American Tobacco Trail

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Earth: United States: North Carolina: Durham: American Tobacco Trail

Overview

The American Tobacco Trail (ATT) is a series of connected bike-and-pedestrian pathways running north-south through Durham, NC and forming an essential part of the planned East Coast Greenway. The term "American Tobacco Trail" also often refers specifically to the #South Durham section, which was the first completed stretch of the ATT.

Nomenclature

There seems to be some disagreement as to whether "American Tobacco Trail" refers to the entire planned 22 miles of north-south trail in the area, or just the section south of Durham ("South Durham section"). Most of the quasi-official documents found thus far seem to consider this the name of the entire trail, so we are going with that convention for now.

Sections

going from north to south

  • West Ellerbe Creek Greenway
    • Phase II (to be completed): from Westover Park (between Guess Road and Maryland Ave.), under I-85 alongside Club Blvd., and (eventually) up to South Point on the Eno.
    • Phase I: north from Trinity Ave. through most of Watts-Hillandale, to Westover Park
  • Downtown section: south from Trinity Ave., through downtown Durham on sidewalks and back-streets, and connecting to the South Durham section
  • #South Durham section (6.5+ miles, plus additional sections) (a.k.a. the American Tobacco Trail): south from underneath the Durham Freeway (147) to just north of I-40 where Fayetteville Road crosses over.
  • The #South of 40 section: south from Massey Chapel Road

South Durham

Abandoned log cabin in the woods about 1/4 of the way from the Cornwallis Rd. intersection to the MLK intersection, off the west side of the trail.

This is a converted former railroad right-of-way beginning at the south edge of downtown Durham and stretching to a "temporary end" just across NC-54 and I-40 from Southpoint Mall).

Intersections (from memory):

  • Enterprise St. in Forest Hills; not busy
  • Otis St. (neighborhood through-street, but usually pretty quiet)
  • Fayetteville Rd. (busy; traffic light and pedestrian crossing light/button)
  • Riddle Rd. (more fast than busy; button activates flashing yellow light to warn drivers)
  • (street behind school; not too busy, but vehicles do come along regularly)
  • Cornwallis Rd. (much like Riddle Rd.)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway (very busy; the crossing signal will "forget" your button-press if you do it too early in the cycle, so keep trying. The Hypertwins think that the city should put in a pedestrian/bike crossing a little way uphill of Cardinal Self-Storage South instead of making everyone cross at the intersection.)
  • Fayetteville Rd. (again) (busy; traffic light, pedestrian crossing light/button makes tone when it's safe to cross)
  • several suburban offshoot streets, mostly not too busy but with no signals

To reach the current "temporary end" of the trail 6.5 miles south of Durham, you have to turn right several yards short of the end of the straight-ahead part of the trail (which mainly goes to the small ATT parking area at the shopping center entrance off Fayetteville Rd.) to get to the final section of trail. The turn is not clearly marked as being the official continuation of the Trail; you have to look closely at the signpost (which is on the left, opposite the turnoff) and notice the little arrow pointing to the right.

This (currently final) stretch runs around through Southpoint Crossing, a gated community and shopping center (the trail runs behind the shopping center with a hill separating it from vehicular traffic) and over to NC Highway 54, a busy road with 5+ lanes.

Plans are underway to build a bike/pedestrian bridge over I-40 to connect with the #South of I-40 section; in the meantime, there is a quite workable detour for safely #crossing I-40.

crossing I-40

this detour was discovered independently by The Hypertwins on 2007-08-01, though apparently others have discovered it as well

The "obvious" way across I-40 is to get onto Fayetteville Road and cross with the traffic. This is extremely dangerous, as the traffic is congested and complicated and there do not appear to be any sidewalks or even a decent margin.

