A rail-to-trail path from Little Rock to Hot Springs wouldn’t be just a tourist destination, proponents say, but would also encourage bicycle transportation and prompt the growth of offshoot bike trails and lanes in cities - key amenities for future residents.
The nearly 60-mile “Southwest Trail” for walkers, joggers and bikers, estimated to cost in the tens of millions of dollars, has been added to Metroplan’s long-range transportation plan, although funding for it won’t be considered for a while.
The move has come at a time when trails along rail lines are booming in popularity nationwide. The United States has more than 1,800 “rails-with-trails,” a 900 percent increase from the 200 that existed in the mid-1980s, according to the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.
The Southwest Trail would run along the abandoned Missouri Pacific railroad through Pulaski, Saline and Garland counties and would one day ideally connect to the Arkansas River Trail, officials said, expanding the options for bicycle recreation and alternative modes of transportation.
“It’s about a network,” said Mason Ellis, vice president of Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas.
Ellis and three friends approached Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines about building a bike path along the abandoned rail line and found out that Villines had already been discussing the idea with Saline County Judge Lanny Fite.
“People load their bikes into their cars and then go to the River Trail,” he said.
With a more-connected system, people won’t have to do that, he said.
Officials are now looking to secure the right of ways for the land abutting the railroad tracks before developing a clearer proposal for the trail.
Saline County and Garland County don’t have cost estimates yet for their portions of the trail because the counties haven’t determined the ownership of the right of way yet, Fite and Garland County Judge Rick Davis said.
Fite said confirming who has the right of way along the rail line is key because sometimes when that line becomes abandoned, the right of way default to nearby landowners. Securing the right of way ahead of time will help the counties avoid lawsuits filed by landowners with property abutting the trails.
Villines said Metroplan has already helped Pulaski County with $4 million to pay for four miles of trail in the unincorporated area of the county to the Saline County border last year.
Then in October, Villines and eight city mayors in the county signed a letter requesting $20 million to $25 million from Metroplan’s Central Arkansas Regional Transportation Study program to fund the county’s portion of the trail.
Ellis said the new trail would be a good way to expand central Arkansas’ bike paths into a trail system that people can use to get from one place to another for practical reasons not exclusive to exercise.
Bernadette Gunn Rhodes, coordinator of North Little Rock’s Fit 2 Live program, said the Levy trail that runs near Camp Robinson Road is used more often for transportation than for recreation, for example. That trail is also built along an abandoned railroad line.
Officials compared the Southwest Trail to the 240-mile long, rail-to-trail Katy Trail in central Missouri, which has spawned small bed-and-breakfasts along the route. The trail stretches west through the northwest edge of St. Louis to Jefferson City, just south of Columbia, and ends in Clinton.
Ellis, Villines and Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said bike trails are key to attracting younger people, who consider a city’s amenities oftentimes as much as they consider jobs.
Ellis has worked with the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce on events like Pop Up in the Rock, which for two years now has temporarily transformed a small stretch of road in the city into a walkable, bikeable, re-energized block. He said businesses are also looking to open up in more walkable, bikeable areas.
Officials said younger generations are more attracted to that kind of a layout.
Stodola added parks and arts and culture to the list of key amenities.
“It’s not just about jobs,” Ellissaid. “It’s about the quality of life in the city.”
Stodola said many people are looking for a healthy lifestyle, and expanded bike trails could contribute to that goal.
Little Rock has expanded its bike amenities recently with bike lanes on South Main Street and on 12th Street. The city has also approved building a bridge over railroad tracks just west of Dillards in an effort to close the River Trail bike path from busy city streets.
Little Rock officials even fashioned a new biking T-shirt that residents can buy to increase their visibility on the roads. The marked-up proceeds will go toward cycling education in the city, Stodola said.
As for the other two counties, Fite said he likes that the trail’s proposed path connects Shannon Hills, Bauxite, Benton, just south of Bryant and Haskell, but that he hadn’t thought about people using the trail as a mode of transportation.
“I think the average person will look at it as recreational,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/30/2013