Chisholm Trail

Plano has an extensive system of trails, primarily aimed at cyclists.  That makes it unusual in Texas, where walking and cycling are generally ignored in transportation design.  The upside of that is that Plano has a lot of cycle trails that are skate-able.  The downside is that the trails are designed rather poorly for skating.

Why?

Most trails have ADA-compliant nubbies on the ramps where they cross surface streets.  You hardly feel these on a  bicycle, but on skates they’ll land you on your face.

Also, the trails are at street level and have frequent street crossings.  If you’re familiar with Plano traffic, you know that it is crowded during the morning and evening commuting hours.  Some of the cycle trails have crosswalks marked, but most do not.  And even the ones that are marked are routinely ignored by drivers.  So a five mile skate that should take 20 minutes might take 45 and require risking ones life to get across busy streets.  For me, this makes most of the trails a waste of time.

Chisholm Trail is quite a bit better.  The southern section, starting about the Plano Dog Park, follows a creek that has a number of playground areas and water fountains.  Since the trail follows the creek under the various streets there are only a couple ground-level street crossings and they’re on low-traffic streets.

Here’s Plano’s map of the trail, and a page with maps for all their cycle trails.