Category Archives: The Green Team

Today, our team visited the Skuylkill River Trail for the first time. The group members that were present were Olivia Gaudin, Kevin Ortega, George Wringley and Kevin Shung. We visited the trail to get a better understanding of the area that we will be conducting our research. Our visit was very insightful, and we took many pictures, and noted all the issues that we observed, and the improvements that could be made to improve the perception that residents have of the park.

While the river and the scenery were quite beautiful, there were many parts of the trail that need improvement. One of the biggest problems we noticed was the abundance of trash all over the trail. There were not many trash cans. When we asked Bob if we could propose putting more trash cans in the park, he told us that the reason his team does not make more garbage cans available in the park is because of the inappropriate things people tend to place in the garbage cans. We are not sure how else we could fix the litter issue in the park. Perhaps we could create some “Do Not Litter” signs, but the fact that more garbage cans are not available in the park definitely contributes to the litter problem.

We also took notice of how uneven the trail is. There are many cracks in the pavement, and the pavement as a whole is not properly leveled. Our team members would occasionally trip due to the unevenness of the pavement, which is a huge issue. We understand that replacing the pavement might be a costly solution. A less costly solution would be to implement some “Watch Your Step Signs” as a reminder to pedestrians using the trail.

We also noticed a group of people sitting around a fire in the park. We thought that this was extremely unsafe and we will write an email to Bob to alert him of this issue. The fire presents a safety issue, especially with all the surrounding shrubbery, trees, and garbage that could catch fire.

Pollution was another big issue. There are many buildings and factories close to the park that are producing large amounts of smoke into the air. This is a problem that we predict will be much harder to fix.

We also noticed the a lack of parking space near the trail. We think that more parking space should be made available to accommodate pedestrians that visit the park by car. Finding parking was an issue for our group.

Overal we think the trail is beautiful and has great potential, but we think that it will be very hard to make certain improvements due to the city’s small budget. Some of the solutions that we proposed to Bob, such as putting more lighting in the park, were dismissed, because Bob said they did not have the budget to make the improvements.