Plan tweaked with better travel as goal

City officials hear update from firm’s consultants

FAYETTEVILLE — City officials hope traffic will flow smoother, daily commute times will diminish, streets will become safer for bicyclists and pedestrians and parking will become less worrisome with a revamped transportation plan.

The city’s Transportation Committee, comprised of four council members, got an update Tuesday on development of the Fayetteville Mobility Plan from San Francisco-based consulting firm Nelson/Nygaard. Zabe Bent, principal planner on the project, directed a presentation using Skype.

Bent said the consultants have completed about twothirds of the plan with a goal to have a draft ready by summer. Tuesday’s presentation provided examples of recommendations and findings. Fayetteville’s transportation plan was adopted in 2003 and the City Council a year ago approved a $585,000 contract with Nelson/Nygaard to update it.

The plan will have three parts focusing on different modes of mobility along with parking and streets. The city and consultants have hosted two rounds of public meetings, opened a survey, done interviews and posted online a fact book of transportation conditions. More public input sessions and updates will come.

The goals of the mobility aspect of the plan emphasize a walk-friendly environment, safety and convenience when

parking and getting to a destination and connections through the city to decrease travel times, among other priorities. About 40 percent of residents commute within 3 miles of where they live yet eight percent of workers walk or ride a bicycle to get to work, according to the plan’s findings.

Bent said the city has great opportunities to expand public transit since half of its stops lie within a few blocks of the Razorback Greenway. Those opportunities could greatly ease congestion and road maintenance, something residents listed as a top concern.

As far as parking, the plan states the city should match parking prices to demand. Charging less in spots farther away from popular destinations downtown and making the walk more enjoyable would make prime parking spaces more available, Bent said.

Alderman Justin Tennant commended the idea of letting residents find open parking spaces online or through an app before they get to their destinations.

“The perception is that it’s a lot worse than it really is,” he said. “If we could ease that perception somehow in the city by these sort of things, I think that could

greatly improve the people’s thought of the parking part of our transportation.”

The street aspect of the plan proposes connections and guidelines for how wide a street should be based on what type of street it is and its use. For example, one side on sections of a major street could have 2 feet of frontage, a 10-foot pedestrian zone on a sidewalk, 6 feet for green space or furnishings, 11 feet for a bus lane or bicycle lane with buffer, 10 feet for cars and a 10-foot “flex lane” for a center lane, turning lane or pedestrian island.

City Engineer Chris Brown said the plan is far from final but wanted committee members to have a chance to digest the findings so far.

“These are preliminary recommendations. They are the consultants’ recommendations,” he said. “As the administration, these are not our final recommendations. This is really an opportunity for this group to hear some of the recommendations and provide some guidance to the consultants as they really begin to finalize a plan.”

The consultants are planning more outreach to develop recommendations to make traveling in the city easier in a variety of ways, focusing on specific aspects such as school pickup and drop-off and the lay of the land in each area.

“This is sort of a quick flavor for what we’ll be sharing,” she said.