Connecting Places, Connecting People: 

How Ohio’s Miami Valley Became Bike Friendly

By Gary J. Boulanger

League of American Bicyclists Magazine,

Fall 2001

Bicycling in the southwestern corner of Ohio has flourished mightily since Horace M. Huffman, Jr., then CEO of the Huffy Corporation in the early 1960s, took it upon himself to develop a work plan to carry out his vision for an interstate of bikeways.

Fast forward to 2001, and Huffman’s vision has been realized. What Huffman accomplished was nothing short of miraculous. Upon returning from his son’s wedding in Sacramento, California, where he saw firsthand a vast network of bicycle trails, he developed the Miami Valley Regional Bicycle Council (now Bike Miami Valley) to discuss ways to make Dayton and the surrounding communities more bike friendly in 1965. This was a difficult task, even though Huffman was the leader of one of the largest makers and sellers of bicycles in the world. Convincing community leaders, planners and spenders to rally around a cause so radical was a risk, but as a seller of bicycles, Huffman realized he was creating an environment for people to enjoy bicycling more often, which, according to any first year economist, should be good for business.

And good it was, but not immediately. Huffman rallied others in the community around his plan, but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that his vision was begun. While bicycling itself became popular in the early 1970s due to the national energy crisis, a bicycling lifestyle had to be cultivated. Huffman and his team developed the Thunder Road Bike-A-Thon to bring bicyclists together to ride bikes and raise money for various area charities. This allowed the Miami Valley Regional Bicycle Council to take the lead on bicycle advocacy and educate the community on safe bicycle practices. But so much more was to be done, and it wasn’t until the landmark Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) legislation of 1991 that Huffman’s dream for the bicyclists of the Miami Valley of Ohio really flourished.

Corridors of Opportunity

In our region, nearly 200 miles of paved multi-use trails connect our communities. Notably, the Great Miami Trail, Little Miami Scenic Trail, H-Connector, Creekside Trail, Horace M. Huffman River Corridor Bikeway, Wolf Creek Trail, Mad River Bikeway, and Kauffman Avenue Bikeway are the most used. 

This wonderful movement took the lead from Huffman when a consortium of organizations capitalized on ISTEA funds to develop what’s been called the Southwest Ohio Rail-Trails & River Trails network. Chief among these organizations has been Greene County Park District, Five Rivers MetroParks, Bike Miami Valley, Ohio Department of Transportation, Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, Miami Conservancy District, and several others. 

The Little Miami Scenic Trail

The Little Miami Scenic Trail was completed on December 20, 1991, and has become a model bikeway to emulate. This portion of the 80-mile-long corridor between Milford (outside Cincinnati) and Springfield was Ohio’s longest rail-trail project, using $2.3 million of Federal Highway Administration Funds administered by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). It’s a 9.7-mile, 10-foot wide, multi-purpose rail-trail, which was completed 10 years after a National Park Service study team’s visit to Ohio to identify and locate the preferred potential corridor of the North Country Scenic Trail through Ohio.

The goals of the project were to:

• Encourage the use of bicycles as a means of everyday transportation to activity generators such as parks, schools, shopping and employment centers.

• Make bicycling safer in the five-county area between Clark and Hamilton Counties.

• Encourage bicycling for recreation, sport, and physical fitness.

• Develop a continuous bikeway system for inter- and intra-city travel.

• Relate bikeway planning with social and environmental aspects of the community and region, and to encourage shared use with walkers, hikers, persons with disabilities and equestrian users within the right-of-way where conditions permit.

As a whole, the entire Miami Valley bikeway “interstate” system has been planned, organized and developed with these goals in mind.

The H-Connector

As work progressed on the two parallel corridors (Great Miami Bikeway and Little Miami Scenic Trail), two former railroad rights-of-way between the cities of Dayton and Xenia became available. In the late 1980s, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources envisioned such a connector between the two corridors. Instantly, this 26-mile “linkage” became known as the H-Connector.

Thirteen public, private and nonprofit entities mobilized to work toward making the H-Connector a reality. Ohio congressman David Hobson introduced the H-Connector project into the National Intermodal Surface Transportation Infrastructure Act (Transportation Bill) on June 20, 1991, and was co-signed by Ohio congressmen Tony Hall and Robert McEwen. This $3 million project was part of the $151 billion ISTEA that was passed by Congress on November 27, 1991. Planning continued, and projects slowly came to fruition.

