This is from the Town of Ithaca, but similar questions come up in the Town of Dryden pretty regularly. The Town asked people who live next to public trails whether the the trail was an improvement or a problem for them:
The town's Trails Committee presented the results of a survey this week, which shows that 81 percent of people who live next to the trails believe their presence "improved" or "much improved" the quality of their neighborhood. Twelve percent said the trails have no impact, 6 percent said they "worsened" and 1 percent said they "much worsened" the neighborhood....
The town asked people to rank various potential problems, unleashed pets, dog waste, litter, and noise, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "no problem at all" and 5 being "major problem." The biggest problem was unleashed pets, with 19 percent of people ranking that 4 or 5, while 52 percent of responders said it was "no problem."
There are also lots of comments on the article.
Posted by simon at October 6, 2009 10:35 AM in Ithaca Journal , trails