It is time for Philadelphia to fill the gaps in the Schuylkill River Trail, for Pennsylvania to have a connected East Coast Greenway linking to New Jersey and Delaware, and for Camden to become a city of trails, not highways. As part of its campaign to Complete the Schuylkill River Trail, the Bicycle Coalition worked with Pennsylvania Environmental Council to help the City of Philadelphia and five other surrounding counties submit a $36 million application for stimulus funding in September 2009. This application proposes to complete a number of sections of the Schuylkill River Trail in Schuylkill, Montgomery, Philadelphia counties, in addition to trail segments along the East Coast Greenway in Bucks, Philadelphia and Delaware County, and the Camden GreenWay. This project exemplifies the kind of strategic advocacy that the Bicycle Coalition can provide to move the region forward to achieving the goal of Completing the Schuylkill River Trail.
You can help complete the trail. Sign an online petition in support of completing the Schuylkill River Trail right now.
To learn more about the status of the various trail segments and upcoming public meeting and other events, visit www.completethetrail.org website.
Under the leadership of the Bicycle Coalition's trail advocate Sarah Clark Stuart, the Bicycle Coalition has been instrumental in gathering a coalition of trail and community groups who want to complete the Schuylkill River Trail. We have met with a dozen city and state officials and other community partners.
In February 2009, 320 people came out to a forum to learn about nine trail projects that, when completed, will connect and extend the trail.
We have begun the advocacy that will complete the trail. During the 2009 National Bike Summit in Washington, DC we took another important step towards securing the $22 million needed to complete construction of the Schuylkill River Trail. And in September 2009, we helped the region submit a unique collaborative application for federal stimulus funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER (Transportation Investment in Generating Recovery) program.
But it is going to take many more months of work, many more meetings with officials and partners, and more research to find local funds to supply the required match of federal dollars.
For Sarah to continue her work to complete the Schuylkill River Trail, to build the needed coalition of community groups and individual supporters like you, we need your membership support. We have a foundation grant to pay many of the campaign expenses but we need support from you to put us over the top.
You pay every time you drive on the Pennsylvania Turnpike or cross the Ben Franklin Bridge. You pay every time you board a SEPTA train or bus. If you paid a $2.50 toll every time you rode on the Schuylkill River Trail, how much would that add up to?
Are you willing to make a "trail toll" gift of $35, $50 or $120 to help us complete the trail?
