BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

As a Pittsburgh resident, I'm sure that there's a lot that Beaver County has which I'm not aware of--but if the riverfront trails (such as the ORTC trail) were developed and connected to the Allegheny County trails, it would be much easier to access from Pittsburgh. (I'd also like to suggest that, in addition to the Ohio River Trail already under consideration, Beaver County also consider developing a north--south off-road trail or at least road-parallel biking & walking path, perhaps even working with Washington County to connect to the Panhandle Trail. Though many of my fellow riders are willing to ride on roads like 51 and 18, a great many more of us are utterly terrified by the prospect of trying to ride on a two-lane highway where drivers attain speeds 3, 4, even 5 times what we're capable of. I, for one, would love to be able to ride down the Panhandle to Burgettstown or so, take a trail north over (or between...) the hills to the Ohio Valley, and then another trail back up the river back to Pittsburgh. Others, especially if the gap were closed between Montour Junction and the City, would ride down the river to Beaver just to see what's there--and then might come back. The experience of places like Confluence and Boston and the many other towns on the GAP trail suggests that if you build a space for people to walk and bike apart from cars, they will indeed come and use it.)