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Lincoln, Nebraska Street Trails
Information about trails for those who enjoy hiking trails, biking, touring, and knowing where they are going
Introduction
How are bike trails being influential towards the community in Lincoln, Nebraska?
Where are the highest concentrations of bike trails located?
What are the benefits of hiking trails?
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Objective
I have extended family that live in Nebraska, and I have always had a passion for biking and being able to freely go around a community and know where I’m going. My goal is to be able to see a clear map of all the bike trails so if I was to go to Nebraska or if my family members were to go here, they would know how to get around. I also want to be able to see where there are higher concentrations of bike trails around Lincoln, and why that is so. Not only do I have personal family here, but Lincoln is known for having lots of tourist attractions and museums and is a college city,
As well, one main focus towards my study, the factor included is health. Staying healthy in a city like Lincoln where it is known to be a college town and having lots of visitors for being a tourist attraction, having these hiking trails creates an easy and fun way to stay fit and have a strong overall health benefit for those living there and visiting.
Literature Review
There have been multiple different studies on the different bike trails available in Lincoln, Nebraska. They all show around the area and provide adequate information on where things are located and specific unknown trails as well. These projects relate to my existing research on the topic because I am also analyzing the different types of trails that surround the city. Despite having these multiple different kinds of hiking trails already provided, they are slightly hard to navigate and read. There is difficulty trying to pinpoint exact hiking portions, and I wanted to specifically emphasize different types of routes that weren't shown on these trails provided below.
I called up some of my extended family that live in Lincoln, and they emphasized how these trails are used by college students to get from place to place, but the trails that are not surrounding the city are barely used. They discussed how they wished there were more biking trails around parks where there would be more scenery to look at, since all these bike trails are around the city, and while they are beneficial to get from place to place, some would prefer to have a bike trail that had a nice view as well, rather than only looking at streets.
Material & Method
I would like to get a base map of Lincoln, Nebraska, and then on top provide the actual bike trails to be able to see them visually. I want to make sure that the trails are in a distinctive color and something that doesn’t blend in too well because I want whoever sees the maps to know immediately where they are located. I am specifically selecting this data so I can see everything very clearly and openly. I want to be able to make it easy to view with little confusion. Being able to analyze the locations of the bike trails too is very important to understand locations and where there are different types of trails too.
I downloaded a map of Lincoln, Nebraska that held the different hiking trails. The color of the trails was changed to a darker blue color not to mistake it for rivers. I then added a base map of Lincoln, Nebraska and lightened it a little to be able to see the trails and emphasis them a lot more. Looking at this map, I wanted to make it very clear where these trails were, and not how I was looking at the other maps, I wanted to make it not confusing at all.
Results
The current concentration of bike trails is mostly located inside the town of Lincoln, with limited extension to the outskirts of the city or surrounding parks. Expanding the network of bike trails to more secluded and unused areas would give the people of the city access to better scenery and improve the overall value of tourism of the bike trail system. Adding to this, having access to higher concentrations of bike trails will allow for the population to stay healthy and keep their body fit and overall in shape.
There are higher concentrations of bike trails around main streets and the center of the city, rather than around the different parks such as Wilderness Park and Holmes Park. There are very few blue trails surrounding the and are simply more heavily surrounded towards the city for the convenience of getting to work and places without using a car. There should be more emphasis on the park and outskirts of the city trails, for fitness and leisure purposes.
Because it is a college town, it makes sense how and why there are higher concentrations of bike trails around the city, because it helps those students to travel and get around since not all students have access to cars. However, there are still tourists who like to go to these areas who will have access to renting cars for their vacations. Having higher areas of trails surrounding parks and around the edges of the city will provide more scenery, views, and persuade those who are touring around the city to look at the sights while also staying fit and healthy.
Discussion
The basic results from making this map made me realize that there are more trails that are around the central area of the city, rather than more on the edge of Lincoln at the borders. This surprised me because I would think more people would want to bike trails that aren’t surrounded by cities and lots of cars and have it more on the side. Rather this was not the case, and there was the highest concentration of trails around the center of the city, rather than at the border of it. Based on my map as well, there are higher distributions for trails around the center of the city because of the high amount of colleges that do surround the center. The six colleges are all surrounded in the main area, and focus on providing routes for those college students who do need to bike and travel around.
Conclusion
I would love to look more into studying where there could be more trails implemented, and getting an actual survey from tourists in the area to see where they would prefer more trails if it would be prefered around the parks or outskirts of the city, and being able to get raw data. I also would love to research this more and be able to make more maps to figure out the main concentrations of where the major population concentrations in the city are. Although I worked on my map below, I know I can and want to create more, along with being able to focus on areas surrounding parks, and seeing what college students feel from surveys as well.