Bikes, Blues & BBQ Ready To Rumble

Officials deal with residential parking enforcement

Crowds of riders and pedestrians crowd Dickson Street on Sept. 26, 2009, during the final day of Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally in Fayetteville.
Crowds of riders and pedestrians crowd Dickson Street on Sept. 26, 2009, during the final day of Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally in Fayetteville.

— The residential streets around Dickson Street may get slightly quieter -- and emptier -- during this year's Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally.

The rally officially begins Wednesday and continues through Saturday night. But for the first time in the rally's 11-year history, bikers will not be allowed to park on streets that are now part of the city's residential permit parking district.

"It's going to be a lot different this year," said Nelson Driver, an organizer for Bikes, Blues & BBQ.

The residential parking program is part of the city's comprehensive paid parking program for the Dickson Street area. The parking changes were adopted this summer primarily as a way to generate money that could one day be used to build a parking deck in the Dickson Street area, but also as a way to manage a limited number of public parking spaces.

The residential parking program is designed to keep drivers looking for free spaces from clogging up residential streets, leaving room for the people who live there to park as needed.

City officials said they intend to enforce the residential parking regulations during the festival, which draws thousands of motorcycling enthusiasts to Fayetteville and the surrounding areas.

"Yes, we will be monitoring the residential areas," said Don Marr, city chief of staff. "But historically, use in some of these areas has not been very heavy. Most of the times, residents' cars have been there."

By Driver's estimates, some 1,200 motorcycles will need to find other places to park when they want to be part of the action planned for Dickson Street. He bases the estimate on the fact that there are 300 residential spots, and each spot can accommodate four motorcycles.

Spring and part of Watson streets are available to both residents and pay parkers. Those streets will be available for bikers. All parking fees on city lots and streets around Dickson Street will be waived Sept. 29 to Oct. 2.

In the downtown area south of Dickson Street, daytime parking rates will still apply at individual meters. The city does not charge for parking at its downtown meters after 5 p.m. These areas are also available for free evening parking, Marr noted.

For their part, Bikes Blues & BBQ organizers are planning for a parking squeeze.

AT A GLANCE

How To Know If You're On A Residential Street

Any space numbered 1 through 299

Residential streets are clearly marked with signs designating the restrictions

For information about Bikes Blues & BBQ go to http://www.bikesbluesandbbq.org/

Source: Staff Report

"We've been putting out information and will continue to put out information to attendees before they get here," Nelson said.

Allyson Twiggs Dyer, director of the Visitors Center and a member of the Bikes, Blues & BBQ board of directors, said her organization will "do our best to spread the word" about parking from its headquarters tent at West Avenue and Dickson Street. That tent will be set up from Wednesday morning to Saturday night.

"If a caller asks about parking we, of course, explain to them about the residential parking zones," she said.

Driver said no one wants the bad publicity that will happen if a rider gets a $70 parking ticket for parking in a residential district without the proper permit.

"If a bike gets a $70 ticket, they're going to leave, they're not going to come back and they're going to eat us alive on the social media," Driver said.

Driver does not view the decision to enforce residential parking as a move to push the rally away from Dickson Street. Several years ago, the rally openly acknowledged that it needed more space, prompting the relocation of some activities to the University of Arkansas' Randal Tyson Track Center.

"We're really not being nudged away from Dickson Street, but we're so packed in that we've got to have more space," Driver said.

The idea of protecting parking for homeowners and renters during large events like the annual biker festival is one of the key reasons the city adopted the residential permit program, said Matthew Petty, who represents Ward 2 on the City Council and lives in the Dickson Street neighborhood.

"Mostly what I hear from folks is that Bikes, Blues isn't too much of a problem," Petty said. "Sure, they want to see some minor changes, but the biggest complaint is the prospect of doing a second one each year."

In July, the city hosted Bikes, Babes & Bling, a new biker rally marketed to women.

Whatever grousing Fayetteville residents have been pitching the last few weeks since the new parking plan was launched -- and it has not been in short supply -- it is not expected to put the brakes on the biker rally, which attracts thousands of bikers over its four-day run. Local hotels are nearly at capacity as well as the camp and RV sites at the Washington County Fairgrounds, say organizers.

"Hotels are filling up nicely for BBB," Dyer said "It's probably 95 percent full in Fayetteville and Springdale for Friday and Saturday night and probably 80 percent in Rogers and Bentonville for Friday and Saturday night. We are still getting lots of calls for hotel rooms and camping sites and I expect we will until Wednesday."

"The fair grounds are at capacity, and we've never seen that." Driver remarked.

And just how many bikers and their brethren should Fayetteville expect this week?

Driver's official number: "A lot."

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