The United States is well known for being a terrible place to live in regards to biking and walking rather than just using cars. Greensboro is not the best but has a decent opportunity for some people to bike places for more than just exercise.
There are many benefits to people biking instead of driving. It is a great cardiovascular exercise that can significantly increase people’s heart health. It is also an amazing way to lose weight because it burns more calories than many other exercises. It also doesn’t need to build too much muscle which is a concern for some people. It also helps build stamina and strength for people that participate in other sports. It physically helps a lot of older people because, if you go on a flat surface, it is a low impact exercise that doesn’t put too much strain on joints and hips. Biking also has a great impact on mental wellbeing because it gets people out of their busy and stressful world. There are many environmental benefits like less pollution, sound, and wasted materials. It will also help you avoid traffic, full parking lots, and costs way less than any other form of transportation.
One of the longest Greenways in the Greensboro system is the Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway. Out of the Greenways it is like a highway that gets people in and out of the city. If you start in the middle of the city, you will exit between Battleground Ave. and Lawndale Rd. and once you get out of that mildly stressful area, you will follow the side of Battleground. You will start to fork away from the road and get into a more wooded area. This continues northwest from the city to Summerfield. This path avoids 2 major roads along its span. You will go in a tunnel under Cone Blvd. and a bridge over the city’s urban loop. Almost the entire path has been paved except for a small sidewalk section. There are a lot of businesses on this trail, both local and corporate as well as several bridges over lakes. This can be a very crowded trail in sections especially to its connection to parks like Guilford Courthouse National Park, and Greensboro Country Park.
The largest Greenway in the city is the Bicentennial Greenway which is split into 2 unconnected parts. The first starts at Old Battleground Rd. and goes southwest, right past Western Guilford High School. This path has a variety of surfaces with it starting as gravel, to sidewalk concrete, to paved asphalt. It switches between these but only has the gravel in the beginning. This trail doesn’t cross too many major roads but does go under Bryan Blvd. along a road. There are a few larger road crossings but they are mostly not too busy of roads and have protected crossings. This is a beautiful Greenway that is amazing for people who want to go through nature, around neighborhoods, and around apartment complexes with little businesses. This is also a less crowded trail than the Atlantic and Yadkin.
The second part of this large Greenway starts a little bit further Southwest around an industrial area of the city. This continues for a while until you get to the Piedmont Environmental Center in High Point. This trail area is primarily asphalt with some wooden bridges over creeks. The first part of the trail exits the industrial areas through neighborhoods but then becomes incredibly wooded and natural. This is the best connection from Greensboro to High Point in the county. This greenway has 1 tunnel and many protected crosswalks with not too many major roads. If you are looking for a way to get between the 2 sections of the Bicentennial Greenway you should do your own research about what you find comfortable but no matter what it will add a lot of extra distance.
Once you get to the end of this second Bicentennial Greenway section at the Piedmont Environmental center, you can get onto the High Point Greenway. This greenway continues through more neighborhoods until you reach High Point University and Downtown High Point where you are officially in the City. There are 2 tunnels under busy highway roads along with many protected crossings. The greenway ends at Armstrong Park where there is suitable parking if you would like to start from there. These last 3 greenways are like an interstate highway between the 2 cities.
The Downtown Greenway is an amazing path that forms a large circle around the middle of Downtown Greensboro. It has both concrete and asphalt sections and is full of wide, protected crossings. It is a little slower to get through with crossings but faster than any other area through the middle of the city. This is like the Urban Loop of the greenway system that can get you to any side of Downtown. The Downtown Greenway meets up at the same point as the Atlantic and Yadkin as well as the next 2 greenways.
The Lake Daniel and Latham Greenway are both connected towards the end of the Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway. They each go a different direction from this point but are easily accessible to each other. They are both full concrete sidewalk material. The Lake Daniel Greenway goes for about 2 miles through a grassy park past Grimsley High School until you get to the Friendly Shopping Center. The Latham Greenway goes the other direction in a similar grassy area for almost 1 and a half miles until you get close to Revolution Mill near Page High School. These are like connector roads that go from the highway to different areas of a town.
The Rolling Roads and Hillsdale Greenways are each about a mile and are both across from each other at I-40. These are good sidewalk-like concrete surfaces that are overall disconnected from the other greenways but would be good short walks to do 1 of them. They are good for people in these areas but are like isolated roads in the countryside to the other trails.
The Shannon Greenway is a 1.5 mile path south of the city that is disconnected like the Northeast Community trail to the Northeast of the city. Like the last 2 greenways these could be considered isolated roads that can provide a good walk but aren’t too connected to any other trails. The Northeast Trail is by the GTCC Greensboro campus and the Shannon Greenways is near Allen Middle School.
These trails help build an interconnected Greensboro for bikers and allow the opportunity for people to bike places rather than drive. Luckily, the city does have future plans for this system. There is an idea to finally connect the Bicentennial Greenway sections but that is in the planning stage. The Lake Daniel Greenway has pretty recently had a condemned bridge repaired which allows people to go its full distance again. A bridge on the Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway is expected to be built in 2027 after the former bridge didn’t meet standards which will be the long awaited project to reconnect Summerfield to Greensboro. The Downtown Greenway recently finished redoing their section by Weaver Academy which finishes the circle.
