Lancaster County’s beautiful and idyllic landscape is hard to miss. But did you know Lancaster County has a network of many bike trails to enjoy nature?
Creating the bike trails did not happen overnight. One factor behind many of them is Lancaster County’s Principal Planner Mike Domin. He spent the majority of his 40-year-long career working as a planner at Lancaster County’s Planning Department. Much of his focus has been on designing and enabling the implementation of bike trails.
To learn more, I joined him biking the Warwick-Ephrata Rail Trail (WERT). This trail is 8 miles long and spans the region north of Lancaster City. It connects the boroughs of Lititz, Akron and Ephrata as well as Warwick and Ephrata townships.
I found it interesting to learn that the trail is not only used for recreational use but also for commuting purposes. Moreover, by laterally connecting multiple boroughs and townships, it helps to fill in transportation gaps in the County.
The trail gives Lancastrians a safe place to commute and enjoy recreation. During our ride we encountered many bikers but also pedestrians on the trail.
Biking has many positives such as health benefits. Furthermore, it reduces emissions and enabling the trails adds extra car free living options for residents in Lancaster County.
Mike mentioned he can’t do his work alone. Lancaster has 60 municipalities. As such, creating the trails from a County perspective is more an exercise in influencing and persuasion, and requires collaboration between the different jurisdictions and PennDOT. He is grateful for the many colleagues and partners he works with to make this possible.
From an economic development perspective, the bike trails bring benefits to Lancaster County. For example, in the Columbia and Marietta region, the addition of the bike trails has revitalized the area, increased tourism and attracted more businesses along the route.
One thing is certain, developing Lancaster’s bike trails takes time. Domin mentioned that the Warwick Ephrata trail took over 20 years to complete. Discussions of creating the Enola Low Grade Trail along the Susquehanna River started in the late 1980s; construction still is not fully completed.
Looking forward, Domin envisions a Lancaster County where there is a fully developed network of bike trails that connects every borough and the City of Lancaster together, weaving it all into one single unit, so that you have the opportunity to go anywhere you want without having to use an automobile.
Bryant Heng is a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow studying how Lancaster City can make transportation better. Learn more here.
