16:14 - 00:56:22:00
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I think that they were there in Northwest Arkansas at the conferences that we were attending.
00:56:22:01 - 00:56:22:21
Allison Burson
In grant.
00:56:22:24 - 00:56:46:28
John Simmerman
Presentation on this. Yeah. And talk a little bit about that because we've, we've, we've mentioned you mentioned sports backers. We mentioned Waba earlier. How does the East Coast Greenway Alliance, Alliance work with all these other nonprofits and local advocacy organizations to help get infrastructure on the ground?
00:56:47:01 - 00:57:33:12
Allison Burson
Every community and every project is different and with everyone, I feel so lucky to get a chance to work with and learn from partners in different areas. Sort of. Brantley, who's a bike walk, Arva, he's someone who's just incredible knowledge of infrastructure as well as an incredible advocate and doing really amazing community engagement events. They do one of the sort of most active Bike Month programs in May, and it sort of we sort of do everything we can, whether it's from letters of support or for projects when they're writing a grant, when there's planning processes, helping with some of the meetings and helping make sure people know to come to the meetings.
00:57:33:14 - 00:57:52:07
Allison Burson
Sometimes it's say, sometimes in this case for Fall Line, it's sharing the really amazing planning documents they have with other communities when they say, can you give us an example of how do we plan for our trail? What does it mean to do a feasibility study? What does it mean to have a network plan? Sometimes we say, here are these incredible examples.
00:57:52:07 - 00:58:18:22
Allison Burson
Let us share it with you. Sometimes it's you know, for the economic impact study, I was telling you that Florida Dot and Kim Delaney worked on. Sometimes it's sharing it or presenting about it at a conference. Sometimes it's trying to help with some research and figuring out what's the land ownership. Or sometimes we're sort of the facilitators, you know, a trail might go through, you know, three municipalities and then two different state agencies land.
00:58:18:22 - 00:58:39:06
Allison Burson
And sometimes we're the one who says, hey, we'll take the time to figure out everyone's schedules and invite everyone into the room. Them talk together, because the connections between these places is the nobody's job description, because somebody works for the county or the city, and the connection between them isn't part of their sort of job description. Until we sort of provide some of the help to make that happen.
00:58:39:08 - 00:59:11:10
John Simmerman
It sounds like what I'm hearing you say, too, is that now that you have such a treasure trove of these case studies and evidence the ROI down in Florida, it hopefully this momentum, you know, keeps moving and starts spinning a little quicker. Get the flywheel effect of it shouldn't take 30 years for us to get this on the ground because oh, by the way, you're looking for evidence that this has a good return on investment.
00:59:11:12 - 00:59:40:01
John Simmerman
Here's a case study. Here's here's the evidence that shows that, you know, if you build this trail, you know, if you build it, they will come. And if you build it, well, if you have the connectivity and the cohesiveness and and you've got other feeder trails going into it. And as we mentioned earlier, the connections to the communities, it will be a beloved activity asset that the community will embrace.
00:59:40:07 - 00:59:56:04
John Simmerman
Is it getting easier to get, you know, if you've got the right of way, if you in et Cetera. You know, and if you can find the funding, is it getting easier or are we still bashing our heads up against the wall of resistance?
00:59:56:07 - 00:59:57:22
Allison Burson
So let me share.
00:59:57:25 - 01:00:22:09
Allison Burson
Sort of an example from my life and sort of, you know, we started with that photo of me watching my dad bike, commuting to work in Seattle. Yeah. And, you know, when we moved to Boston, my dad's bike commute was going from the suburbs into Cambridge, into Boston, and over the Museum of Science Bridge, which was just, you know, two lanes of traffic each way, no accommodation for person on bike.
01:00:22:10 - 01:00:51:27
Allison Burson
It was an incredibly dangerous ride. And in some ways in my family, it was just sort of it was almost accepted as normal that dad might get hit biking to work, and we hope he ended up on top of the car, not under the car. And the world is so different now. It sort of. I started my job before the East Coast Greenway Alliance, working at a foundation in Greater Boston that was supporting trails, and one of the first things I did when working there was go to a public meeting at the Museum of Science.
01:00:51:27 - 01:01:10:04
Allison Burson
That was a meeting that Dot was hosting to say, it's time for us to have safer infrastructure across the bridge. And I, you know, at that meeting got up and gave comments. I was like, my dad retired last year. He did this 15 years ago. But I want I want everyone else's dads and everyone else's parents to have a safe way to get to work.
01:01:10:06 - 01:01:11:16
Allison Burson
And with that.
