Reimagining trails as human mobility infrastructure that can connect neighborhoods, culture, nature and local economic opportunity.
By Neil O. Campbell
Atlanta has long embraced the identity of a "City in the Forest." But that description raises a simple question: if we are a city in a forest, where are the trails through the forest? A teacup without a handle may still be a cup, but something essential to how it is used is missing. The same may be true when we celebrate an urban forest without building a connected human-scale network through it.
Too often, trails are treated mainly as recreational amenities. What if we began to see them differently, as human mobility infrastructure? A protected trail can allow someone to walk, ride a bicycle or e-bike, use a mobility scooter or power wheelchair, or simply move between communities without having to share every trip with automobiles, trucks and buses. Roads would remain important, but they would no longer have to carry the full burden of human movement.
That shift could also change how we think about economic development. A trail should not only take people through nature. It can connect people to one another and to the places that make a region distinctive: neighborhoods, parks, farms, waterways, markets, restaurants, cultural businesses and community institutions.
This is where the eco-village idea becomes interesting. Metro Atlanta already contains established neighborhoods beside undeveloped land, streams, forests, agricultural areas and culturally diverse business districts. Instead of assuming every new destination must be built from scratch, what if we first asked what is already there? A neighborhood near productive land could become known for local food. Another area might offer a distinctive cultural experience through restaurants, markets, art or festivals. Another could connect people to a river, garden, forest or farm. The trail becomes the connective tissue between these experiences.
The objective would not be to manufacture culture or turn every neighborhood into a tourist attraction. It would be to rediscover local assets that residents may already possess but rarely see as part of a larger economic and ecological system. Many people do not even know the neighbors across the street, much less the skills, businesses, traditions and opportunities that may exist a few blocks away.
A connected trail network could help change that relationship. Moving at human speed allows us to notice what the windshield often hides. We see the garden, smell the food from a restaurant, encounter a local business, discover a creek, meet a neighbor or stop at a market. Infrastructure begins to do more than move us efficiently. It begins to reconnect community.
Perhaps Atlanta's next generation of trail investment should therefore ask a broader question than simply where a path should go. We should also ask: what human, cultural, ecological and economic assets should that path connect?
“A trail through the forest should not merely take us through nature. It should help connect us to one another.”
If Atlanta truly is a City in the Forest, perhaps the opportunity is not simply to preserve the forest around us. It is to thoughtfully connect people through it, while revealing more of the cultural, ecological and economic value that already exists within the region.
About the author
Neil O. Campbell is the Governance Ecosystem Designer and Founder of Living Ecosystem Design (LED), an independent research and thought-leadership platform exploring the intersection of governance, the built environment, infrastructure, capital systems and human development.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policies, positions, or opinions of the author's employer or any affiliated organization.
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