PRECA 10-07-1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I~ Resu/ts of ~5'Urvey to I~e~er~lne the. sti~ ~ry Impact of Trail Systems on the Community Executive Summary The results of the survey to determine what kind of impact public trails have had on their respective communities are now in. They are somewhat surprising, although they do tend to agree in many ways with the results of other surveys that were based on input from residents in areas with community trail systems. This study surveyed one hundred and forty-five communities in the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The objective was to survey a census population of those people responsible for implementing and maintaining trails. The respondents were primarily Directors or Supervisors of Park and Recreation Departments. The survey did not request detailed quantitative measurements, but simply asked how trail areas compared to non-trail areas in regard to ten key citizen concerns. The. areas of concern were Litter, Vandalism, Theft, pet Problems, Noise, Accidents, Trespassing, Behavioral Problems, Aesthetics, and Property Valuations. Respondents selected one of the following choices: Significantly Worse, Slightly Worse, theSame, Slightly Better, or Significantly Better. One hundred and one communities responded, as of the writing of this report, and eighty-three had trail systems, nine didn't and nine are planning for them. .There were fifteen ratings given where trail areas were Significantly Worse. Twelve of these were in regard to Pet Problems with one each for Litter, Noise and Aesthetics. The rating of Slightly Worse showed up in all categories, but Pet Problems led with thirty nine and was more than three times the runner up, Litter, which had twelve. Third place was Behavior Problems, usually identified as people misusing the trails. surprisingly, on the other side of the scale there were one hundred forty~ix ratings of Significantly Better and two hundred and fifty three ratings of Slightly Better. Pet Problems was, by far, the lowest recipient of either rating. The rating of Same was the largest one in all categories, except Property Valnations,where it tied with Slightly Better.