rail trails - a good answer to the overweight problem

This advert from 1969 shows a good answer to the ever increasing weight problem - cycling over a rail trail. This website lists 300 such trails in North America plus a few elsewhere.  As well as getting fit again, people will learn a bit about the history of the railways and (hopefully) appreciate the heritage.

In NZ the three main rail trails are the former Rimutaka Incline, the Little River and the Otago Central (see our posts on all three).  But there are others that could be easily created from former railway lines that were on land that now isn't used for much.