User Management Techniques – Part 5 – Hybrid Use

A classical chimera. This is not what we mean when discussing "hybrid use".

While we think of some cars as being “hybrids”, having both gas and electric powerplants, the greatest use of hybrids has always been in agriculture.  Farmers realized certain types of wheat had more yield, but were fragile and other types of wheat were hardy but had low yield.  The answer: pollinate one type with the other and cultivate the wheat that had both characteristics; yield and hardiness.  From the moment man began farming, creating hybrids, either on purpose or by accident, was just a basic part of the process.  Today, large percentages of fruits and grains we consume are hybrids in some way.

But what if, as we are creating urban mountain biking trails, we need a little bit of this and that?  Is there a way to do what a farmer would do, mix the attributes of various user management techniques?

There is, and that is called Hybrid Use.  To explore this user management technique, we need to know the following:

• What is “Hybrid Use”?
• Where does Hybrid Use make sense?
• How does Hybrid Use keep users happy?

​Let’s do some cross-pollination and see what we get!

​What is Hybrid Use?

Believe it or not, hybrid use is hard to nail down.  Why?  Well, because it can be so many different combinations of the previously discussed user management techniques.  Traditionally, hybrid use has been defined as “shared up, segregated down”, meaning it’s a shared use trail going uphill, but segregated use going downhill.  This has traditionally made sense as the one area where mountain bikers are consistently faster than hikers and trail runners is downhill.  However, it doesn’t have to be just that.  It can be any combination of shared, preferred and segregated use.
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Because of the squishiness of the definition of exactly what hybrid use is, it means we can tune it to exactly what we need in an location.  However, it’s important to understand that hybrid use isn’t some magical band-aid we can throw onto properties where there might be issues.  Just like all the other user management techniques, it has its own positives and negatives.

​Where does Hybrid Use make sense?

If hybrid use has its pluses and minuses, then where does it make sense compared to other user management techniques? 

Because hybrid use mixes and matches other user management techniques, it really makes the most sense where using those other techniques start creating issues.  A good example of this would be in a moderately small property with some definite ecological zones that might need to be avoided.  A shared use (bi-directional) trail could cross or avoid those ecological zones with minimal disturbance and then other user management techniques could be used in other sections.  Another instance where hybrid use could make sense is where terrain limits the location of trails.  In fact, more than any other user management technique, hybrid use can open up weird properties to mountain biking.
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Nowhere is that more apparent than Newell Creek Canyon in Oregon City, OR.  If you look at the property, it doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to create a trail system for hikers and mountain bikers.  However, factoring in slopes, creek crossings and other topographic features, it gets tougher.  Combine all this with the desire to prevent any negative on trail interactions between user groups without the room to do segregated use, some form of mix-n-matching would be required.  That means hybrid use.  It’s the only way to get all the trails to meet all the requirements of the land owner, the topography and ensure users have trails just for themselves.

Newell Creek Canyon Master Plan map

One thing that should be noted about hybrid use segregated sections is the fact they can be very narrow.  This makes sense in locations where construction impacts matter.  Using a wider shared trail to a point and splitting into two segregated trails allows those segregated trails to be narrow, but also placed where the respective uses will have the least impact to their respective to the environment.
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To ensure good flow and simple signage, any segment that is not shared should be directional.  Directional preferred use or segregated segments allow all split and merge intersections to be wyes and therefore are easier to both sign and denote.  Also, for hiking only segregated sections, there should be some type of structure that bikes cannot get through at the split point.  Kissing gates or standard pitch stair sections seem to work the best.

​How does Hybrid Use keep users happy?

Because hybrid use allows the “tuning” of sections of trails for different user groups, it simply allows user groups to have experiences they enjoy where it fits best with the terrain.  Again, these experiences don’t just have to be the classic “shared up, segregated down” type experience.  There are plenty of locations where terrain or other encumbrances might create the need for differing uses.  For example, a loop might be shared going uphill, then diverge into a hiker only and biker preferred segment only to come back to shared use for a bit, followed by segregated downhill sections, before returning to shared.  This allows users to have “their” experience where it’s possible and only have a shared one when absolutely necessary.  There can be some of the positives of preferred and segregated use, at least in those segments, with shared use were its needed.
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Additionally, hybrid use allows trails to go into properties that would be challenging to create a standard looped trail system, especially where shared or preferred use wouldn’t work and there isn’t the space for a fully segregated system.

​Final Thoughts

In the end, hybrid use becomes the problem solver, the very special user management technique that can save the day when other user management techniques just won’t cut it.  Because of that, hybrid use isn’t one that gets put in every location urban mountain biking happens.  It’s a specialist user management technique and should be treated like that.  Yet, when nothing else quite works, hybrid use can often save your bacon.

As part of the Knobbies in the Neighborhood presentation a complete User Management Techniques matrix is available that contains all the information presented here and much more.

This is Part 5 in a series on User Management Techniques.  Up next: Boxed Use.