By: Charlie Holder
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The city of Fayetteville is in talks of adding biking and walking trails within a half mile radius of every residence in Fayetteville.
The goal of this plan is to develop a multi-modal transportation system. Multi-modal refers to a range of mobility options such as vehicle traffic, public transit, walking, bicycling and ride sharing.
Mobility coordinator, Dane Eifling said that their goal is to make the trails available to people.
“These trails are not so much for the environmental benefit, but more that it’s available to people,” Eifling said.
Eifling said that they plan to put trails in lower income neighborhoods.
“We want to make transportation available to those who may not have a car or might not be able to afford transportation. Everyone needs transportation, and these trails would provide that for many more people.” Eifling said.
According to the Active Transportation Plan, the average annual cost of a bicycle is 26 times less than that of a vehicle. The annual cost of a bicycle is $308 while the annual cost of a vehicle is $8,220.
While these trails have the potential to be economically and physically beneficial to the Fayetteville community, some residents disagree. The owner of Gift House Antiques, Jennifer Morris, said that these trails would be taking out most of her property.
“I’m a small business owner, and this is my livelihood. I have been running this small business for 30 years and they want to take 15 ft of my 19 ft parking lot. The people working on this plan told me that my customers could park in front of the house up the street which is also my property, but if someone else ends up moving there, they are not going to want a bunch of cars parked in their parking lot. It’s ridiculous. I even suggested that they cut out 4 feet on one side of the parking lot and 4 feet on the other, they don’t need to take 15 whole feet.” Morris said.
While the new trails may benefit some people in Fayetteville, it could also be harmful to others. Morris owns the whole next block that the construction would go through.
“I’m not opposed to bike trails, but it’s not fair for them to decide what happens to my property and my business.” Morris said.
The Active Transportation Plan will be reviewed by the City Council on February 21st.