Exchanging Locally Informed Recreational Trail Development Practices to Build a Better Trans Canada Trail

Abstract

The Trans Canada Trail is the world’s largest recreational trail network, spanning 24,000 km and connecting 15,000 diverse communities across Canada from coast, to coast, to coast. The research currently being undertaken is to investigate both barriers and solutions for best planning practices pertaining to recreational trail networks and, specifically, for the TCT. Using mixed methods of both semi-structured interviews and recurring surveys, the methodology of this research project pairs together key-informants from communities of both similar and diverse characteristics and provides them with a participatory outlet for knowledge sharing to occur. Applications of this research project has the potential to create synergies between various stakeholders and interest groups, such as active transportation coalitions, economic development practitioners, and conservation authorities. In rural Ontario, where safety and accessibility to the TCT is dramatically far from being consistent, research findings may have particular salience