Spring Street Bikeway plans move forward

The east-west stop signs on Spring Street at the Spring-Church intersection will soon be replaced with north-south stop signs on Church Avenue.

Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff

Fayetteville cyclists will soon have a new option for biking from the city’s trail system to the downtown area.

The Fayetteville Street Committee last week approved a proposal by Alderman Matthew Petty for the Spring Street Bikeway, a clearly marked route that will follow Spring Street east from Frisco Trail to Block and East Avenues, creating a connection to the downtown square.

If successful, the concept could be duplicated in other areas of town as a cost-effective way of further promoting cycling by expanding Fayetteville’s alternative transportation network.

Spring Street Bikeway Plans

Source: City of Fayetteville

To help clear the way for bicycle traffic to flow, the east-west stop signs on Spring Street will be replaced with north-south stop signs on Church Avenue.

Bobby Ferrell, Ward 3 alderman, said the sign change would likely “cause a little heartache somewhere, but progress sometimes causes heartache.”

Downtown business owner William Hall, of Good Will Massage, welcomed the change.

“I think it’s an excellent idea, not only for the biking traffic, but for traffic in general,” said Hall. “That’s a scary intersection.”

Petty’s original plans included the possibility of changes at another intersection – the 4-way stop at Spring and School. Petty proposed switching the intersection to a 2-way stop that would only require School Avenue traffic to stop, but a recently completed traffic study led city staff to recommend against the idea.

Trails coordinator Matt Mihalevich said vehicle counts taken on June 28 and 29 showed high levels of traffic on Spring Street in the mornings with a switch to more traffic on School Avenue in the afternoons. With such a variance in traffic, Street Committee members agreed to leave the intersection as is, but voted to revisit the issue in 12 months.

Other changes on the way include the addition of sharrow symbols on East Avenue and the placement of signage to help cyclists with wayfinding and to help alert drivers that they’re likely to see cyclists on the road with them.

Chris Brown, city engineer, said the cost for the proposed improvements would be about $1,500.

Traffic counts at Spring St. and School Ave. – June 28-29, 2012