Support grows for US trail system proposal allowing coast-to-coast travel without roadways

Bob Barnes, 52, of Syracuse, New York, bicycled to all 50 U.S. state capitals in one year. He started his trip on Aug. 1, 2021, and reached his 50th capital, Honolulu, Hawaii, on July 26, 2022. 

When Mike O’Neil opened his bicycle repair shop in Muncie, Indiana, the Cardinal Greenway trail just outside its window stretched only 2 miles south of the shop.

Today, it extends 33 miles beyond that, but the ultimate vision is far grander.

O'Neil hopes the trail born from eastern Indiana's old railroad tracks will eventually become a central cog in the proposed Great American Rail-Trail — a continuous network of walking and biking routes spanning from Washington state to Washington, D.C.

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"As the trail gets longer, more and more people use it," said O’Neil, who has completed five coast-to-coast bike trips and usually comps the repair costs for out-of-state cyclists visiting his Greenway 500 Bike Shop, which he's owned for nearly two decades. "It would be a wonderful blessing to have it all connected."

A woman runs on March 13, 2024, by the Cardinal Greenway in Muncie, Indiana. The Cardinal Greenways pathway, born from eastern Indiana's abandoned railroad tracks, is set to become a central cog in the Great American Rail Trail. (AP Photo/Isabella Volmert)

The Biden administration was set to open applications Tuesday for a new grant program that for the first time prioritizes not just building trails but connecting the existing ones. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law allowed for as much as $1 billion over five years for the program, but Congress has authorized less than $45 million so far.

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Still,