01:01:11:16 - 01:01:34:20
Allison Burson
Bridge being completed and the amazing work that sort of Cambridge, Somerville, Somerville Community Path, which is sort of a piece of the East Coast Greenway, sort of get you into Boston now, where my parents are in the suburbs, sort of ten, 11 miles outside greater outside downtown Boston. Now, my dad, if he were to commute to he'd been at the Federal Building.
01:01:34:20 - 01:01:54:03
Allison Burson
If he were to commute there now, it would be two blocks on the neighborhood street. They live on another neighborhood street to sort of a little community path past the school to the Minutemen commuter bikeway and then to the Somerville Community Path here. That would be on his way in and then to the federal building would basically be all protected.
01:01:54:03 - 01:02:15:28
Allison Burson
And I when I'm staying with my parents and for work and need to get downtown to meetings every time I get to cycle in and have fully protected infrastructure, I don't quite believe it. And I, you know, get there. And I say nothing was scary. I just I just sort of rolled to my meetings and I didn't have to sort of worry about my life the whole time.
01:02:16:00 - 01:02:48:06
Allison Burson
And, you know, what I think is with shame now is that that's surprises me or that I can't believe it. But in terms of the I think seeing those examples and seeing that this is Boston area, so many communities can do this, you know, Seattle or Portland, Oregon, have been known for a long time as being bike friendly, and so many other communities are doing amazing work really fast and sort of what we got to see and say they'll Bentonville in terms of work done quickly, it just mind blowing how fast it is and so exciting to see.
01:02:48:08 - 01:03:19:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't have to take decades. I mean sometimes it does take decades, but it doesn't have to. It can go fast if you can get the everything aligned and get people on board with it, it can go quickly. It can go very, very quickly. Advancing the Greenway, talk a little bit about how people can engage with the East Coast Greenway and make this happen faster.
01:03:19:04 - 01:03:20:09
Allison Burson
I love that question.
01:03:20:09 - 01:03:41:10
Allison Burson
And yes, we want this to happen faster. And you know. East Coast Greenway Alliance is a nonprofit, so we rely on donations so people can make a donation to us. We also love to have people helping us with planning projects, advocating for projects, and they can sort of tell us about what's going on in their communities along the Greenway.
01:03:41:10 - 01:03:58:21
Allison Burson
They can share great examples of what's happening in their communities if they're not on the Greenway or on the Greenway. Sometimes people come to us with, here's this challenge, this advocacy issue, or this infrastructure thing. Can you help us figure it out? And then we can connect them with other people, and we learn a ton along the way.
01:03:58:21 - 01:04:24:28
Allison Burson
With that, people can let us know about whether it's local government funding opportunities that might be a match for a trail, and we can try to match it up. Or if there's private funding and listen, it's about private philanthropists interested in investing in the trail. And I mean other things people can do sort of use the trails, share trails with friends, bring your friends out onto the trails, and sort of let us know how you're using it.
01:04:25:00 - 01:04:43:28
Allison Burson
Because we love I love sort of it. We get more of this in the summer. I love hearing about people's travel. I love as people are visiting different portions of the Greenway, the chance to see what they're doing, to hear from them and sort of, you know, we just, you know, it's so amazing to see people getting a chance to be out on the trails along the Greenway.
01:04:44:01 - 01:05:12:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So again, if you're inspired, folks, please consider making a donation. And yes, you know, get out there, enjoy. Get some writing in and and explore. And be sure to tag the East Coast Greenway when you're out there. Maybe take a photo of one of their iconic signs logo signs and tag them on social media. Alison, this has been such a joy and pleasure.
01:05:12:02 - 01:05:15:02
John Simmerman
Thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.
01:05:15:04 - 01:05:17:09
Allison Burson
Thank you so much for having me.
01:05:17:14 - 01:05:32:19
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Allison Berson. And if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, I'd be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on that subscription button down below and be sure to ring that notification bell.
01:05:32:19 - 01:05:53:14
John Simmerman
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01:05:53:14 - 01:06:16:26
John Simmerman
And again you can become a Patreon supporter. Patrons do get early and ad free access to all this video content, but you can also buy me a coffee or make a donation to my nonprofit. Most of my travel is covered under the nonprofit, so that really does help, and I am able to then do a lot of pro bono work for a lot of communities and other nonprofits as part of that donation.
01:06:16:26 - 01:06:37:20
John Simmerman
So thank you so much for anything that you can contribute in any form. Every little bit helps and is very much appreciated. And I do want to take this opportunity to give a huge mahalo, newly low to all my active towns and pastors. I simply could not produce this content without your support. Mahalo Nuea and I really appreciate you all tuning in today.
01:06:37:20 - 01:06:45:09
John Simmerman
And until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers and low. Ha!