Little Rock City Manager Bruce Moore must decide today whether to move forward with a federal grant application that, if selected, would fund an expansion of bike lanes on Riverfront Drive.
The city reconsidered applying for the grant after a public forum Monday with people who live, work and bike in the area. At that meeting, a group of residents spoke adamantly against the proposal to widen the existing bike lanes and reduce travel lanes.
Since then, city officials have been flooded with emails in support of the project. Ward 3 City Director Kathy Webb, whose ward includes Riverfront Drive, has asked Moore to continue the project by applying for the federal funds.
The application for the Transportation Alternatives Program grant is due today.
Moore told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Wednesday through his secretary that he would have an answer Thursday on whether he would instruct city staff to send the application. However, he was out of the office Thursday and did not return repeated calls to his cellphone.
The city is proposing a $410,000 project — $325,000 of which would be paid by the grant if received — that calls for reducing the fourlane Riverfront Drive to one travel lane in each direction.
The 4-foot bike lanes would be expanded to about 10 feet wide, effectively making it safer for larger groups of bicyclists or families to ride and walk together, said Jeremy Lewno, the city’s parttime bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.
At Monday’s meeting, portions of the crowd of at least 100 people booed and often interrupted city speakers to get their points across. Initially, they said they would fight the project, but by the end of the meeting those in opposition agreed they weren’t against expansion of bike lanes if it were done in a way that didn’t call for a reduction of travel lanes.
The city has said other options that don’t reduce travel lanes would cost significantly more.
The bike lanes on Riverfront Drive — located between Cantrell Road and Rebsamen Park Road — are part of the Arkansas River Trail that connects Little Rock and North Little Rock over the Arkansas River.
The morning after the meeting, city officials received more than 100 emails in support of the proposal. Many who wrote in said the negative tone of those who attended Monday’s meeting didn’t represent the views of everyone who uses the trails or lives in the area.
Most of the emails forwarded to the Democrat-Gazette by Lewno were from people who didn’t live in the area but use the road to bike or walk the River Trail, although some were from area residents.
Lewno said many of those who spoke against the project at the meeting lived in the Canal Pointe condominium subdivision at the end of Riverfront Drive. Several attendees who gave their name to the Democrat-Gazette did live in that subdivision, although there were others against the project who lived elsewhere but near the area.
“The thing I heard in that room was one single neighborhood, who definitely doesn’t represent the entire community at all, speaking out against something [that] they didn’t even care to get facts on,” Lewno said in an email. “Some things are more than just about one neighborhood, it’s about community. And the River Trail is too valuable for our community to let it be dictated by a select few individuals.”
“I also heard a group of people who obviously think their fortunes are a reason to treat city staff with disrespect and without regard for humanity,” Lewno added.
Webb told Moore at Tuesday night’s Board of Directors meeting that she’s received almost 100 emails about the project and only one was against it.
“I hope we will proceed with applying for the grant,” she told Moore.