Seven ways that this new trail could unite Notre Dame, South Bend and other trails

The city of South Bend will build a paved trail this year between downtown and the University of Notre Dame, aiming to finish in the midst of football season and the flood of cars and economy-boosting visitors.

That’ll be a 1.5-mile walk or ride that — if played right — could egg more of us townies and out-of-towners to visit the shops and attractions at either end. To ditch the car. Wait a minute, even some of us locals don’t own a car.

It’s also one more link between good trails that are isolated, crying out for connections. Once established, then they might become the kind of truly sought-after trail system that could lure people from other states — and not for football.

Trail announced: South Bend, Notre Dame to fund a major pedestrian route between downtown and campus

From downtown, the trail will follow the trail built during the recent restructuring of LaSalle Avenue, from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the east. New trail would then be built this year heading north on Hill Street, northeast on South Bend Avenue and north on Notre Dame Avenue, hooking up with Notre Dame at Angela Boulevard.

Officials say the $11.5 million cost will be shared by South Bend taxpayers, Notre Dame and local hotel-motel taxes.

“You’ve got two strong economic centers,” Jitin Kain, the city’s deputy director of Public Works, says. “Connecting the two made sense.”

Here are some things to ponder while you’re pedaling or pawing almost, but not quite to your destination.

Is it really necessary?

If you’re a savvy local cyclist or walker, you already know the quiet neighborhood streets and sidewalks to find your way between downtown and Notre Dame. But not everyone is so savvy.

And the bike lanes along Notre Dame Avenue are nice, but the number of people who feel safer in a separated and protected trail is “exponentially more,” says Dustin New, active transportation planner with the Michiana Area Council of Governments.

“Seventy percent of people don’t ride because they’re scared to do it,” adds Peter Hru, who’s certified by the League of American Bicyclists as a safe cycling instructor and who leads the advocacy group known as the Bike South Bend Committee. “When you make it easier to do, they do it.”

Which way?

A clearly built and well-marked trail makes it unavoidably clear to the hapless wanderer — like the thousands of out-of-town visitors to Notre Dame — that here’s an easy way to walk or bike into town or vice versa.

That will depend on signs at either end that tell folks, “Hey, follow this trail to …” Kain says there will indeed be a trailhead kiosk and map at either end, plus wayfinding signs at points along the route.

Who doesn’t have a car?

Well, for starters, a lot of Notre Dame students don’t have an auto. That includes several international students who live off campus. New sees a lot of them at the nonprofit co-op South Bend Bike Garage, where he’s director, located at the edge of campus where the Indiana 933 trail meets the Coal Line Trail and the East Bank trail (Indiana 933 and Angela Boulevard). The international students come to the Bike Garage to acquire used, fixed-up bikes because they rely on them to commute to campus.

Likewise, some folks, including millenials, have the means but choose to live a downtown urban lifestyle without car ownership.

Not to forget the folks who can’t afford motorized wheels. Or many of the guests in the 618 hotel rooms in downtown.

Kain adds that the trail will make it more comfortable and safer for the many football fans who already take advantage of free downtown parking on home game weekends, then walk to campus.

It’s not just connecting town and campus.

This route crosses neighborhoods with homes that range from upscale to working class. St. Joseph High School is just a block away. So, too, is the mental health campus on Niles Avenue. There’s Rocco’s Restaurant for pizza/pasta carbo loading on South Bend Avenue.

Then there are the eat/drink/play options at Eddy Street Commons. And, even if you don’t care about Notre Dame itself, you can’t ignore the free entertainment of wandering through its new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the campus edge and its outdoor sculpture garden (it has a peaceful walking trail of its own).

We have to complete the loops.

New points out that we have good trails. But, to tie them together, he says, “makes them a complete system.”

That’s what residents want. It’s what newcomers to the area expect, especially those who’ve lived in more trail- and recreation-minded communities, like Boulder, Colo., and Minneapolis. And it’s what the state of Indiana has been pushing — trail connectedness — through its Next Level Trails grants. If you skip making these links, you risk losing a competitive race with other communities as the more “livable” place.

South Bend, Mishawaka and the surrounding areas still have a way to go. New points out, for example, the Smart Streets paved paths that circle through downtown South Bend. From there, bike lanes head south, but there’s not a clear destination or trail system to which they’re going.

Hru gives credit to local civic leaders and planners who continue to say, “Where are the holes? And how can we fill them?”

Some gaps are small. But there are longer, more difficult ones, too, like the yawning gap between the Granger Paths trails and Mishawaka’s and South Bend’s trails.

And there’s the long gap between the Mishawaka Riverwalk and the series of trails that run from downtown Elkhart to Goshen, ultimately linking to the 17-mile Pumpkinvine Nature Trail from Goshen to Shipshewana. A group of civic leaders and advocates from Elkhart and St. Joseph counties have started to meet to see where and how they could build that connection. It could take many years to resolve, but it would mean a trail leading from the heart of Amish country to Niles.

There’s a serious effort now to link that trail from Niles to Berrien Springs. And once that goal is met, trail dreamers want to push the trail to the Lake Michigan coast at St. Joseph. The dreams keep going, now with efforts to keep extending a trail that’s partially in place along the Red Arrow Highway towards St. Joe, even as the 60-mile Marquette Greenway trail is well in the works to link the Red Arrow trails from New Buffalo to Chicago. These dreams are charted in the Berrien County Trails Master Plan, which the county adopted in December 2022.

Ultimately, think about a trail from Chicago to the lakeshore to Amish farms, while passing through our cities.

New trail on Angela will close another gap.

The city also plans to build a trail along the north side of Angela Boulevard this year. It will pick up where the new Coal Line Trail, the 933 Trail and the East Bank Trail all end by the South Bend Bike Garage along Indiana 933. After crossing that highway, the Angela trail will follow the southern edge of the campus golf course, then hook trail users up with a decent sidewalk where Angela curves. The sidewalk connects to the campus entrance at Notre Dame Avenue. City officials have told me this is to avoid removing a line of lovely maple trees along residents’ homes.

The Angela trail is truly needed. For now, the Coal Line Trail ends abruptly at the highway. Students and staff have already been biking along busy Angela. When I ride that way to campus, I always duck onto the quiet side streets that run parallel to Angela.

It will be a second, perhaps less obvious way to walk or ride between downtown and campus.

Also, the Angela trail will finally provide a complete trail loop around the perimeter of campus — a bonus for those seeking long treks on trails alone. The other legs of it provide a nice ride or hike along Twyckenham Drive and Douglas Road.

Are we getting married?

Hru looks at the bigger picture when he says the new trail is “more than just a connection from Notre Dame to downtown.” As Notre Dame tries to stage a stronger presence in downtown (witness its purchase of the historic South Bend Tribune building), and as the city works on its vision for 2045, Hru sees the new trail as one more way to unify the two worlds. He thinks of why cities like Ann Arbor and Bloomington are so vibrant — because they’re so strongly tied to universities. Civic and Notre Dame leaders echoed that as they recently announced the trail's construction, citing their desire to strengthen the physical and mental town-gown marriage.

Kain says this isn’t about any single destination. More broadly, he says of downtown and Notre Dame, it’s creating conditions that encourage “synergies between the two.” That, he says, could spawn other new efforts or even more trail loops.

Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How new trail will unite Notre Dame to downtown South Bend