Matt Mihalevich, the city’s trails coordinator, speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony along the VA Bikeway on Monday.
Photo: Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer
Trail users now have a safer way to get to two major shopping centers in Fayetteville.
City officials on Monday celebrated the opening of the VA Bikeway and the Stubblefield Bikeway, two new connections that utilize low-traffic roads to provide cycling routes from the city’s trail system to Evelyn Hills Shopping Center and the Whole Foods-anchored College Marketplace.
Matt Mihalevich, the city’s trails coordinator, said the project came about after business owners in Evelyn Hills requested a better way for their customers to get to the shops and restaurants in that area instead of riding along North College Avenue.
The city partnered with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks to create a route from the entrance of Evelyn Hills west through the VA medical center campus to the Woolsey Avenue Bikeway, which leads cyclists south through Wilson Park to the Razorback Greenway (Frisco and Scull Creek trails).
“This is something we’ve been rooting for for several years,” said Ali McIntosh, marketing director for Ozark Natural Foods, which has been at Evelyn Hills Shopping Center since 2000. “A lot of the feedback we’ve gotten from our owners, customers and staff over the years is that they didn’t feel safe riding their bikes or walking to the co-op.”
That project, which was first discussed in 2013, led to the creation of a second shopping center-focused bikeway in north Fayetteville that connects Mud Creek Trail near Old Missouri Road to Whole Foods and the other businesses at College Marketplace.
The 1.2-mile route includes a combination of on-street markings and bike lanes along Brookhaven Drive, Southridge Drive, Stubblefield Road, Summerhill Drive and Masonic Drive.
VA Bikeway
Stubblefield Bikeway
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Bryan Matthews, Medical Center Director for the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks
Ribbon-cutting ceremony
