Photo Credit: Virginia Small
Will walkers, joggers and bicyclists continue to enjoy free and unfettered access to Milwaukee County’s public trails? Maybe.
Milwaukee County Parks’ “2020 Love Your Parks & Trails Survey” proposed another pay-to-play scheme: “Would you be willing to pay to use trails if it resulted in improvements and expansion?” Milwaukee County Parks conducted the randomly accessible online survey from mid-December until January 10 and publicized it through social media.
When parks department officials were asked why this question was posed, Jeremy Lucas, Milwaukee County Parks’ director of administration and planning, responded January 12 that parks staff are “in an early exploratory phase for the implementation of a trail pass.” Lucas elaborated. "Due to the spike in use of our trails during 2020 and the unexpected and overwhelming support of the GoFundMe campaign for the Zip Line Sinkhole, Parks decided to inquire more broadly about the support for a [trails] pass...to gauge interest in...a revenue stream that would support continued trail maintenance and/or expansion.”
But in response to follow-up questions from the Shepherd Express to parks officials, County Executive David Crowley and several supervisors, a parks official back-pedalled on the issue. In a January 15 email, Jen Francis, deputy director of the parks department, reversed course from its statement just three days earlier. She wrote, “We are not looking at implementation of a trails pass in the immediate future, and, furthermore, if a program like this was implemented it would likely be voluntary.” She said she was responding” on behalf of the Parks Team and County Executive David Crowley’s Administration."
Pushback on the Pay-to-Play Path
When asked his opinion about trail fees, Milwaukee County Supervisor Sheldon Wasserman, chair of the Parks, Energy & Environment Committee, said by phone January 14, "I absolutely do not want trails to be taxed or tolled. That would be devastating for our parks and offensive to many people who rely on them. I would never support that.” He did not say whether he was aware that the parks department was considering the surprising plan.
If fees were imposed to use Milwaukee County trails, whether for pedestrians or cyclists, it could disrupt the network of trails in southeastern Wisconsin. It includes the Hank Aaron State Trail, Ice Age Trail System, Interurban Bike Trail, New Berlin Recreation Trail, trails in Milwaukee-area Wisconsin State Parks such as Havenwoods and Lakeshore State Park, and the West Allis Cross Town Connector Trail—which are all free. Many of these trails interconnect and it is not always clear where one ends and another begins.
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Charging to use trails raises “inequity and unsustainability issues,” Kevin Roth, vice president for research for the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA), said during a January 12 phone interview. He expressed surprise that the idea was being floated. “It’s not common...It seems to run counter to everything that [the mission of] parks and recreation is about. Parks and public spaces are for everyone. Public trails are meant to be resources for all.” People turn to green spaces for health, respite and socializing, so trail fees impose a monetary hurdle to engaging in basic life-enhancing activities. Roth said that charging for any trail-related activities could confuse people and discourage use. {Would you just drive people off the trails?” he asked.
Equity Issues
The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s equity statement says that “every person deserves access to free, accessible and safe places where they can walk, bike and be active.”
NRPA’s Roth said, “Even if pedestrians would not be required to pay fees, charging for some uses could drive wedges among different types of trail users, between haves and have-nots.” He said that walking and running are by far the most common uses of trails. He also raised another equity concern—that subsequent investments in trails would likely be influenced by which trail users are charged fees. “Let’s say you charge mountain bikers; it seems unlikely that revenue raised from that would be used to build trails in areas that are underserved to begin with.”
Roth emphasized that he understands “the financial challenges that parks agencies face. And the pandemic-induced recession doesn’t help.” However, fees to use trails “set up a divide between those who can afford to pay and those who can’t...It’s almost like metering a park,” he said. In fact, Chris Abele’s idea to put parking meters in Milwaukee County's parks was roundly rejected in 2018. Roth said there are much more sustainable and equitable ways to fund parks. (See companion article on equitable funding resources.)
Veering Off the Beaten Track
Milwaukee County officials have flirted before with imposing trail fees. Lucas said that the county’s budget office did some preliminary work on potential trail passes in 2018. “They researched revenue from [Wisconsin’s] daily and annual trail passes as well as investigation into neighboring jurisdictions that have passes for mountain biking.” He said many issues “were left to be answered and the decision was not to pursue the program.”
Francis said in her email that the question about fee-based trails had been publicly posed previously. “Surveys are about data collection, and, as best practice, this survey and question were issued in follow-up to a 2017 survey.”
Peter Harnik, founder and retired director of the Trust for Public Land's Center for City Parks Excellence and ParkScore Index, commented on trail fees: “Almost no government anywhere charges for the use of trails—except for the state of Wisconsin. That's probably why Milwaukee even thought of the idea.” A Wisconsin state trail pass is required for all people age 16 or older who are biking, cross-country skiing, horseback riding or in-line skating on certain trails. University of Nebraska Press will publish Harnik’s latest book, From Rails to Trails: The Making of America's Active Transportation Network, in May.
