Harrisonburg City officials and members of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition are home from a trip to Davis, California, where they were researching ways to make Harrisonburg more bike friendly.

Davis is known for their bike/pedestrian trials, and 20 percent of the citizens ride or walk when making a short trip, according to Thomas Jenkins with the Bicycle Coalition.

"The goal was to get an opportunity to learn from what they've done, to find out what has worked and what has not worked for them, and bring that information back to the city," said Jenkins.

Jenkins went to Davis with Harrisonburg Mayor Kai Degner and other city officials. The trip wasn't paid for with tax payer money, but with grants and donations from the bike coalition.

Jenkins says there is a following of people in Harrisonburg who want to see safer bike/pedestrian trails, and that is one reason why the city participated in the trip.

"The city has heard from the citizens, that the citizens would like to see this, so the first thing is to get the support, and to find out how to do it, how to make it work here," he said.

He thinks more trails would motivate more people in Harrisonburg to ride or walk, which means less car traffic on Harrisonburg roads.

"Both Davis and Sacramento, when they've built the infrastructure, saw an increase in rider. We hear from the bike community here, that people want to walk or ride, they want to use alternatives but they don't feel safe. So, one of the goals was to provide a safe opportunity for the pedestrians, for the cyclists which would provide a safe opportunity for a car driver also," he said.

Jenkin's thinks a good starting point would be to make a better trail system to connect Harrisonburg parks. But, he says trail expansion is preliminary, and specific plans have not been made.

"It's a long term goal. This is not something that is going to happen over night. I think we all realize that, even more so after going to California and seeing what they've done there, and seeing that it has taken decades. But it has paid off for them," he said.