Trail, taxi will spur tourism, improve lifestyles
Two innovative projects moving forward in the Cape Region set an encouraging tone for tourism and for residents. The proposed Gordons Pond Trail will complete a long-unfinished link between Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, creating a loop trail for hikers and cyclists, who will be able to travel between the two towns without retracing their steps.
The proposed trail will be designed to encourage visitors to stay on the marked trail, protecting sensitive plants and habitat while also linking the two towns.
Upgrading the trail goes a long way toward encouraging people to leave their cars home and instead enjoy an invigorating walk or ride through the resplendent coastal area. It’s a project that encourages healthy exercise while also helping to reduce traffic and pollution during the summer, when heat aggravates air pollution.
The second project is the water taxi to link the towns. Like the trail, a water taxi offers a charming way to get from one town to the other without a car. Lewes, with its beautiful Canalfront Park, already has docking space; the park itself has preserved public access to the waterfront while at the same time becoming a destination for visitors and residents alike.
Similarly, plans in Rehoboth Beach promise not merely a stopping point for the water taxi, but also a beautifully terraced new park at the gateway to the city, a vast improvement over today’s brambly canal bank.
Like the trail, the water taxi will encourage visitors to travel between the two towns without increasing automobile traffic that becomes the bane of the Cape Region every summer.
Both of these projects demonstrate a vision for increasing tourism while encouraging healthier lifestyles and reducing traffic and pollution.
Plans to accomplish these twin goals should attract not only state and federal support but also the outstanding local support and fundraising success that enriches our region in so many ways.
And why stop there? Next stop for both trail and water taxi should be Milton.
