Research Progress Report - Cailen

                My contributions to the project are going splendidly in my opinion. I am tasked with the geographical layout of the trail and its construction methods. I have admittedly done little research on construction methods, and I have been focusing more on the trail layout.

                I began my research on trail layout by defining some important characteristics of a good trail. For this trail, I decided that the relatively difficulty of the trail should be low so that novice riders can use it and riders who rely on it for daily commuting are not tired out by it. This was my absolute primary goal in researching trail locations. Secondary considerations were also defined, but these became obsolete as the primary criterion was used to cancel all but one possible trail route. I took three different road routes from Clemson to Six Mile and paid close attention to the terrain as I followed along. In general, roads are graded to reduce hilly terrain, so I paid more attention to the hills and geographical features along the side of the road than I did to the road itself. The trail would likely have to follow near the road, although it is not necessarily coincident with it, so this research strategy was justified.  In travelling the three different routes, I immediately noticed that two of the potential routes were far too hilly to be considered as possible bike routes. As the routes neared Lake Hartwell, they became especially unfriendly to casual bikers. Even the road had long uphills in excess of a quarter mile. Exploring the routes between these main candidates proved that the terrain was equally hilly between. I eventually settled on the middle route, which parallels SC Highway 133, as its terrain was the simplest for casual riders. This is also likely why they built a main highway along this route; the terrain is gentle.

-Cailen

Brochure Update

Here's a sampling of the visuals used on our brochure. I will apply the checklist in Chapter 12 of the online book to these visuals, with the numbering below:

1. Does the visual serve a valid purpose (clarification, not mere ornamentation)?
2. Is the level of complexity appropriate for the audience?
3. Is the visual titled and numbered?
4. Are all patterns identified by label or legend?
5. Are all values or units of measurement specified?
6. (Question omitted for relevance, seems this question is more appropriate for graphs/charts, which you won't find in this post)
7. Are captions and explanatory notes provided as needed?
8. (Question omitted for relevance, all visuals herein are original and are not derived from sources)
9. (Question omitted for relevance, all visuals herein are original)
10. Is the visual introduced, discussed, interpreted, integrated with the text, and referred to by number?
11. Can the visual itself stand alone in terms of meaning?
12. Is this the best type of visual for my purpose and audience?
13. (Question omitted for relevance, no data tables here)
14. Is the visual uncrowded, uncluttered, and free of "visual noise"?
15. Is color used tastefully and appropriately?
16. Is the visual ethically acceptable?
17. Does the visual respect readers' cultural values?
18. Is the visual easy to locate?
19. Do all design elements achieve balance?
20. Is the visual positioned on the page to achieve balance?
21. Is the visual set off by adequate white space or borders?
22. (Question omitted for relevance, no data tables here)
23. Is the visual placed near the text it is helping to describe?

This is an excerpt of the map created for the brochure. The entire map is too large to include here.

(1) This map is essential to the brochure. Without it, we would simply be describing some imaginary concept with no ability for its readers to see it
(2) The map is not very complex, although it does assume the reader is familiar with local roads and landmarks, and that the reader can comprehend basic map elements such as a key-symbol system and scale.
(3) Although not shown here, in the brochure the map is titled. No number is used since it is not competing with other maps for recognition
(4) A legend is provided to identify map markers
(5) Mileages are given for the trails. No other quantities are unit-signed
(7) Explanatory notes are given for each side trail. This is more visually pleasing than labeling them with markers and referring to these markers elsewhere in the brochure (an alternative method considered).
(10) This is not visible here, but in the brochure the map is not expressly referred to. However, the map takes up the entire back three panels of the brochure, so it is difficult for the reader to miss it.
(11) This map could likely stand alone and still be interpreted correctly. No outside context is required.
(12) This map is the best way to show a trail and familiarize readers with it. A video would also be useful, but that is not possible to put in a brochure and keep the brochure at a comfortable bulk and economical cost to produce
(14) The map is as free from visual noise as possible. The map shows only topographical features and city names. A more cluttered map could have easily been made by also showing roads and unrelated points of interest. Care was taken to avoid this.
(15) There are no garish color schemes.
(16) No ethical concerns are brought up by this visual.
(17) To my knowledge, this map does not offend any cultures.
(18) The visual will be easy to locate on the brochure. As stated in (10), it takes up the entire back panel of the brochure, so it will be difficult to miss.
(19) Balance was attempted in this map. The trail notes were spaced evenly on either side of the map instead of grouping them all together on one side of the map.
(20) The map is centered on the back panel of the brochure. It is balanced.
(21) The map has white space surrounding it to keep it from overwhelming the space it is assigned.
(23) Although not shown in this excerpt, an explanatory note is found at the top of the map explaining specifics of the map. The proximity of the note to the map it describes could not be more optimal.

