From northern Maine to the tip of Florida, the East Coast of the United States stretches 3,000 miles. It’s a diverse, expansive route, cutting through wooded hills and rocky coastlines before hitting the sun-drenched beaches of the South. And all of it can be traveled by bicycle.
The East Coast Greenway Alliance has been working since 1991 to connect the whole geography of the Atlantic seaboard with protected bike paths. So far, 850 miles of trail have been designated as Greenway. The project is about 31 percent complete, says Dennis Markatos-Soriano, the executive director of ECGA. By 2020, the ECGA hopes to add another 200 miles. [...]
The East Coast Greenway, is, in a sense, riding a demographic wave that Markatos-Soriano hopes will speed the completion of the entire route. Fewer Americans are relying on cars, and more are looking at safe and accessible bike and footpaths as a top priority when selecting where to live. And there’s the health impact: The presence of a usable trail makes an active lifestyle more of a possibility. Well over 10 million people use the Greenway annually, Weis says, and as the national and global mentality shifts toward one of greater connectivity, the appeal of traversing the East Coast by one simple mode of transit will only grow.
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