It is possible, however, to cross at the next bridge to the west, which has a sidewalk. The way to get there is relatively pleasant and does not involve riding with any busy traffic:

  • Turn right on NC 54 (stay on the sidewalk, if you value your life)
  • At the next street (Rollingwood on your right, Highgate Drive on the left, across the street), cross 54 (there's no crosswalk or pedestrian signal, so you have to wait for the traffic light and watch for vehicles turning from the cross-street -- but there is a sidewalk on Highgate.)
  • Continue down Highgate for a couple of bends. Parts of it have no sidewalk, but it's pretty wide and uncongested (at least, it was at around 11pm on a Wednesday).
  • Turn left on Audubon Lake Drive (if you get back to 54, you've gone too far)
  • Point of interest: it looks like the path to the future ATT I-40 bridge will start from the corner of Audubon Lake Drive and Shearwater Drive; satellite photos on Google show traces of something there, and up close it looks like possibly the remains of an old farm or service road which continued through where I-40 is now.
  • At some point -- the traffic circle is probably a good place -- get onto the left-hand sidewalk.
  • Continue on Southpoint Auto Park Boulevard through a lot of soon-to-be-developed wasteland (all with very nice sidewalks)...
  • Point of interest: Just past the first of the car dealerships, and past a small lake, there is an old family graveyard under a small grove of magnolias at the top of a hill, with graves dating back to the mid-1800s. (There is also a paved footpath beginning right next to the graveyard; it goes down to the lake and around it, and emerges just to the west of the car dealership. It appears both fairly new and not well-maintained, as there was a large tree-branch blocking the graveyard entrance and a lot of leaves on that portion of the trail.)
  • Continue past both of the mondo new car dealerships and out to Hope Valley Road (NC 751). The car traffic picks up a bit as you get into car dealer territory; also there were people mowing with rider mowers and blocking the sidewalk when we were there... hopefully that's not the norm.
  • Turn left onto 751 / Hope Valley Rd. Again, I advise using the sidewalk even though it is not marked for bicycle use; it does not seem to be used by pedestrians, and if the police give you a hard time for riding on the sidewalk, tell them I said it's ok. ^_^
  • This takes you across I-40, including the westbound exit ramp and the eastbound on-ramp. I have to assume you know how to handle yourself in weird car-bike situations, but do be careful. The good thing is that the sidewalk continues across the bridge and all the way to Renaissance Parkway, which is the entrance to the Southpoint Mall area and is also lined with sidewalks and what looks like an actual bike trail on the far (south) side.
  • I haven't yet mapped out how to get to the trailhead of the next ATT segment, but it can't be difficult; the only question is whether it can be accessed from Renaissance parkway (several promising-looking trailish things on the Google map make me think so) or whether you have to stay on 751 until Massey Chapel Road, the official start of the segment.

South of 40

This stretch begins a block south of Southpoint Mall on Massey Chapel Road and continues unpaved for 13 more miles through the northeast corner of Chatham County (eventually to be paved) and into Wake County. It is effectively broken into 3 sections, however, by the absence of bridges at Northeast Creek and Panther Creek; both crossings currently have undecked railroad trestles which are in the process of being re-decked for ATT usage.

The trail's southbound terminus is currently on New Hill / Olive Chapel Rd., 22 miles south of Durham. "A 20-mile multiuse trail" beginning at this point and continuing on south "is in early discussions. It would extend to Harris Lake County Park and on to Raven Rock State Park on the Cape Fear River. Its working name: ATT South", according to the map accompanying a 2007-08-02 article in The News & Observer (p.5E).

Future Plans

The ATT is an essential part of the East Coast Greenway, a connected series of bike/pedestrian paths which will eventually the entire length of the United States east coast from Maine to Florida. "East Coast Greenway" signage is already in place along the South Durham section and possibly other completed portions of the ATT.

Businesses

Useful businesses located near the trail:

  • East Coast Chinese Food: inexpensive family-run Chinese food made to order, located (of all places) inside the Kroger in the shopping center at the end of the ATT. Very good, especially for the budget-minded. Lunch specials are cash-only, but there is an ATM about 20 feet away. They are informal and don't seem to have any problem serving sweaty, greasy bikers hot off the trail. Downside: the shopping center, despite their location right next to the ATT, does not seem to have a bike rack. We chained our bikes to the same chain used to secure a shaded picnic table outside Kroger, where they were kept under passive/unofficial observation by Kroger employees on break or waiting for their rides. --Woozle 17:16, 1 June 2007 (EDT)
  • Tobacco Trail Bicycle Rentals: at Solite Park just off the ATT where it intersects with Fayetteville Road

Links

Reference

Blogs & Commentary

Articles

News

Maps

2007-ATT-1.png 2007-ATT-2.png 2007-ATT-3.png 2007-ATT-4.png

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