This is one of the explanatory notes attached to one of the side trails on the map.

(1) The purpose of the visual is to provide the reader with an idea of what this side trail looks like, to help him or her decide whether it is worth pursuing.
(2) The visual is not complex.
(3) The visual is titled by the name of the trail it describes.
(4) The bike scale is identified by the legend for the entire map.
(5) Mileage is labeled
(7) Captioned
(10) It's not referred to by number, but its leader line on the map clearly points to what part of the map it is referring to.
(11) This visual could not stand by itself very well, unless the reader was already preinformed that he or she was looking at descriptions of trails.
(12) I believe a picture is the best way to show what the trail is supposed to be.
(14) The picture is simple and easy to understand in purpose and composition.
(15) I believe the borders and fill color are tasteful.
(16) I believe this is ethically neutral.
(17) No cultural values are offended I would hope.
(18) The visual is easy to locate on the map it is a part of.
(19) It's a pretty balanced visual.
(20) It has nice borders. There's no clutter.
(22) The visual and text are right next to each other.

This is another trail explanation box on the map. Its checklist answers are similar enough to the box above that I won't answer all the questions again. Note that in this picture, the strenuousness of the trail is being focused on by the actions of the model, since the trail itself has no real striking visual features to harp on.

-Cailen

Brochure Focus Questions

What types of benefits do trails provide?

• What types of economic benefits are there?
• What types of health benefits are there?
• What types of social benefits are there?
• What types of environmental benefits are there?
• Also include a picture of a nice trail with someone walking on it.

How do the economic aspects of building the trail look?

• What types of funding are available?
• What are some of the things that will add to the cost to the project?
• How much will those things cost?

Is building the trails feasible?

• Are the trails publicly supported?
• Does it seem beneficial to build them, in the long run?
• Include a side by side picture of a widely used trail versus the experimental forest.

Where should the trails be located?

• What main roads should the trails be constructed along?
• Relative to the road, where should the trails be placed? (i.e. Along the side, separated by some grass, or etc.)
• Include visuals of trail possibilities and of the roads.

-Team Post (we all met and agreed to the focus questions)

Brochure Update

A few images used in the Brochure will be the Logo. This logo shows our group name and a green Clemson paw. The green accents show our focus on nature and environmental preservation.

Bike treads are placed around the brochure to show the focus on biking and the outdoors. These treads are simple outlines for the brochure but give a nice frame for images and text.

The front of the brochure shows a beautiful image of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains are an amazing back drop to this trail system. 

-Robert Stafford

Funding

·      Government Grants

·      Local Department of Transportation, SCDOT: Administer the SAFETEA-LU Federal funding. These programs require zero and twenty percent local matching of funds given.

·      Sponsors: Clemson University, The Town of Six Mile, Daniel High School, and Local Businesses

·      Fundraising: Local Businesses

·      State Funding: Safe Routes to School, recreational Trails Program, Highway Safety Improvement Program, Community Development Block Grants

·      Taxes: Some states implement a fraction of the sales tax to help with trail improvement. Other states have a bike tax that is charged per bike to help generate revenue for upkeep of trails.