These projects all required a dedicated corps of volunteers and local government officials to plan, organize, acquire, develop and now manage. According to Greene County Park District commissioner Ed Dressler, more funds will soon be available as a result of increased funding under the Land and Water Conservation Fund. “The recent $200 million Clean Ohio Fund Bond Issue passed by 57 percent of Ohio voters, spearheaded and signed by Ohio Governor Bob Taft will also help match TEA-21 funds to projects close to home,” he added.

To make matters better, on June 9, 1998, President Bill Clinton signed into law PL 105-178, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). TEA-21 authorizes the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for the 6-year period 1998-2003. The TEA 21 Restoration Act, enacted July 22, 1998, provided technical corrections to the original law.

In a nutshell, TEA-21 was the national transportation bill that made $1 billion to $3 billion (out of a total transportation budget of over $100 billion) available for several specific transportation projects through 2003. This Act showed that the national government wants to encourage Americans to ride their bicycles more, which is good news for our industry. But there are expenses, red tape, and some local governmental hurdles that stand in the way of such projects.

Subsequent technical corrections in the TEA 21 Restoration Act have been incorporated; thus, the material presented here reflects the combined effects of both Acts and the two are jointly referred to as TEA-21.

TEA-21 builds on the initiatives established with ISTEA, which was the last major authorizing legislation for surface transportation. This new Act combines the continuation and improvement of current programs with new initiatives to meet the challenges of improving safety as traffic continues to increase at record levels, protecting and enhancing communities and the natural environment as we provide transportation, and advancing America’s economic growth and competitiveness domestically and internationally through efficient and flexible transportation.

But as the reauthorization of TEA-21, or TEA-3 as some call it, approaches in 2003, it takes more than just wishful thinking and a sense of implied victory that it will go through as “smoothly” as TEA-21. Bicyclists nationwide need to volunteer their services to their local, regional or state bicycle advocacy groups.

What You Can Do

Contact your bicycle advocacy groups and ask how you can make your communities more bicycle friendly. To date, more than 55 communities across the U.S. have been deemed “bicycle friendly communities” by the League of American Bicyclists (In the Miami Valley, Vandalia, Dayton, Xenia and Yellow Springs are among the 55). Attend city and county council meetings to speak up for bicyclists. Contact your local, state, and federal government officials and let them know bicycling is important to you. Thank them for any support they’ve given to past ISTEA/TEA-21 projects in your area (thanks, Congressmen Hobson, Hall and McEwen). Tell U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta how important bicycling is to all Americans. Ride your bike to work. Run errands on your bike. Set an example for others to follow. Enjoy the world from the vantage point of your saddle and plan to bring your bike and visit the Miami Valley when we celebrate the bicentennial of Ohio and the centennial celebration of powered flight by Dayton’s Wright Brothers, along with thousands of bicyclists, in June and July 2003.

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Cooperating Agencies 

Bike Miami Valley; City of Xenia; Ohio Department of Natural Resources; Village of Yellow Springs; Greene County Commissioners; Greene County Engineer; Ohio Department of Transportation; Beavercreek Township Trustees; City of Beavercreek; Five Rivers MetroParks; Miami Valley Regional Planning commission; Miami Conservancy District; City of Dayton; City of Kettering; Tri-County Triangle Trail; City of Fairborn; Tri-County Greenway Trail; Ohio to Erie Trail Fund; Simon Kenton Pathfinders; Clark County Park District; Clark County Commissioners; Clark County/Springfield TCC; City of Springfield; National Trail Parks and Recreation District; City of Urbana; Champaign County Commissioners; Madison county Park District; Madison County Commissioners; Village of South Charleston; Village of Cedarville; City of London; Dayton Power & Light Company; OKI Regional Council of Governments; Greene County Recreation, Parks & Cultural Arts Department; and Greene County Park District.

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Gary Boulanger is the executive director of Bike Miami Valley, the nonprofit bicycling advocacy group in Dayton, Ohio. He’s also a board member for the Thunderhead Alliance, Dayton Cycling Club and Ohio Bicycle Federation.

For more information, contact Boulanger at 937-463-2707 or garyb@bikemiamivalley.org. Complete information on bike routes, events, and other bicycle-related items can be found at www.bikemiamivalley.org.