There are trails on the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management lands off Farmingdale Road in East Hempfield Township.

Trails are under consideration for the adjacent Lancaster Urban Forest Center, being planned by Lancaster County Conservancy.

There are 3.1 miles of trails included in the proposal for The Crossings at Conestoga Creek, a project Manheim Township commissioners are considering.

And Franklin & Marshall College might be persuaded to establish trails on its nearby Baker Campus.

"What we're really trying to do is connect dots," Lisa Riggs said Tuesday to members of the Lancaster County Citizen's Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee. The committee reviews transportation projects and makes recommendations to incorporate accommodations for walkers and cyclists.

Riggs, executive director of the city's James Street Improvement District, said her organization hopes to develop connected recreation trails for bicyclists and pedestrians that would be mostly away from the heavily traveled roads near Harrisburg Pike, west of Lancaster city.

The advisory committee also discussed a study for a trail to the east of Lancaster city, parallel to a proposed Route 23 alternative route.

The Harrisburg Pike trail is much more likely to happen. It has been the subject of a $30,000 study, and preliminary results are expected to be released next month. A public meeting to discuss the results will be held at 6:30 p.m. March 6 at the office of Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, 1299 Harrisburg Pike.

Riggs also wants to see sidewalks or other accommodations for pedestrians extend from Race Avenue in the city to Long's Park to connect to suburban trails.

People are now walking, biking and even pushing strollers along the road "in remarkably unsafe conditions," Riggs said.

The initiative was identified in the 2009 Harrisburg Pike Transportation Study.

East of the city, a trail for bicyclists, pedestrians and possibly Plain-sect buggies on the unused "goat path" has been considered as part of the state Department of Transportation's $8.1 million study for a Route 23 bypass. That study was revived in 2002 but has been dormant since late 2007.

"It's still in limbo," Lancaster County Senior Transportation Planner Lauri Ahlskog said. "It's still considered an active project, although it is not actually moving," she told BPAC members.

Ahlskog asked committee members whether they would support the trail between Route 30 and Newport Road, near Leola. Their response: Maybe. They asked for more information.

An alternative to Route 23 has been discussed since the 1960s. Four years ago, the state was on the verge of announcing a plan after several years of study whittled down the number of alternatives. Instead, the process was stopped when construction funding was in doubt.

And yet, Ahlskog said, it remains listed in the county's long-range transportation plan.

The trail is a facet of that study. The proposal called for using half of the four-decade-old roadbed, commonly called the "goat path," for cars and trucks; the other half of the divided four-lane roadbed would be used for a trail.

The 4.5-mile roadbed is a remnant of earlier plans for a Route 23 alternative that were abandoned.

Use of the abandoned roadbed for a trail was first proposed almost 20 years ago as a motor vehicle-free transportation route for Plain-sect buggies and a recreational trail for pedestrians and bicyclists.

bharris@lnpnews.com