The Roanoke Valley, Virginia greenway program arose in 1995 as a citizen initiative to improve quality of life in the region. The City of Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem and the Town of Vinton established the Roanoke Valley Greenway Commission in 1997 with the signing of an Intergovernmental Agreement. At the same time greenway founders set up Pathfinders for Greenways, Inc. to be a non-profit that could involve volunteers in greenway development.

To date 22 miles of greenways with bicycle/pedestrian trails have been built in the Roanoke Valley, with additional hubs of natural surface trails at Mill Mountain, Carvins Cove, and Read Mountain. The Update to the Roanoke Valley Greenway Plan in 2007 provides for 35 routes that would provide linkages throughout the Roanoke Valley.

Each of the greenways has gone through the stages of plann