Feasibility Hurdles
Another complication is that trails are “part of a region's overall transportation infrastructure,” said Roth. Many trails have been built with federal transportation grants, including millions in funding over decades for Milwaukee County's Oak Leaf Trail.
Many people rely on trails for commuting. A series of videos called “City Parks: America's New Infrastructure” features mayors, park managers and design professionals describing the indispensable roles that parks and trails play as critical infrastructure. People walk and bike on trails for transit, just as they use roads. This decreases reliance on motor vehicles, their infrastructure costs, and carbon emissions.
Local trails advocate Dave Boucher said that monitoring a Milwaukee County trails program would be “completely unfeasible, since these trails do not have gated entry points. The enforcement costs of such a program easily could exceed any revenue generated.”
One anonymous bicyclist said, “This is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. The Milwaukee County Parks staff has not been able to adequately monitor beach bars, ‘Polar Plunges’ and other activities in parks during COVID, so how would they enforce this? If they target cyclists, would they set up checkpoints for bicycles and check for passes? If they target walkers, would they stop seniors on the Oak Leaf Trail and fine them for not having a pass?”
RoseMary Oliveira, a board member of Milwaukee River Advocates, a voting member on the Milwaukee County Trails Council, and a former Milwaukee County Parks policy analyst, opposes fee-based trails and thinks “any program would be impossible to administer. It would also exacerbate existing economic and social inequities.” However, she said that some trails council members have said they would be open to a paid trails pass for certain areas.
Milwaukee County currently ranks 71st of Wisconsin's 72 counties in public health-outcomes. County Executive David Crowley’s administration has presented a vision that “by achieving racial equality, Milwaukee will be the healthiest county in Wisconsin.” Oliveira doubts that “charging fees to use trails would do anything to promote public health. Instead, there needs to be more political will to adequately fund the county parks system.”
Roth said citizens should also be alert to whether collected trail fees would in fact be fully separated from other funds. Milwaukee County Parks already gets far more operating revenue from user fees and concessions than almost any U.S. park system—currently about 60 percent. Roth said the median is 26 percent of a park agency's operating budget from such revenue. “Putting ever-more financial pressure on individuals to fund parks is simply unsustainable and counterproductive, he said.
Advocacy for Trails
One well-established national benchmark for promoting public health in cities is for every resident to be within a 10-minute walk of a public park or trail. A 2017 study by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy found that 40 percent of Milwaukee residents lack good bike routes that can connect them to grocery stores, schools, libraries and hospitals within two miles.
Sixty percent of Milwaukee residents lack routes to get to an employment center within the same distance. Boucher, who co-owns Amaranth Bakery on 34th and Lisbon Avenue in Milwaukee, has volunteered for several years to help strategize the construction of a trail within Milwaukee's 30th Street Corridor, an area without trails. A recently awarded grant is funding preliminary planning for such a trail.
The Milwaukee County Trails Council is “a group of vested stakeholders advising our Milwaukee County Parks Department toward a sustainable and enhanced regional trails network providing a positive experience for its users,” according to its website. The council is the only official body currently advising on parks issues. The Milwaukee County Parks Advisory Commission disbanded in March 2016 and met only once in 2015.
Milwaukee County’s trail system includes about 125 miles of paved and unpaved trails. Some Oak Leaf Trail segments partly rely on streets and roads. Most paved trails are "multimodal," meaning that pedestrians and bicyclists share them. Milwaukee County Parks lists five "single-track mountain-bike trails" totaling 13 miles. Parks Explorer, available at mkecountyparks.com, is a web-based application for finding and learning about Milwaukee County parks.
The GoFundMe campaign Lucas referenced was in response to a gaping sinkhole within the Oak Leaf Trail's Zip Line, which links Estabrook and Brown Deer parks. The hole formed above a deteriorating stone culvert in Glendale. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has granted $509,423 for its repair and Milwaukee County must cover about $127,000. The crowd-sourcing effort raised nearly $19,000. Initiated by Friends of Milwaukee County Trails, it was managed by Park People: Friends of Milwaukee County Parks. Additional governmental funding has reportedly been secured for the project.
The Path Ahead
Responding to a query about trail fees, Supervisor Marcelia Nicholson, chair of Milwaukee County’s Board of Supervisors, said in a statement January 15, “Milwaukee County urgently needs a permanent solution to our revenue crisis, which is why I have asked Governor Tony Evers to include, in his budget proposal, additional sales tax authority for any municipality that needs it.”
Residents may find contact information for county supervisors here, or contact Milwaukee County Parks here.
A companion article explores ways that U.S. municipalities are addressing equity issues related to trails and parks, including funding for them.
