Study of Rail-Trails and safe communities: The experience of 372 trails

Converting an abandoned rail corridor to a trail tends to reduce crime by cleaning up the landscape and attracting people who use the trail for recreation and transportation.
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) conducted a survey of all rail-trail managers in an effort to document the level of crime on trails and identify the mitigation measures used by traildesigners and managers. The objectives of this study were threefold:

1. to document the levels of crime on urban, suburban and rural rail-trails with current statistics and comprehensive data,


2. to examine trail management strategies that can mitigate crime andimprove trail safety, and


3. to put crime on trails in perspective. A summary of past studies,our methodology, results, recommendations and several case studies follow.