The Trails Calculator, SHIFT H&N Webinar

Generating economic information about the cost/benefit ratio of investments in trails and trail systems are typically costly and inaccessible propositions that are not readily available to park planners, agencies, elected officials or others who would be in the best position to use the resulting information to advance public and community health objectives.

The Trails Calculator is a project to develop a free, public online calculator that will be used to make the economic case for trail development by estimating the health care value and benefits as it relates to the cost required to plan, design and build it. The project, which is being incubated by SHIFT in conjunction with The National Park Service and piloted in The City of Brownsville, TX, was catalyzed by a study of The City of Brownsville’s Lower Rio Grande Valley Active Transportation and Active Tourism Plan (aka The Caracara Trails) that estimated annual health care cost savings of $5.9-$12.3 million from increased physical activity on 291 miles of multi-use trails.

This episode features Dr. Henry Brown, who led the Brownsville study, Eva Garcia, formerly the City Planner for Brownsville and currently the Caracara Trails Project Manager, Attila Bality, Outdoor Recreation Planner with the National Park Service Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program, and Torsha Bhattacharya, Director of Research for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, in a discussion about how communities can use the results of economic analyses to make stronger arguments for their investments in green infrastructure and equitable access.