Trails: Safety, Land Value, Fears

This page briefly outlines the normal and reasonable questions and concerns that people have about trails. I have tried as fairly as possible to provide the best available information regarding these concerns. At bottom is a list of resources and references to more information, full studies and documentation. The information here is extracted from a report issued by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Crime

Quick Summary: What effect do trails have on incidents of vandalism and burglary? Police reports show that they are well below neighborhood average. Read on to learn more.

• Studies found that incidents of vandalism and burglary did not increase as a result of the trail. Rather, the rate of vandalism and break-ins to adjacent property was well below the neighborhood average. Police said that they did not anticipate crime being a problem as long as motor vehicle use on the trail was prohibited, citing that the separation of a criminal from his/her escape vehicle as being a primary deterrent.
• Cyclists and walkers on bike routes, like commuters in cars, are generally headed to a specific destination and are not interested in lingering in neighborhoods. Unlike automobile commuters, cyclists travel at slower speeds and may provide an "eyes on the street" presence in the neighborhood.
• Rail-trail crime (mugging, assault, rape, and murder) rates are almost non-existent. Stories of trails attracting drug dealers, murderers and rapists are perpetuated by trail opponents with virtually no empirical data. The concerns are based on fear and ignorance, rather than facts. The research that has been conducted, suggests that converting an abandoned rail corridor to a trail (as we have in Springfield, under discussion) actually tends to reduce crime by cleaning up the landscape and attracting people who use the trail for recreation and transportation. The fear that a cyclist may come through at any moment is a deterrent to criminals.

Property Value

Quick Summary: Properties adjacent to trails enjoy a trivial to substantial increase in home value, and in all cases a significant reduction in the "time to sell" (length of time on the market).

Property owners abutting trails are concerned that their property values will decline. The experience in other locations shows this to be untrue.

• "Homes sales were examined in the seven Massachusetts towns through which the Minuteman Bikeway and Nashua River Rail Trail run. Statistics on list and selling prices and on days on the market were analyzed. The analysis shows that homes near these rail trails sold at 99.3% of the list price as compared to 98.1% of the list price for other homes sold in these towns. The most significant feature of home sales near rail trails is that these homes sold in an average of 29.3 days as compared to 50.4 days for other homes."
• "A 1998 study of property values along the Mountain Bay Trail in Brown County, Wisconsin shows that lots adjacent to the trail sold faster and for an average of 9 percent more than similar property not located next to the trail."
• "Realizing the selling power of greenways, developers of the Shepherd's Vineyard housing development in Apex, North Carolina added $5,000 to the price of 40 homes adjacent to the regional greenway. Those homes were still the first to sell."
• "The average price for all homes sold in greenway corridors was nearly 10 percent higher than the average price for all homes. Similarly, the average prices for all homes near greenways with trails and in conservation corridors were higher than the overall average sale price. For homes near the Monon Trail, the average sale price was 11 percent higher than for all homes that sold in 1999."
• "A study of property values near greenbelts in Boulder, Colorado, noted that...other variables being equal, the average value of property adjacent to the greenbelt would be 32 percent higher than those 3,200 feet away."
• "A study completed by the Office of Planning in Seattle, Washington, for the 12 mile Burke-Gilman trail was based upon surveys of homeowners and real estate agents. The survey of real estate agents revealed that property near, but not immediately adjacent to the trail, sells for an average of 6 percent more."
• "In a survey of adjacent landowners along the Luce Line rail-trail in Minnesota, 61 percent of the suburban residential owners noted an increase in their property value as a result of the trail. New owners felt the trail had a more positive effect on adjacent property values than did continuing owners. Appraisers and real estate agents claimed that trails were a positive selling point for suburban residential property."
• "A survey of Denver residential neighborhoods by the Rocky Mountain Research Institute shows the public's increasing interest in greenways and trails. From 1980 to 1990, those who said they would pay extra for greenbelts and parks in their neighborhood rose from 16 percent to 48 percent."
• "A comparison of the lots within the original Highridge Estates subdivision indicated that those lots located immediately adjacent to the trail sold for an average of nine percent higher than other lots. In addition to selling for more, the lots along the trail also sold faster."
• "Recognizing what had happened, the realty companies decided to restructure the pricing of future lots located along the Mountain-Bay Trail. Thus, in the addition of Highridge Estates, the average lot located along the trail was priced 26 percent higher than slightly larger lots not located along the trail."

Up to this point, impact on property values has been gauged from surveys of the attitudes and opinions of homeowners and realtors toward the price and saleability of homes located adjacent or close to greenway trails. These data are weak surrogates offering only general impressions whose accuracy cannot be verified, rather than the quantifiable dollar impacts that are needed to enlighten the debate.

Source

• Bicycle Paths: Safety Concerns and Property Values [pdf]

Other Resources

• Frequently Asked Questions about Bikeways by Adjacent Residents
• Bike Path Phobia: Selling Skeptics On Urban Greenway Bike Path Safety
• Rail-Trails and safe communities [pdf]
• Home Sales near Two Massachusetts Rail Trails [pdf]
• Economic Benefits of Trails and Greenways [pdf]
• Public Choices and Property Values [pdf]
• Economic Impacts Of Protecting Rivers, Trails, And Greenway Corridors from the National Park Service [pdf]
• Perceptions of How the Presence of Greenway Trails Affects the Value of Proximate Properties [pdf]

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