Planners to begin updating Northwest Arkansas' bike and pedestrian plan

SPRINGDALE -- Planners are updating the area's overall vision for a bicycle and pedestrian network in Northwest Arkansas to link communities and regional destinations.

The update to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is expected to take about a year, Elizabeth Bowen told the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission board Wednesday.

"The plan is almost seven years old," Bowen said. "I'd say a bigger piece is we've had quite a number of amendments that we need to incorporate right into the plan instead of them being separate documents."

The regional plan is designed to help cities develop their trail plans, secure money to pay for trails and connect to the Razorback Greenway where possible. Each city can also personalize its plan.

The work to update the plan was approved by the Regional Planning board in May. The commission's Active Transportation Committee will lead the work, which will be done in-house.

Bowen said she expects to have several subcommittees work on the update.

"We will probably have the four large cities, two or three of the small cities," she said. "They would be kind of the driver of it. They would discuss what needs to be updated and who to involve."

Bowen said each city will be contacted to update its local plan. Some cities already have updated their plan, and they may choose to just incorporate their most recent update, she said.

"But, most likely they will still want to amend their plan to include some things that we are recommending," she said.

Bentonville recently updated its plan and is looking forward to sharing it with other cities in the region, according to David Wright, director of Parks and Recreation.

"I hope it's got some good data that we'll be able to provide," Wright said of the city's plan, adding he's glad regional planning is updating its plan.

"I think that as Northwest Arkansas grows, cycling is a big part of that infrastructure, it's part of our quality of life, it's part of the DNA of Northwest Arkansas," he said.

Bowen said there will public input sessions in each city choosing to update its plan and an input session for the overall plan once a draft is ready.

"We're always interested in people guiding the process," Bowen said. "We want their input for sure."

Paxton Roberts, executive director of BikeNWA, a cycling advocacy organization, said residents need to get involved in the process.

"Priority-wise, we need to hear from people that they want this to come to their neighborhood," Roberts said. "I believe that residents have the ability to speak up and help shape the priorities of which infrastructure gets built first. And, I think that's very important."

Roberts said the current bike-ped network is great, but he hopes planners consider ways to get people to and from the trails safely.

"We still don't have as good a plan for how to get from those shared-use, paved trails to people's front doors where they live and where they work," he said. "We need to start paying attention to the first and last mile problem of getting from the network we've built to people's front doors because that's what really gives us the biggest return on investment."

Wright said Bentonville's plan encourages the continued building of mixed use trails and a looped network of trails around the city accessible to neighborhoods and businesses. The updated plan also focuses on on-street bike lanes and infrastructure and sidewalks, particularly around the downtown area and elementary schools. Wright said there are areas around some schools where sidewalks don't connect and kids walking to school have to get in the street.

"One of the major emphasises in our plan is we need to focus on the sidewalk infrastructure so we can access these elementary schools with a mode of transportation other than a vehicle," Wright said.

Roberts said having a regional plan helps with connectivity between cities and with consistency from city to city, which makes the system safer.

"We are hoping that they update some of the design guidance," Roberts said. "We're six years out, and we're learning new things each year, especially when you look at signalized intersections or the distance between the roadway and the shared use trail -- that buffer between the cars and the people riding bikes -- or materials that can be used to protect bike lanes."

Each city with a population of more than 1,000 has its own, individual bike-ped plan.

"There are six chapters and an appendix to be updated," Bowen said. "The significant piece will be chapter six, each individual community plan. We have 32 city plans that some will choose to update."

The regional plan provides guidance to cities about where their sidewalks or trail networks need to go so they can eventually link up with one another.

"It's going to update existing plans, add any new areas that need active transportation added, we have a lot of housing that's gone in and places that people need to go that didn't exist before, so, including those in the network would be very important," Bowen said. "We have a significant amount of future population that we're planning for, based on the 2045 plan that was just adopted."

Work on the bike-ped plan started in 2012 and the final draft was approved in December 2015. Several cities had bike-ped plans before the regional plan was developed.

Alta/Greenways Planning and Design, a consulting firm, and regional planning staff members included everything from designated bike lanes along roads to paths, sidewalks and multi-use trails, education and public outreach, crosswalks, sidewalks and bike lanes with protective barriers in the plan.

A $300,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation to regional planning paid for the work. More than 800 residents participated during 31 public input meetings.

The bike-ped plan is a part of the region's 2045 transportation plan and the updated version will be amended into the larger planning document.