The Hudson Valley is a region of abundance, blessed with stunning natural beauty, rich cultural history and diverse working landscapes. Packed within the region’s 2,500 square miles are over 50 hamlets, villages and small cities, thousands of historic buildings, and countless parks, trails, museums, concert venues and cultural sites. Its incredible offerings are impossible to conceive until you start exploring the slow way – by bike or by foot.
In an century obsessed with fast travel, the Hudson Valley’s gems became a blur through the car window. But today, communities throughout the region are rediscovering all that they have to offer to residents and visitors alike.
Weaving throughout the valley is a growing network of multi-use trails or shared-use paths – purpose-built corridors that are designed to safely accommodate a range of non-motorized uses, including biking, walking, running, skating, and even (sometimes) horseback riding. This network is reconnecting a region fragmented by a car-centered transportation system that has contributed to sprawl, climate change, and social isolation. Mile by mile, section by section, the regional trail system is emerging as one of the region’s most compelling assets.
What is a Multi-Use Trail?
The Hudson Valley has LOTS of trails. Hiking paths, equestrian trails and primitive biking corridors in the Catskills, promenades along the Hudson River, sidewalks scattered throughout our residential neighborhoods – even snowmobile trails in some places!
But multi-use trails are different.
“Shared-use paths, also known as multi use paths, are separated from motorized vehicle traffic. They can be built within a highway right-of-way or within an independent right-of-way. Shared-use paths may be used by bicyclists, pedestrians, skaters, wheelchair users, joggers and other non-motorized users and should be designed to accommodate them.”
NYS Department of transportation
User experience, safety, accessibility, and resource protection are key elements of a successful multi-use trail that distinguish them from other types of trails, and that make them an attractive alternative to other modes of transportation or types of recreation.
