Greenways are developed by communities throughout the
country to improve the qualities that make a city
desirable for work and play.
- Greenways offer recreational opportunities by
providing safe, accessible routes for walking,
running, bicycling, and other forms of exercise, and
for enjoying increasingly hard-to-find natural areas
close to home.
- Greenways improve environmental quality by
protecting plant and animal habitat. They help clean
our water and air through the dedication of
sensitive areas, such as flood plains, wetlands, and
forests, to low-impact uses.
- Greenways facilitate alternative transportation
by providing bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly routes
between home, work, and other destinations. By
providing such non-automotive facilities, greenways
are a part of the infrastructure necessary for an
integrated approach to transportation planning.
Collectively, these and
other benefits make greenways critical to Nashville's
quality of life. In fact, it seems difficult to conceive
of a more efficient way to accomplish so many desirable
objectives. And accomplishing these goals is essential
to Nashville's economic development. Unless growth is
balanced with protection of the natural resources that
contribute to our quality of life, it risks being
counterproductive. Greenways are a planning tool that
eliminates many of the perceived or real conflicts
between quality of life and development goals, and, in
fact, makes preserving natural areas and expanding
recreational opportunities an economic development tool.
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