Northwest Arkansas cities are making adjustments to handle increased trail traffic, but they're glad to see people getting outside.
Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville have counters on trails that record the number of people who pass by. The counts pick up any person walking, running or on a bicycle. Each city saw a jump in trail users once restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic went into effect in mid-March. Springdale doesn't count users on its trails.
For instance, Fayetteville had a 55% monthly average increase in trail use from four counters March 15 to April 15. The city counts about 40,700 people out on the trails every month. Between March 15 to April 15, the number jumped to more than 63,000.
It's difficult to quantify the number of trail users because the city adds 3 to 5 miles of trail every year, said Dane Eifling, mobility coordinator. But it's clear behavior changed when the pandemic hit, he said. The counter at the Old Wire Road bicycle track, for example, picked up an average of 1,900 users from November to mid-March. About 5,600 people used the track between March 15 to April 15, an increase of 192%.
"It's a whole lifestyle adjustment for the region," Eifling said. "People are discovering, 'Oh, this is right here in my neighborhood,' or 'This is right around the corner from me and I can use it every day.'"
More demand, more responsibility
The city has been trying to keep up with the increased use, said Byron Humphry, Fayetteville parks maintenance superintendent. Four employees are available daily to empty trash containers and mow at parks and near trails, he said.
Normally, the park department would have an additional seven part-time employees on hand for seasonal maintenance help. Those employees haven't been hired yet as a cost-saving measure during the pandemic, Humphry said.
City-organized volunteer cleanup events are on hold as well. A regionwide effort to pick up litter along the Razorback Greenway on Earth Day was canceled. The city relies on volunteers to keep trails free of litter.
The limited manpower means the city needs trail users to act more mindfully than ever, Humphry said. Sometimes, people think their one instance of not picking up after themselves won't amount to much, he said.
"But if everybody thinks that, then it adds up quickly," Humphry said. "Before you know it, the trails are trashed and littered with dog poop."
The city also has had more police officers out on the trails to ensure people adhere to social distancing. The Police Department's school resource officers shifted to trails when schools closed in mid-March, helping the one full-time officer usually assigned to trails, Chief Mike Reynolds said.
The goal has been education over strict enforcement, Reynolds said. Officers are instructed to remind people who live in different households to stay 6 feet apart and refrain from group activity. Markers on the ground tell trail users to maintain at least 6 feet of distance. The department can keep track of warnings, and repeat offenders could get a ticket, he said.
"We haven't run into that yet," Reynolds said.
Rogers has taken many of the same measures as Fayetteville to keep up with its increase in trail traffic. School resource officers are out on the trails, and city-sanctioned cleanups are on hold, Trails Coordinator Kara King said.
The city has experienced a surge in trail use. Five counters recorded more than 90,000 people on trails last month, an increase of 77% over the 50,800 recorded in April 2019. March saw a 68% jump from a year ago, going from about 40,400 people counted in March 2019 to 67,900 in March this year.
Groups associated with the city's adopt-a-trail program are free to hold their own cleanups, but individuals need to keep their distance from one another, King said. People walking, running or biking on the trails should be aware that trails in the city are only 10 feet wide, she said. Guidance from the Governor's Office recommends 12 feet of distance for heavy exercise. King recommended people going on a casual walk may want to put on a face mask.
Maintenance workers in Rogers will pause mowing or weed eating when a trail user goes by, King said. Fayetteville has the same policy.
"It has been a little fun for them," King said. "Between dodging the rain and pedestrians, it's taken just a little bit longer to do our mowing."
King said she suspects residents who have a trail nearby are becoming more cognizant of them. Counts at the Mercy Trail near the hospital surged to more than 22,500 users in April, a 400% increase over last year. The trail counts at Mills Lane near Fairview Elementary doubled over last year, with 10,471 users in April. Both those locations have neighborhoods within close proximity.
More residents are calling the city requesting benches or asking questions about when certain trail projects will finish, King said. The increased interest and demand bodes well for trail development in the long run, she said.
"People are exploring and finding those connections from the sidewalk to the trail," King said. "I think a lot of people are just getting more familiar with their trails."
Closer to home
Trail use in Bentonville is up about 35% over last year. The city's six trail counters recorded more than 86,000 users in April, compared to about 63,600 in April last year.
Still, the city is interested in providing residents more reasons to go outside, Parks Director David Wright said. A pilot program with BikeNWA launched Sunday and is planned again from noon to 4 p.m. today.
The program, Slow Streets, had several downtown streets closed to through traffic for a few hours. The idea was to bring a trail-like experience to streets, allowing families to safely toss a ball around or get on their bicycles, Wright said.
Wright said he hopes to expand the program in the city. It helps with alleviating trail traffic and improving community health, he said.
"Bringing the trail closer to peoples' homes encourages and promotes getting outside," Wright said.
Paxton Roberts with BikeNWA said the organization has been talking with other Northwest Arkansas cities about adopting the program. Cities such as Cleveland; Denver; and St. Paul, Minn.; all have adopted similar programs during the pandemic as a way to give residents better access to outdoor recreational opportunities and divert traffic from heavily used trails.
Streets included in the program aren't shut down to cars. Anyone who lives in the area or needs to get to a business can drive past the signs posted, albeit slowly. The idea is to give some structure to what's already happening in neighborhoods across the country, where families are using their streets for outdoor recreation, Roberts said.
"We're taking something that already exists in some places," he said. "We're just adding layers of safety to it and awareness."
Fayetteville will try a Slow Streets program around Wilson Park, City Engineer Chris Brown said. Officials want to test the program there first, he said. If residents want to introduce the program to their neighborhoods, they can reach out to the city through its existing tactical urbanism program, which lets residents put up their own traffic-calming features such as planters and crosswalks.
The city also is considering implementing a Sunday program like Bentonville. Brown said officials will watch car, bicycle and pedestrian traffic as places start opening and will evaluate which measures make sense in the longer term.
"Obviously, peoples' behavior has changed," he said. "How much of that will become permanent is anybody's guess. But we're going to try a few things in the interim and see what happens."
Web watch
For more information on BikeNWA’s Slow Streets program, go to:
bikenwa.org/covid19slowstreets
NW News on 05/18/2020