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Would bike & buggy trail work?

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA – Henry Beiler wants to turn a 5-mile section of unfinished highway in East Lampeter and Upper Leacock townships into a combination recreation trail and buggy path.The Upper Leacock farmer told an Aug. 19 PennDOT hearing here that the "goat path'' could be better used as a bike and buggy trail than as part of a proposed Route 23 bypass.

Does this plan, originally promoted by East Lampeter resident Fred Daum two years ago in a similar forum, have legs?

Reaction has been muted, but neither did anyone blow horns and beat drums when a similar idea first was proposed in an Amish community nearly 400 miles west of Lancaster.

All that has changed. This summer Holmes County, Ohio, home of the world's largest Amish community, opened the nation's first bike and buggy trail — a path now traveled every day by hundreds of Amish and "English'' users.

Arguing for a similar trail here, Beiler and Daum say a non-vehicular use for the goat path would occupy less open space and invite less development than would a highway. They also say it would improve safety by moving buggy traffic off area roads.

Other observers are not so supportive.

"A buggy trail has nothing to do with addressing the increasing demands put on the traffic in that area,'' says Richard Heilig, chairman of supervisors in Upper Leacock Township, which includes most of the goat path.

Bike and buggy paths might be useful, notes East Lampeter Township manager Ralph Hutchison, but they should be accompanied by a new highway.

A difference of opinion on this proposal should be expected in a county that has been debating what to do about Route 23 and the goat path for decades.

In Holmes County, residents originally had opposing views, too.

In fact, most Holmes County residents opposed a plan to turn a 29-mile stretch of the abandoned Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railway line into a bike and buggy trail.

Joan Simcak, who originated the plan and now serves as executive director of the Holmes County Trail, persevered. With financial aid from private donors, and later state and federal grants, she oversaw creation of the first rail-trail in the nation that includes a buggy path.

A 10-mile section, costing more than $3 million, opened in June. Simcak says the trail has won widespread acceptance. The hundreds of people who use it daily include many Amish driving their buggies to shop at a Wal-Mart in Millersburg, on one end of the trail.

"Even the Amish community was skeptical at first,'' Simcak says. "People don't like to see change, but when they realize the true benefits, they can't ignore them.''

Pedestrians and cyclists travel on an 8-foot-wide paved trail, while buggies and riders on horseback use an adjacent 8-foot-wide trail of crushed stone.

The two modes of transportation are separated, Simcak says, because horse hooves would tear up the asphalt. Also, pedestrians don't like walking through horse manure.

The Amish have been completely won over to the trail, Simcak notes. Not only do Amish adults drive buggies on it, thus avoiding traffic on busy state Route 83 paralleling the trail, but Amish children enjoy roller blading on the pedestrian side.

"In the beginning there was talk about crime. The Amish said they didn't feel safe on the trail,'' she says. "Now it's the opposite. They like not having to look over their shoulder and see an 18-wheeler bearing down on them.''

Removing buggies from Route 83 has improved traffic safety and reduced wear and tear on that road, Simcak says.

Holmes County engineer Chris Young says it's too early to say what effect removing buggies from Route 83 has had on the highway, but he knows buggies have switched to the rail-trail in droves.

There's one major difference between the Holmes County Trail and the goat-path proposal here.

The single buggy lane in Holmes County requires drivers to pull into the pedestrian lane to allow another buggy to pass. The greater width of the goat path, Daum notes, provides space for two buggy lanes.

Not only would such a path benefit local buggy drivers and bike riders, Daum says, visitors would embrace it.

"It would be great for the tourist industry,'' he notes. "The goat path begins at Route 30, and tourists could park there and bike or walk in the linear park and see the Plain Sect community without driving through it.''

Wendy Nagle, president of the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau, agrees that such a path would attract tourists. She's not so convinced that many Amish would use such a short path for buggy travel.

Beiler says the buggy proposal has been presented to Amish bishops and members of the sect's Safety Committee. He says they told him they would not promote the project but also would not resist it.

"I think it would be a much better use than a new highway, but it's a little bit short,'' says Beiler. "If this went all the way down to New Holland, then it would be used a lot more.''

Area municipal officials who are promoting a bypass won't slam the door on the bike-and-buggy idea, but they are not overly enthusiastic, either.

The latest "right-sized'' option for a Route 23 bypass — a two- instead of four-lane highway running along the goat path, continuing to New Holland and on to Blue Ball — might allow space for an adjacent path for non-motorized vehicles, concedes East Lampeter's Hutchison.

"In and of itself,'' he quickly adds, "a pedestrian/buggy path probably doesn't solve any problems.''

"Maybe we can accommodate both ideas,'' says Upper Leacock's Heilig. "But we need to relieve the impact on Route 23 as far as vehicular traffic. The buggy option as a stand-alone doesn't solve that problem.''

The state has not yet developed an opinion on any Route 23 option, according to PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick. He says the buggy plan is simply "in the mix.''

Meanwhile, a buggy-trail option along another Lancaster County transportation corridor, the abandoned Atglen & Susquehanna Branch of the Low Grade Freight Line through southern Lancaster County, seems to be going nowhere.

Dee Dee McGuire, the county's manager for the proposed but stalled rail-trail project, says the cost of a recreational trail would run over $10 million without adding an additional buggy path that would cost millions more.

"We're not taking the idea off the table completely,'' she adds. "When we start working on the eastern end of the trail, there might be funding to allow us to put a buggy trail there.''