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View the 2019 Allegheny Valley Trail Business Survey Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... 3 Project Background ....................................................................................................................... 4 Three Rivers Heritage Trail – Allegheny River Corridor .......................................................................... 4 Friends of the Riverfront ......................................................................................................................... 4 Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Survey Questions .......................................................................................................................... 7 Survey Responses & Results ......................................................................................................... 9 2 Executive Summary The Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Allegheny County currently spans roughly 30 miles in 7 municipalities. In 2011, Friends of the Riverfront in partnership with Allegheny County and Pennsylvania Environmental Council conducted a study, known as the Community Trails Initiative, looking at expanding the trail from its current endpoint in Millvale Borough to Freeport Borough in Armstrong County. There, the trail would intersect what is locally known as the “Four Corners,” where Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, and Westmoreland meet. In this location, 4 multi-use trails, 2 single track trails, and 3 water trails merge. The Erie to Pittsburgh Trail and the Pittsburgh to Harrisburg Mainline Canal Greenway, two regionally significant corridors, meet here as well. Connecting the Three Rivers Heritage Trail to this point opens the Allegheny Valley to future community and economic development opportunities around recreation. The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline of the economic activity in the Allegheny Valley around existing conditions. At the time, much of the trail in the Valley is still under development and some pieces are moving into the early stages of construction. Unlike other traditional trail surveys, we asked the businesses to share their knowledge of the current recreational assets in their communities and what is currently being developed. 61% of respondents said that they had a general idea or greater understanding of the trail systems in their area. Roughly 73% had knowledge of the developing Three Rivers Heritage Trail in the Allegheny Valley. 88% said they did not attribute their location to the Trail or River, but 42% would consider trail expansion as a factor in future business expansions. Surveys for this study were collected digitally and through mailings targeting specific business types. These types were food/drink, recreations, and lodging. These are generally seen as common destinations for trail users on short or long-distance trips. The majority of our responses came from food/drink at 65%. As the trail continues to develop in the Allegheny Valley, this study could be replicated to compare the impact as connections are built. 3 Project Background Three Rivers Heritage Trail – Allegheny River Corridor Since 1991, Friends of the Riverfront has worked to protect and restore the riverfronts in Allegheny County through trail development and stewardship after decades of legacy pollution. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail now encompasses nearly 30 miles of urban and suburban riverfront trails along both banks of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. Through broad and diverse collaborations, we continue to work towards and promote environmental restoration, economic vitality, and public health benefits for Allegheny County and Southwestern Pennsylvania. Friends of the Riverfront In 2011, Friends of the Riverfront in partnership with Allegheny County, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council completed the Community Trails Initiative. This study was completed to analyze the feasibility of connecting 16 communities along the northern shore within the Allegheny Valley with trail. These communities include: City of Pittsburgh, Millvale Borough, Shaler Township, Etna Borough, Sharpsburg Borough, Aspinwall Borough, O’Hara Township, Blawnox Borough, Harmar Township, Cheswick Borough, Springdale Borough, Springdale Township, East Deer Township, Tarentum Borough, Brackenridge Borough and Harrison Township. The goal of this connection is to extend the Three Rivers Heritage Trail roughly 26 miles to connect to Freeport, PA. In this location, the Three Rivers Heritage Trail will connect with the Treadway Trail and Armstrong Trail as part of a 270-mile trail corridor, known as the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail. This trail will also connect in Freeport with the Pittsburgh to Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway, the Butler Freeport Community Trail, the Rachel Carson Trail, and the Baker Trail. 4 Methods Beginning in March of 2019, we began constructing a directory of businesses from the following boroughs/townships: ● Millvale Borough ● Etna Borough ● Sharpsburg Borough ● Aspinwall Borough ● O’Hara Township ● Cheswick Borough ● Springdale Borough ● Springdale Township ● East Deer Township ● Tarentum Borough ● Brackenridge Borough ● Harrison Township ● Harmar Township ● Blawnox Borough All information was collected via a combination of Google Maps, business’ websites, and social media. The information collected from said businesses consisted of name, address, phone number, email address, business type, business expanse, staff size, and manager name. The business type category was assigned based on each business's primary operations. The assigned labels included: recreation, food, retail, automotive, manufacturing, lodging, home improvement/contracting, health/wellness, and other. Within the directory we split each business by size into local, regional, and national. This information helped us understand the makeup of the businesses in each community. The data was entered into a spreadsheet and separated based on municipality. In addition, we highlighted and color-coded target business types with Food/Drink being highlighted green, Recreation highlighted blue, and Lodging highlighted red. Our reasoning behind this was that these three categories are of most interest to us as they are more likely to receive visits from trail goers. Once the spreadsheet was completed, question drafting began in May 2019. We modeled our questions from prior studies that had been completed by the Trail Town Program® along the Great Allegheny Passage and Erie to Pittsburgh Trail. Our goal was to keep the number of questions between 8-12. The idea was to keep the number of questions concise enough that business owners would take the time to respond, but meaningful enough that we could gather the information we sought. Once the questions were decided, a survey was constructed electronically using Google Forms. In addition to the questions, a letter describing the background and the reason for conducting the baseline was created to be sent out with the survey. 5 Distribution began in August 2019 and continued until the beginning of 2020. We distributed it via email to all businesses in our directory with a known email address, as well as through the Friends of the Riverfront Facebook page and monthly newsletter. We waited approximately two to four weeks to allow for responses to come in, then redistributed, however this time with a narrower scope focusing on the 3 key business types. For the second distribution, we targeted those businesses we considered most relevant and likely to respond. These consisted of small, local businesses that operated in food/drink, recreation, and lodging. The second electronic distribution saw a few more responses, so we moved to distributing the survey in physical copies. We mailed the survey and letter to the targeted businesses and provided them with an envelope and stamp to send it back. We found that this was our most successful distribution, with almost double the amount of responses the electronic distribution received. We then manually entered these responses into Google Forms. Based on the response to the physical mailing, if this survey is to be duplicated, we would start with the physical mailings first, and add the electronic option. During the survey period 26 surveys were completed and returned and documented. The survey included 8 required questions, these have been noted with an asterisk, and a few open-ended questions. Below is the survey that was mailed to the businesses, as well as the results. Roughly 61% of respondents said that they had a general idea or higher about trails 6 Survey Questions 2019 Allegheny Valley Business Survey Business Name: _______________________ Zip Code: ____________________________ How would you classify your business? (Please select the primary operation of your business) * Recreation Convenience/Grocery Lodging Retail Food/Drink Automotive Pharmaceuticals Medical Care Industry/Manufacturing Other: What months do you receive the most business? (Select all that apply) * January February March April May June July August September October November December Would you attribute your choice of business location to any of the following? * River Trail Both Neither 7 What is your knowledge of the trail systems in your area? * I have very extensive knowledge about the trails I have
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