Listen to the report from WHYY's Tom Macdonald
Read the full Delaware Valley Watershed impact report
Note: This story originally ran on WHYY Radio in Philadelphia during the Mid-Atlantic Greenways & Trails Summit.
PHILADELPHIA - As the Philadelphia region greatly expands its trail network, a new analysis looks at how they contribute to the economy.
WHYY's Tom MacDonald reports.
Dennis Markatos-Soriano, who heads up the East Coast Greenway Alliance, says the analysis shows adding more trails to the region would do great things.
"We invest a significant amount, we get more than 10-fold return on our investment, it's an incredible thing, and the report really goes through what kind of benefits do you get, you get health benefits you get environmental benefits and you get economic development as well."
Brenda Hernandez of the Bicycle Coalition says in the suburbs farm workers could use them to avoid biking on dangerous roads. "Let's say people from Kennett Square who use the Delaware to travel to their farm or other farms. They use those trails to travel back and forth in the morning or at night."
The analysis says spending $239 million to create 175 miles of trails would generate $3 billion in benefits.
Read more of our April 2019 newsletter, On the Greenway
