In Whistler, we rented bikes to ride the Valley Trail, a paved biking and walking path that winds its way past lakes, a recreation center, and countless lovely alpine views. For me, it was a nostalgia tour, and I wanted Josh and Camille to experience the trail with me. Riding and rollerblading this trail as a teenager in the 90s, I felt such freedom. I could get everywhere that was interesting on my bike, and it was exhilarating to zoom through the trees on my own. In my daily life, I was still dependent on my mom’s driving to get me around, but in Whistler, I was free to explore on my own.
Years later, I experienced the same feeling of exhilaration exploring other cities on bike: enjoying the luxury of wide bike lanes and bike-specific turn signals in Kunming, China; taking long jaunts on Taipei’s riverside bikeways; flying across Cambridge UK’s cycle paths to meet friends at a pub. Living in places with pedestrian and bike trails inspired me to retrain as an urban planner who could make cities work better for people.
The people who created Whistler’s Valley Trail were indeed trailblazers. Planned in the late 1970s and built in the early 1980s, it is one of the earliest examples of a paved, multi-use path that provides an alternative to car travel. While it’s known as a recreational attraction for visitors, it’s important to residents too. When local planners advocated for the initial investment, a major goal was enabling local residents to avoid the truck-heavy highway. Since then, the trail has grown from 13km to 46km and continues to be used by local commuters and visitors.
Four decades after the Valley Trail’s debut, multi-use trails are popular and increasingly common across North America. My favorite thing about our current hometown of Somerville, MA, is the Community Path that runs just a couple blocks from our house. We use it for getting to my sister’s house, for evening walks to ice cream, and for weekend bike rides to neighboring towns for brunch. In 2016, Vancouver converted a defunct rail line into the Arbutus Greenway, a path my mother now uses it daily to get around, exercise, and be outside.
I salute the visionary planners in Whistler who first proposed a trail in 1976, and the residents who voted to pay for it. I’ve loved this trail since I was a teenager. Riding it again this month with Josh and Camille, it was every bit as good as I remembered.
