Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 06/09/2005 - Joint with CC

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Safety Considerations p~-'~ hc sa£ety of trails is very important to the city. There are many factors ~ i'hat wilt affect trail safety, such as trail width, grades, frequency and -~L radii of curves, visibility, and maintenance practices. Thc Americau Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (A,\S[[T()) has developed safety, standards for trail systems. 'zM~SHTO sta~darcis address guidelines for trails such as curves, sighdines, superelevations (pitch of the trail), longitudinal slopes (how steep the trail should be), paint striping, r;lil, road and stream crossings, and when safety barriers should be Bringing Existing Trails Up to AASHTO Standards 'Jbday there are standards for just ah(~ur everything built in the United Stares. A:; wc learn more about the l)erf~rmance of our built c[~viromntmls, we tend to make improvements to the xvay xve build. ,\ ,\ SI Fl'f) '3hmdards outline xvhat we c~.-vcntly kuow to be a "reasonable" level o( safety for new trail c~m. strucdtm. But how do we bring e×~stmg tr;tila up to current AASHTO standards, m~d how do we maintain these standards as a trail ages? Like r~)ad,<., or buildings, trails get built and \.. time goes on, standards are modified and what once may have berm built to meet guidelines, no l~mger &)es. I n other cases, there may nol have beeu any standards to follow d.rmg a ~rail5 original creation. Irt any case, it may not be reasonable t~ g. back and rebuild all trails so tln~u lhey meet AASHTO standards. Using maintenance or redevelopment opportunities to bring older trails up to these standards is a step toxvard getting all trails up to AASHTO standards. Using every maintenance and redevelopment opportunity may set an over ambitious schedule for bringing older trails up to these standards, espedally when budgets are strained. The best xvay t'o accomplish oM trail renovation is the same way it is done with buildings. As a matter of policy, the City should set goals as to how much trail should be reconstructed or renovated each year and how much funding should be appropriated to achieve these goals. In the end, the objective of the City is t9 protect the health, safely and welfare of its trail users. Basic Principles for Safe Trail Design Based on Tested National Standards · Maintain a minimum 10' pavement width with minimum 2' clear areas on both sides of the paved trail. The 2' clear areas can be gravel or turf, but need to be at the same grade as the trail pavement surface. 10' is the minimum width that allows wheeled users to safely pass pedestrians or other wheel users. · In some cases an 8' pavementwidth with 2' clear on both sides of the paved trail may provide a safe width for trail users, but only on trails that do not have heavy use, which are primarily in-park trails. The difficulty here is that many trails do not have heavy, use when they are first built and then become heavily used with time. · A narrower trail may be a trade- off to enhance some other feature or preserve the environment by reducing physical impacts by 20%. For example, comparing an 8' trail to a 10' trail may in some spedfic cases be beneficial.