MTGA Trails Toolkit

A presentation by Josh DeBruyn (MDOT) and Ronald Emery (Department of Attorney General) given on May 29th, 2008 at the Designing Healthy Livable Communities Conference.

This report has been prepared at the direction of the U.S. Department of Transportation for the purpose of examining safety, design, and liability issues associated with the development of shared use paths and other trails within or adjacent to active railroad and transit rights-of-way. This document is intended to explore lessons learned from the experience of rails-with-trails (RWTs), and suggest practices to enhance safety and security for railroads, transit, and trail users.

Downward trends in the availability of private lands for public recreation suggest that efforts to encourage private landowners to open their lands to the public will be difficult, at best.

Trails are being built in urban, suburban, and rural areas. They are being built on former rail corridors as well as in vast public lands. People use trails for: walking, jogging, biking, in-line skating, skiing; even equestrians, snowmobilers and people in wheelchairs use them. With all these uses in a variety ofsettings come a host of concerns about liability issues.

This report concludes that trail-related liability is primarily a management issue. Laws are in place to protect all parties from unwarranted lawsuits and the rest is up to proper design, maintenance and management.

Ownership of a recreational trail, whether by a governmental entity or a non-profit corporation, provides a host of liability considerations. Ownership of a railroad corridor 60 feet wide and many miles long upon which the public is invited for recreational purposes ensures that there will be numerous liability questions for which the trail organization must anticipate and plan. Indeed, much of the administration and management of a rail trail is directed to minimizing risks and reducing liability exposures by providing a safe and user friendly recreational experience for the trail patron.

Michigan state laws that involve trails, bicycling, pedestrians, liability, government immunity and more.

This is the Trail Management Policy Handbook for the Greene County GreeneWays in Ohio.

The Michigan legislature has enacted a “Recreational Use Statute” to encourage owners and managers to allow public access for recreation use on their lands.

International Transmission Company (ITC) considers itself an asset to the environment and community areas we serve. To demonstrate this commitment, we developed a corporate policy that is intended to encourage municipal developments of our corridors (rights of way) for bicycle and pedestrian paths. The following provides an overview of the pedestrian walkway and bike path development procedures.

Frequently asked questions about trails, including safety, liability, and more.