[IndianaTrails] indy star op-ed

[Jeff Ray]

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/COLUMNISTS10/712080418/1002/OPINION

December 8, 2007
 

Russ Pulliam
Pedaling in a bold direction

  
Gov. Mitch Daniels has put bike trails on the map in Indiana in a new way.His ambitious effort, called Hoosiers on the Move, would link 2,000 miles of regional trails around the state, so that riders could travel from one county to another without competing with cars and trucks on the main roads.
At a Greenways Foundation luncheon this week, Daniels announced the state's largest purchase of trail corridors -- 150 miles of old Penn Central railroad right of way for potential new trails in 39 counties around the state.
At one level the governor seems out of his normal element with his remarkable passion for trails used for biking, hiking, running and sometimes skateboarding.
Daniels is a no-nonsense, bottom-line sort of person. He doesn't mind rocking the political boat, taking on tough controversies that previous governors have shoved aside. Think daylight-saving time. Or raising highway money through the Toll Road lease.
When it comes to bike trails, though, the governor talks about vision and community and interconnectivity, uniting the state to include regions that have felt left out. In the luncheon talk, he dreamed about a future bike ride the length of the state, from Evansville to the sand dunes on Lake Michigan, just using trails.
That kind of speech doesn't fit the stereotype of a business-oriented Republican stressing jobs and economic development. But Daniels is looking at a bigger picture. "Businesses want to be where there is a high quality of life -- good schools, low cost of living but also a chance to enjoy nature," he said.
He also takes note of the physical fitness benefits of the trails, with his plea for Hoosiers to improve their health through more workouts.
Originally, the trails were most popular with environmentally oriented people -- tree huggers who wish Al Gore would run for president. Yet, the governor took note of the emerging trails in scattered locations during his campaign and wondered if they could be connected.
After he was elected, he hired the architect of Indianapolis' trail system, Ray Irwin, and assigned him to develop a state plan. The goal now is 2,000 miles of trails in 10 years, with a trail within 15 minutes of every home.
Can it happen? What's refreshing about Daniels, in contrast to many of his predecessors, is his willingness to dream about what the state might become in the future.
Greg Lindsey, associate dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, is a trail researcher with a national reputation. He suggests the governor is onto something. "The boldness of the statewide plan is the type of characteristic that makes people outside the state take notice," he said. "Indiana has a reputation as a cautious place, a place that doesn't experiment. Yet a visionary plan like the greenways can help overcome that."
Lindsey thinks the trails can help attract and keep the best and the brightest in the state. "The people who use these trails are disproportionately well educated, with higher incomes," he said. "Those are the kinds of people we want to attract to Indiana."
If the governor makes headway with his plan, it wouldn't help only with economic development. Over time the trails would be a legacy for future generations, on par with the 20th-century development of the state's park system.


Pulliam is associate editor of The Star. Contact him at (317) 444-6001 or at russell.pulliam at indystar.com.
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