The Great American Rail Trail is a Rail Trail being developed by the Rails to Trails Conservancy. It stretches along 3,700 miles with more than 50% being completed.

It will connect the East Coast and West Coast on a Rail Trail for hikers and bikers. Right now, trail users, and there have been a good number already, have to use maps and other ways to navigate the route.  Nebraska and Omaha do not make it easy. Unless you are in Lincoln, which has some GART signage. Council Bluffs has signs.  The only GART signs I have seen are in Seymour Smith Park, the plastic yard type temporary signs.

Did you know that it passes through Omaha?  It connects from the east through Council Bluffs and the 1st Avenue Trail, Crossing the Missouri on the BOB and then winding though Omaha to the MOPAC Trail, Lincoln, then north to the Cowboy Trail and across the state.

You may not realize it as there are no signs in Omaha for the GART. There are no  directional signs from the BOB through Downtown Omaha to the Field Club Trail,  South Omaha Trail, Keystone Trail, West Papio Trail, 96th Street Trail to Walnut Creek, then south to Schram Road (gravel), connecting to the MOPAC. Nebraska Legislature passed a funding bill to partially fund the MOPAC connection between South Bend and Wabash. It is moving along and should be completed over the next several years.

Why is this important?

Economic Development

People will ride through Omaha. We need to make it easy for them to navigate and also find services.  This is an Economic Development issue.

In Iowa for example, it is estimated that the trail system in the state helps generate $1.4 Billion in economic activity EACH YEAR! How much is from the GART riders, I do not know, but the Iowa Bike Coalition report, shows that people that ride in Iowa add to the state’s GDP. Nebraska is missing out.

Adding GART signs in addition to basic Way-Finding signs will make Nebraska and Omaha more trail friendly and add to the metro area’s gross domestice product.  It is about time we see the value in the trails for recreation and transportation, plus economic development.

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