The longest bike trail in the US stretches for a whopping 2,768 miles, beginning in Antelope Wells, New Mexico and ends in the snowy resort town of Banff in Alberta, Canada. But soon, a 2,900-mile, bike path called the Greenway will overtake it as the longest bike path in the US — and it won't share the road with cars.
The Greenway will start in Key West, Florida and ends in Calais, Maine, right next to Canada. The project will essentially fill in the gaps between a chain of already existent bike paths — the route currently incorporates over 100 trails across 15 states, linking 25 cities.
The East Coast Greenway Alliance started working on the path in 1992, and the group told the Atlantic's Citylab that the Greenway already incorporates some 850 miles of trails. By 2020, the organization plans to add 200 more, and the Alliance tells design magazine Core77 that it's planning to have 95% of the trail done by 2030.
The project's completion timeline, like many big projects that require multi-municipality cooperation, is contingent on local governments that have to approve the designs and make sure they're code-compliant.
The Alliance isn't designing the route to be the most efficient path between the two points; rather, it's opting for a more scenic one that's more accessible for casual riders — not just hardcore distance cyclists.
"Because we aim to serve people of all ages and abilities, we will maintain our efforts to find off-road solutions, even in challenging locations," the Alliance wrote in a vision statement.
The path isn't close to being finished yet, but Eric Weis, the Greenway Alliance's director of development, told the Atlantic that over 10 million people are already using parts of the Greenway annually. It's a good indicator that many people will likely make use of a bike path down the Eastern seaboard.
