With the growing popularity of walking trails and bike paths, many local towns, villages and cities in the Capital District were making their own separate plans for multi-use trails to be developed around the region.

However, these planning and design efforts were not being coordinated with each other as part of the larger regional picture. The Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC) wanted to find a way to help coordinate all of these separate efforts and link them together as part of an interconnecting regional transportation and recreational system.

The Capital District Trails Plan utilized a variety of separate public workshops and stakeholder meetings across the four counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady to collect public input on existing bike and walking trails which were already in the works, as well as identifying new trail connections which should be made to link these routes together as part of an interconnected network. This effort included the launching of an interactive Wiki-Map, which allowed users to share desired trail connections and ideas online, as well as a user survey to collect input from the walking and biking communities. The plan included an economic analysis which forecasted the potential economic benefits of local and regional trails in the local communities as this network was built out from increased property values, jobs and tourism. The plan also included a comprehensive marketing and branding campaign to develop a name for this regional trail network, as well as advertising and wayfinding signage.