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To promote safe bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation statewide through advocacy and education
HomeSummit Rails to Trails

Rails to Trails



Benefits of Rails to Trails


In this session you will learn:

    Benefits of Outdoors Recreation

    The major benefits of Rails to Trails in Oklahoma
        -Health
        -Transportation / Livability
        -Conservation / Environment
        -Economy / Revitalization
        -Historic Preservation / Community Identity

    A story of success: Missouri Rails to Trails

Click HERE for the full details

Your Speaker:


Brent Hugh 
Executive Director of the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation


Dr. Brent D. Hugh has two bachelor's degrees and three graduate degrees in the fields of mathematics and music performance from Brigham Young University, Utah State University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. He has been webmaster, president, and since 2005, Executive Director of the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation. Under his leadership, the Federation has grown from an organization with a few dozen members and $500 annual budget to the current membership of over 5000 active members and over $150,000 annual budget. The Federation, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2019, is the only statewide advocacy organization in Missouri that works on behalf of the state's two million bicyclists and six million walkers.

Brent lives in Raytown, Missouri, with his wife, Jan, where he puts about 5,000 miles per year on his fleet of three recumbent bicycles, a road bike, and a mountain bike. His 23 year old son Jonathan and 16 year old daughters Naomi and Amanda are also avid cyclists, walkers, and trail users.

As many of us do, I rode my bicycle a lot as a child and for transportation during my college years. But when I moved to the Kansas City area in 1993 my bicycle mostly stayed in the shed because I didn't feel comfortable bicycling on nearby roads. The combination of a newly widened road in our neighborhood and a doctor's admonition to "get and shape and lose some weight or else!" got me riding again. Now I ride several times every week, for transportation and recreation, year around.





Current Culture of Rails to Trails in Oklahoma



In this session you will learn:

  - The history of rail trail culture in Oklahoma
  - Legislative Resolution 1080 - No Trail for You
  - The Railroad Lobby
  - The Secretary of the Interior encourages Rail Trails
  - Rail Banking - How to keep from losing abandoned rails lines 
  - who owns the land when it is abandoned 
  - A Question of Liability
  - Recent Rails to Trails Legislation in Oklahoma

Click HERE for the full details

Your Speaker:


Bill Elliott -
Vice President BikeOKlahoma


Bill has been an active advocate for cycling in Oklahoma for eight years. He is a past president of the OKC based Oklahoma Bicycle Society. He has assisted BikeOklahoma on the Route 66 U.S. Bike Route project.
He is a retired computer programmer, and amateur banjo player and artist.




  

Going Forward - How to promote Rail Trails in Oklahoma

In this session you will learn suggestions for moving forward:

1. Preserve rail right-of-way as an asset for the economic benefit and security of the people of Oklahoma. 

2. Release owners of right-of-way  and adjacent landowners from liability. 

3. Clearly define permitted uses, i.e. hiking, cycling, equestrian, and prohibited uses, i.e. motorized vehicles (except for maintenance), hunting. 

4. Encourage partnerships between railroad companies, state agencies (ODOT, ODTR), metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) i.e. ACOG & INCOG, local communities, non-profits (Land Legacy), and private citizens to plan, build, maintain rail trails across jurisdictional boundaries.

Recommendations from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

see examples of successful Rail Trail projects.

And meet the elected officials and experts who can navigate us through the complex law making process. 


Click HERE for the full details

Your Panelists:


Rep. Carol Bush
Oklahoma House of Representatives - District 70


Rep. Lewis Moore
Oklahoma House of Representatives - District 96



Debbie Hayes
Cyclist
Lobbyist for Sanofi-Aventis


Russell Pace
Committee member - OKC MAPS-3 Trails and Sidewalks Advisory Committee
Broker/Owner at Red Dot Commercial Real Estate





   
Bike Summit
 
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getting your
"Share the Road"
car tag.

Bikes on Trains 
Rails to Trails

2019 State Report Card 

2019 City
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