Pedals, paths, and people: Riders share their experience on Fort Wayne trails

This story is part of Moving Fort Wayne Forward, a year-long reporting effort to engage residents, employers, and community leaders of Greater Fort Wayne around the possibility of a more modern, multimodal transportation system. Read the full series here.

On a typical day, Roger Carroll Jr. rides between 25 and 50 miles on local trails, weaving through Fort Wayne’s growing network of trails connecting neighborhoods, parks, and downtown destinations.

Since 1998, he has ridden the expanding local and regional system, nearly memorizing it.

“When it comes to the trail system, I know every square foot of every inch of the trail,” Carroll says, noting that he owns nearly 50 bicycles himself. He speaks highly of the region’s expanding trails, especially connecting suburban neighborhoods to downtown, from the municipalities building the infrastructure to advocacy groups like Fort Wayne Trails.

“It can always be better, but I think, for the most part, Fort Wayne Trails has been a great advocate of that.”

Carroll has seen the region’s trail system grow dramatically over the past two decades, creating opportunities for riders to travel across the city without needing to rely on busy roads.

As the system has expanded, so have the ways people use it. But riders say feeling comfortable on the trails — whether navigating unfamiliar routes or sharing space with other users — often comes with experience.

One growing concern for Carroll, however, is the rise of motorized vehicles on trails, some of which blur the line between what is and is not safe for other trail users. The Fort Wayne City Council recently amended the city code to regulate e-bicycles and other power-driven mobility devices on trails. Carroll says the rule changes are “good for basic ordinances,” but believes they do not go far enough to protect other riders from what he sees as the bigger issue.

In Carroll’s experience, electric trail vehicles without pedals — scooters that look similar to e-bikes but are only powered by a throttle — account for many of the safety concerns he encounters. 

These new amendments, he believes, do not go far enough to curb exposure to the safety risks posed by these pedal-less devices. Currently, city code requires operators of these vehicles — which are not held to the same speed regulations as e-bikes — to follow basic trail safety rules and show regard for other users. But, without stronger limits on what devices are allowed on trails, Carroll says problems still arise when these faster vehicles enter the system.

When he does see a reckless trail user, regardless of vehicle, he says that he lets them know about the trail rules, especially because children learning to ride a bicycle might unintentionally swerve in front of a speeding trail user.

“I would be saying something to a person riding recklessly or just doing something stupid. I’m going to tell them what the basic rules of the path are. You know, staying left, staying right, letting people know that you’re passing on the left. You know, there’s a speed limit here.”

Not everyone experiences the trails the way Carroll does, though some riders share similar concerns.

Karen Glotzbach encountered trails frequently as a teen, running cross country in middle school and high school. As an adult, she still uses the trails and celebrates the system’s growth not only in mileage, but also in trail quality.

“A lot of the routes I used to take when I ran cross country,” she says, “went from gravel or dirt paths to full trails. I do really like that now — I’ve always existed in the heart of Fort Wayne — you can actually get to a lot of places a lot safer.”

Her main concern, however, is trail etiquette, especially when other trail users may be less aware of their surroundings.

“If you’re trying to move fast and there’s someone who doesn’t know what side to stand on, or just swerves — I’ve almost hit some kids where I’m yelling and ringing my bell and stuff … I don’t know if there’s anything that the trail management can do, I think that is just people not being aware of their surroundings.”

This inconvenience has not stopped her from feeling safe using trails, however. When she worked at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Fairfield Avenue, she would occasionally bike to Eagle Marsh, and she says she appreciated that the trails were usually visible from nearby roads, which made her feel safer when traveling alone. If signage was missing, she could usually verify she was on an official route using a GPS app.

“I don’t feel like I need it, but if I have a moment’s hesitation, and then you put it in, it is recognized in your phone as the legitimate route. So that’s kind of a nice safety [feature].”

Other trail users, like Theresa Minnich, have relied on some trial and error to navigate. Over time, those recreational rides have led to more purposeful trips, like returning library books or taking her family out to eat.

“It starts out as a recreational thing, but I try to find a destination in mind,” Minnich says. “If I think to myself, ‘Oh, I’d really like to get on my bike tonight,’ then I say, ‘What can I do that’s downtown or [in] Georgetown?’”

Mixing purposeful trips into recreational excursions is something that Jasmine Youngblutt, who lives near Minnich in Northeast Fort Wayne, has also found ways to use the trails for. Although the shopping centers she travels to may not be very pedestrian-friendly, like the Chapel Ridge Shopping Center on Maysville Road, Youngblutt still finds enjoyment in the journeys and destinations she pursues.

“I’ll run there,” Youngblutt explains. “I ride to meet friends for lunch and dinner at different places. A lot of times in the summer, I’ll ride downtown to hit the farmers market. It’s a little bit of both. I’m doing it because I enjoy it, but also because it’s more economical and it’s a good way to get exercise.”

As a single mom, she added, the trails are especially important for recreation with her kids, and she feels pretty confident using trails even though she describes herself as “slightly directionally challenged.”

“In different areas of Fort Wayne, there’s different landmarks, downtown, rivers, things you can orient yourself with,” Youngblutt says. “A lot of the trails go through parks — if I identify a park, then I have an idea of where I am and which way I need to go.”

For many riders, that confidence builds over time. What begins as a recreational ride can eventually become a way to reach familiar places across the city. For riders like Carroll, the trail system feels second nature after decades of use. But for newer riders still learning their way, each trip can make the trails feel a little easier to navigate.

Thanks to our Presenting Partner, Parkview Health, our Lead Sponsors, WindSwell Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne, and to our sponsor, Citilink, for making this story possible.