·      Programs:  American Greenways Program, Bikes Belong Grant, Adopt a Bikeway, Sidewalk or trail Program. 

-Robert Stafford

Route Scouting - Level II

I found the Pickens County GIS system online, so I was able to scout the property on the route I already discussed.

 This is a GIS map of a portion of Hwy 133 from Six Mile to Clemson. Each plot of land is denoted in black borders, and I have highlighted Hwy 133 in red. The small grey dots within the plots are buildings. As you can see, a majority of the plots adjacent to the road (and therefore capable of diverting the bike path from the direct roadside) are very small. This is likely residential property, and the more small residential plots that must be traversed by the path, the more bureaucracy, legal wrangling, and potential expense must be incurred as more and more property owners are dealt with. A more efficient strategy is to find plots of land adjacent to the road with large amounts of road frontage. In the context of this area of Pickens County, these are likely farms. Regardless of what the specific tracts are, since they offer a great deal of road frontage and are all owned by the same owner, they can more easily be negotiated with for the right to let the trail wander onto their property.

White-filled boxes marked by letters show such tracts of land. Sites A, B, and D are all owned by private citizens, and from the building markers, they are composed primarily of open land. The topography of the map suggests this land is relatively flat, too. Each plot is over 50 acres, so with that much open land and only one property owner to deal with, these would be good spots at which the trail could be purposely diverted from the road to create a more scenic bike path. Sites C, E, F, and G are portions of the Clemson experimental forest, and so they are guaranteed to be somewhat scenic, and hopefully the university will be willing to allow some of its land to be used for a bike path.

Yellow-filled boxes marked with numbers show points of interest that the trail could make special efforts to be diverted towards. Site 1 is one of the main entrances to the Issaqueena Lake section of the experimental forest (with access to many rugged trails). Site 2 is Daniel High School. Site 3 is the approximate location of Twelve Mile Recreation Area.

The next and final step of this process is to parse all this information into some sort of map that is user friendly and can be thrown onto our brochure.

-Cailen

Route Scouting

This isn't quite yet the map that will be ready for the brochure, but I have done some intial route scouting for the trail. I am working on narrowing down exact pathways next.

These are the potential routes that I drove today. I was scouting along as I drove for the general terrain, the existing usage of the land around the routes (is it forested, meaning lots of cost to cut a trail, or is it just a bunch of fields that won’t require much teardown cost?), the types of properties along the way (and therefore the likelihood of the property owners to donate some land if the trail is off the road), any important facilities that might be nice to link the trail to, and also the number and potential length of any water crossings. I also tried to notice the traffic in case the bike path has to be built close to the road.

After scouting these routes, I can pretty much say that anything except Route B is far too cumbersome to work with. Both Routes A and C get extremely hilly around their water crossings, to the point that it would discourage casual bikers if left alone or involve great expense to make them more friendly to casual bikers. The route highlighted in orange is kind of a “northern limit” on the relative unfriendliness to casual bikers. Above this line, the road and land is relatively flat, and there is a power line close to the orange line that could potentially serve as a low-cost pathway to go between the upper parts of A and C and the rest of B. However, the land traversed by the orange route is also very hilly, and so crossing over from route to route is not advisable in terms of biker friendliness.

So, the final conclusion is something along Route B is the best option. If we stray too far away from Route B, we will quickly get into very hilly terrain, and even staying directly next to the road involves negotiating a few long, low-graded hills. Additionally, Route B passes very closely to Daniel High School, Twelve Mile Recreation Area, and the main entrance to the Issaqueena Lake area of the experimental forest, so it can serve as an easy route for someone to get to these important places.

Next up, I am going to attempt to see if there is a GIS online map of the area, so I can get an idea of who owns the property adjacent to this route. At the most basic, we can throw a bike lane on Hwy 133 (which is looking like the most cost-effective option), but having an idea of what the property ownership is could give some guidance if we have to deviate from the bike lane.

-Cailen