In response to complaints about parking spaces at the Big Dam Bridge, Little Rock officials are considering ways to eliminate the crowding and illegal parking often seen on the weekends, holidays and days with nice weather.
On this year's breezy, 90-degree Labor Day, about half an hour before sunset, eight cars and one motorcycle were parked along the median between the parking lot and Rebsamen Park Road, and another car had parked on the shoulder -- a bicycle lane -- because the few dozen designated parking spaces were full.
Signs along the median read "NO PARKING AT ANY TIME," with arrows pointing up and down the road where cars often park.
"This is a tourist attraction," said Yolanda Robinson, who parked along the median. "There's definitely a problem with parking."
Robinson goes to the bridge about three times a week with her husband, Wardell, and two daughters. They said they've never been ticketed for parking along the median.
When it's crowded, people without the proper tags park in handicap-designated spots or on the grass, said Capt. Ty Tyrell of the Little Rock Police Department's Northwest Division.
Mark Webre, deputy director of operations for Little Rock Parks and Recreation, said the department is mostly concerned with parking along the median that obstructs the bicycle path as it crosses Rebsamen Park Road.
The department is looking at posting other signs in a bid to curb the illegal parking.
"The options that we've considered are putting up signage that encourages cyclists to park toward Murray Park and use that parking lot and leave the spots available to walkers who are less able to walk that far," Webre said.
Another option is to build 40 more parking spaces at what the department estimates will cost $250,000. That would nearly double the number of spaces there now.
"It will take a substantial amount of money that we don't currently have," Webre said.
Still, parks officials plan to propose the development of a new parking lot.
The parks department has a $12 million annual budget, the vast majority of which covers personnel costs, Webre said. The rest goes toward maintaining and improving the city's 60 parks and 6,000 acres of parkland.
The department also received $4.5 million for park improvements over 10 years from the sales-tax increase implemented in 2012.
"We just have to bide our time here and get the money when we can," Webre said.
In North Little Rock, parks officials have not received many parking complaints.
The north side of the bridge has two parking lots within about a quarter of a mile of the foot of the bridge and is often able to open a third parking lot with the permission of its owner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That makes for a total of 110 parking spaces, parks officials said.
North Little Rock park ranger Ian Hope said he would be the one ticketing people parking illegally near the bridge if the need arises.
"It's never really been an issue for me," he said.
Robinson concurred.
"Every time I go over there, there seems to be plenty of spaces," she said.
In Little Rock, police officers generally write tickets only in response to complaints, Tyrell said.
"My police officers don't really like writing parking tickets," he said.
Tyrell said the department didn't have an easy way of determining how many tickets it had written specifically in that area.
Kami Hicks said she's had more friends hesitate to visit the bridge out of fear of getting their cars broken into than of not finding parking spaces.
Hicks uses the bridge a few times each week with her son. She said on weekdays, she doesn't have many problems finding parking spaces, but she has heard complaints from others, especially when the weather is nice.
Metro on 09/07/2014