Trails create connections for NWA’s communities

People often ask me, “Mayor, what is the special ingredient, the secret sauce, that makes Fayetteville so unique?”

I spend each day interacting with as many members of the community as I can. The residents and visitors I meet have an understanding of our special identity and sense of place that combine to make Fayetteville our home.It is impossible to bottle the sauce, and pretty difficult to put into words. But, I do know this: One building block of our culture is that we value community building. To build community, those of us in the business of providing government services, infrastructure and amenities work to link people to opportunities, to jobs, to health, to each other. And what better symbol of connectivity do we have these days than our network of trails and sidewalks?

Fayetteville is fortunate to have dedicated capital funding coupled with grant funding and in-house design, engineering, construction and maintenance of our trails network over the past two decades. These efforts reach back to the city’s first federal grant in 1997 for the three trailhead kiosks at Lake Fayetteville. Other federal grants and city funding kept the program going. Then the community voted in a 2006 bond election to spend $2.1 million dollars to kick-start construction of the Scull Creek Trail, which is now part of the Razorback Regional Greenway. Since 2012, the Walton Family Foundation has provided more than $10 million in matching grants for Fayetteville. The overall spending on trails from all sources exceeds $31.5 million, with more trail development planned through 2023.

Economic and Health Benefits of Bicycling in Northwest Arkansas, a recent study commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation in partnership with PeopleForBikes, shows use of the region’s network of natural and paved trails had a $137 million economic impact in 2017. The study breaks down numbers that show: increases in business development and property values located close to trails; the importance of cyclists as a customer base; a quality of life measurement for workforce attraction and retention; and the use of our trails as a major driver for health benefits. I know our friends at Experience Fayetteville, our city’s tourism bureau, are excited about housing and feeding these tourists and attracting their tax dollars to our economy.

A second foundation-commissioned study shows a 24 percent increase in cyclists using trails between 2015-2017 and compares Northwest Arkansas levels per capita as higher than San Francisco. This report identifies that trails are used both for recreational and basic transportation needs. The final study of recently released reports compares trail costs and programs across cities with greenways nationwide and between cities in the region. All of this information continues to add up to a very big win for Fayetteville and the region. In fact, we are proud to say our city’s trail-building costs are among the lower third, due in part to our in-house trail-building capabilities.

I see our trails network as “ribbons of commerce” and so much more. Our trails symbolize our community’s connectivity. This continued investment is about connecting people to opportunities. And yes, recreation is important to the overall quality of life of our people, but also critical for their overall health. Personally, I use these trails almost daily — to enjoy the scenic beauty of our city, to meet and greet people along the way, and to maintain my exercise regimen to combat diabetes.

I hear from people of all ages that they love the trails for cycling, recreation, mountain biking, and as a means to work, shop, and play. I also hear that they simply love our trails, as I do, for fundamental health and movement.

This improvement in the overall health of our people and our community will continue to have a positive impact on reducing costs for health insurance, which in turn contributes to economic stability.

My call to the community and local businesses is to keep it up. We want to continue to invest in our trails and sidewalks, not just as a means of recreation, but also as a part of our transportation system. Sometimes people may not understand our motives or city regulations for how we try to manage growth. Our City Plan 2030 identified among its goals to “grow a livable transportation network, and assemble an enduring green network.” The city codes that support these goals provide the foundation for why we do what we do in this city. I believe this community believes these goals are critical.

Please continue to support our community’s efforts to build this infrastructure and to close the connectivity gaps through business and development efforts that set aside land dedicated to parks and trails. Help us identify locations where more on-street cycling infrastructure would make streets safer and allow more people to commute to work or groceries and restaurants via cycling or walking from their residences. Remember, this conversation is also a part of the overall Fayetteville Mobility Plan recently released by the city and is not about one mode of transportation over another; it is about the true integration of all of our transportation networks for our increasingly connected community.

I look forward to continuing to work with the community and the region to help lead this effort.

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