Review

The Nickelplate Trail runs underneath Nickelplate Street in Louisville, Ohio in Stark County. The trail is only about 2.6 miles long, but you can add more mileage to your ride by entering Metzger Park via connecting paths and riding the park loop there.

Despite its short length, the bikeway offers benches and markers every half mile.

At the time of this review a rather unusual design concept was attempted here. Railroad ties were installed in the trail surface in front of two benches to serve as speed bumps. Apparently the idea was to slow down trail traffic in these areas. An interesting concept, but unfortunately this doesn't work well in practice. The ties create the only rough areas on the trail. I found myself instinctively avoiding the second group of ties by riding around them directly in front of the benches. A better approach might be to set back the seating to encourage users to move completely off the trail when taking a break. This should eliminate any need for speed bumps.

The Nickelplate Trail, in its current state, strikes me as an interesting start to a larger trail project. Tying the trail in with Metzger Park is a particularly nice feature.

In 2004 the bikeway was extended a mile further southeast past Georgetown Street.

Trail Specs:

Rt-44 S.Nickelplate-St Metzger-Park Georgetown-St Swallen-Ave

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