When Dale Allen retired in 2010 and took to riding the state’s local trails, he quickly grew frustrated.
For more than 30 years, Florida’s local and state authorities have been acquiring abandoned railroad corridors and converting them into recreational trails, in line with the national rails-to-trails trend.
The process has led to a hodge-podge of disconnected pieces, undermining the potential of the trails to serve as long-distance carriers for bicyclists, and economic stimuli for the communities they run through.