There’s an advantage to being an old city. You end up with miles of old rail road or street-car corridors and canal towpaths that can be readily converted into hike and bike trails. In fact, Summit County was one of the first to do that, says the chief of planning and development of the Summit County Metro Parks, Paul Wilkerson.

 “That was a rather progressive idea and we had some visionary people hear at the Metro Parks in the planning department that saw the possibilities and made it happen.”

The Rails to Trails Conservancy didn’t form until more than ten years later.

One of the first segments of what was then called the Akron Bike & Hike trail ran along the Cuyahoga River from Munroe Falls to Kent. And today, that’s where a new leg of railroad bed is being converted. It’s called the Freedom Trail, and when it’s done, you might find students and professors biking back and forth between the University of Akron and Kent State University.

“Oh, that’s obviously a benefit. We didn’t set out to do that but the two universities are at opposite ends of this trail so it’s an ideal connection.”

Today the mostly sandy trail runs through Tallmadge but dead ends in the northeast at an old railroad bridge at Munroe Falls Park. Summit Metro Parks is using federal, state, and local funds to continue the trail over a new bridge that will eventually connect to a trail in Kent.

An intermodal hub at Akron's Northside
Wilkerson says the park will use another rail line on the trail’s western end,  to go into downtown Akron.

“The Sandyville Line is being used now as a line for  freight as well as for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. So that corridor is still in active use but there is plenty of room in the corridor for the Freedom train as well. That end that uses the Sandyville line will end up at Northside Station.“

Bikers and hikers can join the towpath trail and the scenic railroad at the Northside Station in downtown Akron. Sarah Mitich of Akron was on the trail this week for a ride to a tanning salon.

“It’s very convenient for where I’m coming from. I’m coming from Firestone Park so it’s a quick way to get there. I do it every day so it’s a good workout routine as well.“

Mitich is a former University of Akron who likes the idea of being able to bicycle on a trail from akron to Kent.

Mike Comber of Copley was on the towpath trail near Northside with his two grandsons. The avid cyclist rides on road and off road and considers the bike trails an asset to Northeast Ohio.

“I have a Sunday morning ritual in the Summer  where I bike out from Copley into Akron on Route 18, get on the trail, take it all the way up to Peninsula where,  meet my wife for breakfast.  It’s a really good time.”

The parks tend to isolate cyclists from car traffic but Wilkerson says it’s unlikely bikers will ever be banned from the streets.

“If you notice, more and more communities are accommodating bicyclists on the streets by adding bike lanes and signage and widening shoulders.”

Expensive bridges to somewhere
At Northside, the city of Akron is looking to spend $873,000 on a pedestrian bridge simply so hikers don’t have to cross a street. To get to the national park’s popular Brandywine Falls, Metro Parks built its own trail bridge over I-271 even though nearby Brandywine Road already crosses the interstate. The trail bridge cost $1.2 million, but Paul Wilkerson says it was worth it.

"It is an expense but a lot of people were getting hurt. It was one mile of our bike and hike trail – out of the 33 – that was on road and it was constantly an area of complaint from people as well as accidents. “

One advantage to building now, in a bad economy, is that construction bids are coming in cheaper than usual.