Riding Safe While Cycling City Trails

Understanding the homeless along trails and perceptions of danger

Beauty on the Camp Chase: Hilltop urban mural and Lily Chapel rural silos

When I write about my bicycle tours, I tend to focus on the people, places, and unexpected discoveries that leave me with unforgettable memories and stories to tell. But that’s only part of the experience.

Cycling through cities tells a different story. These rides on urban trails thread through diverse neighborhoods, industrial and business areas, and city streets. These routes reveal another side of city life, one often left out of my stories: the visibility of poverty and the uncomfortable truths of the homeless in the city.

There’s a common perception that urban trails are unsafe, largely due to concerns about crime around homeless encampments. While homelessness exists in every corner of the country, including rural areas where it’s often hidden. In cities, it’s far more visible. Higher population density and limited space often concentrate the homeless issue along trails used by many, including cyclists.

I invite you to explore urban trails safely with both awareness and empathy. Allow me to walk you through the real and perceived challenges of homelessness and crime, offer practical safety tips, and reflect on how we can navigate these spaces with compassion, not fear.

Understanding Homelessness on Urban Trails

Trails are for everyone. In urban settings, they offer a free, safe, and efficient way to commute, run errands, or enjoy nature, This is especially important for residents of underserved neighborhoods who lack access to reliable transportation. For many, trails aren’t just a convenience. They’re a necessity.

For people experiencing homelessness, these same trails often serve as safe havens. Secluded from busy streets and public scrutiny, they provide privacy, relative safety, and access to life essentials like water and restrooms, things that many businesses deny them. Trails also connect the homeless to food banks, shelters, and social services that serve their needs.

This dual role, as both a transportation corridor and a place of refuge, creates tension. Cities often respond to encampments with sweeps and enforcement. But they are unable to address the root causes of unaffordable housing, lack of mental health support, and economic inequality. And so, the cycle continues.

You've likely heard things like, “That trail goes through a sketchy area,” or “Watch out for the homeless camps.” These warnings may come from a place of concern, but they often reveal underlying biases. It's important to question not just what is said but why it’s said.

Homeless Encampments Are Communities

The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness pose no threat. They aren’t camping along trails to frighten others. They’re there because they have few if any, other options. These encampments are communities of people supporting one another through unimaginable hardships.

Homelessness on trails isn’t a trail problem. It’s a societal one. These encampments highlight society’s failure to provide affordable housing, equitable healthcare, and adequate social safety nets for all.

As cyclists, we must approach these areas not with fear and as obstacles, but with compassion as human spaces. Ride respectfully. Exercise caution but not fear. The discomfort many feel on urban trails often reflects internalized biases more than any actual threat.

Trails are not only an escape from the reality of the everyday life. They may take you directly into it. That may be uncomfortable, but real.

Safety Starts Before You Pedal

While trail crime is statistically rare, it's still smart to ride with awareness, especially in urban settings. Here, trails often intersect with vehicle traffic, busy streets, more pedestrians, and a larger mix of scooters, bicycles, and other mobility devices.

Crime can happen anywhere, including rural trails. Most trail-related incidents involve theft, vandalism, or harassment near trailheads. The best self-defense for a safe ride is to prepare with safety in mind before you leave the house.

Here’s how to stay safe on any ride:

• Plan. Know and review your route, especially when riding in unfamiliar areas.

• Secure and hide valuables. Keep phones, GPS devices, and wallets out of sight when stopping.

• Stay informed. Check for closures, construction, or alerts through local bike groups, apps, or park district websites.

• Charge your phone. Bring a portable charger, just in case.

• Share your plans. Let someone know your route, particularly if riding solo or near dusk.

• Trust your gut. If a situation feels uncomfortable, stay calm and alter your speed or seek out other users.

What to Do If You Feel Unsafe

Exploring new trails, especially in cities, can be both exhilarating and disorienting. The unfamiliar strips away your illusion of comfort, challenging you to stay both alert and distracted in unexpected challenges, obstacles, and encounters.

If you ever feel unsafe:

• Keep moving. You’re harder to target if you're in motion.

• Don’t engage. If someone acts aggressively, don’t respond. Leave the area.

• Find others. Stay near groups of people or populated areas.

• Use your phone. A friendly voice on the phone can change the whole dynamic.

• Report with care. If someone appears to be in danger, report it. Remember, being homeless is not a crime, and shouldn’t be treated as one.

• Know your exits. Familiarize yourself with trailheads, street crossings, and safe places along the trail.

Experience the City Without Fear

Trails often follow the paths of historic railways and canals, revealing stories and experiences that expressways bypass. Urban trails let you see revitalized cities, neighborhoods, and skylines close up, including immigrant and working-class neighborhoods.

These urban trails offer a different kind of tour; one through cultures, economic diversity, and the complexity and uniqueness of city life. You’re not just passing through. You witness lives, some that are often forgotten and overlooked.

Being safe doesn’t mean avoiding people and neighborhoods. It's understanding them. Poverty isn’t a threat. Homelessness isn’t criminal. Most of the people you’ll pass on the trail, including the homeless, are simply living their lives.

Cycling in the city should feel like an adventure filled with the freedom of discovery, not fear. That freedom is best supported by thoughtful preparation. Know your route, secure your gear, and ride with awareness, compassion, and a spirit of curiosity.

Solving Homelessness on Trails Is Bigger Than the Trail

Encampments along bike paths aren’t isolated issues. They’re symptoms of broader social failures: a lack of affordable housing, gaps in mental healthcare, wage inequality, and broken support systems.

People experiencing homelessness may be dealing with job loss, trauma, addiction, illness, disability, or a criminal record that keeps them unemployed. These factors don’t exist in isolation. They stack, and when systems fail, they collapse into homelessness.

Solving this crisis takes more than policing trails and dispersing the homeless. It requires comprehensive, systemic change far beyond the role of trail managers or park districts. While cities continue to intervene when encampments grow, the underlying issues persist.

Trail users should understand that visible homelessness is not negligence by the city due to its complexity. Behind the scenes, many community groups, government agencies, and park districts are working tirelessly to protect the safety of residents, trail users, and the homeless with compassion.

Ride Smart. Stay Human.

Urban trails are, for the most part, safe. Crime is rare. Encounters with aggressive behavior are rarer still. But riding through a city is about more than staying safe. It’s about staying human.

Just like when riding through rural towns or quiet countryside, you’re not only passing through someone else’s world. You're moving through one shaped by your assumptions and sense of safety. The challenge isn't just how to avoid danger. It's how to stay compassionate while passing through.

Ride smart. Stay alert. Move through your city with both confidence and compassion.

My Experiences on the Camp Chase Trail

Occasionally, cross-state cyclists on the Ohio to Erie Trail express concern about safety on the Camp Chase Trail, particularly through the Hilltop area on Columbus’s west side. A small section of the trail indeed has a visible homeless presence. Authorities address the issue, but encampments often return.

Still, this trail is well-maintained and connects the western suburbs to downtown. It offers a scenic ride through rural Franklin County farmlands to urban Columbus. A few minutes of homelessness discomfort doesn’t diminish its beauty and value to the community and the trail network.

I cycled this stretch of trail numerous times without incident. Yes, I’ve seen homelessness here and on trails in other countries, states, and cities. It’s a reality we often ignore, like the person at the highway exit asking for help.

Not every ride will be filled with postcard moments. Some of the most lasting memories are the encounters with those living on the margins. They remind me how fortunate I am and how quickly circumstances can change a person's life.

I can’t promise you won’t encounter danger or crime on this or any trail. But I urge you to ride with awareness, openness, and empathy. When we tell the full story, including the hard parts, we help bring about change.

Columbus, Ohio, and its Camp Chase Trail reflect the experiences of many cities and their urban trails. It's where the realities of life intersect with your bike ride.

Have a story or tip about urban cycling? Share it in the comments. I’d love to hear how the trail has shaped your view of the city.