Since 2010, the city has added approximately 212 miles of bicycle facilities to the city of Memphis, and has plans to continue upping that mileage for the foreseeable future.
Nicholas Oyler, bikeway and pedestrian program manager for the city, said moving into 2020, the city has several projects in the works that with continue to grow Memphis’ bikeway network.
City of Memphis
Over the next several years, Oyler said the city will likely continue the trend from previous years, adding an average of 20 miles worth of new bike facilities each year. The majority of newly installed facilities are included in routine street-resurfacing projects.
“Rather than setting a goal mileage for bikeways in the city, our ultimate goal is to have a street network that works safely and conveniently for everyone, whether walking, bicycling, accessing public transit, or driving,” Oyler said. “This means that just as we have a connected network of streets for cars, with multiple routes possible between points A and B, we need similar network for walking and bicycling.”
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Oyler said the city is using the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Mid-South Regional Greenprint and the Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan to guide what the eventual network will look like.
The Greenprint plan, developed in 2015, is a 25-year plan to create 500 miles of greenway trails and 200 miles of bike paths across parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, created in 2014, focuses on safety, connectivity, accessibility, and transportation mode shifting. The plan identifies and recommendations for ways to improve the bicycle facilities in the region.
The PDF below shows the city’s existing bike facilities as of this month and those slated to be constructed generally within the next two years.
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Down the Road
The Hampline, a project nearly nine years in the making, is slated to be completed in early 2020. The approximate two-mile long corridor will “seamlessly” connect Overton Park and Shelby Farms, “via a neighborhood that has long witnessed disinvestment and a lack of access to opportunities,” Oyler said.
Facebook/Bike Ped Memphis
The Hampline in Binghampton is nearing completion.
Later in 2020, Oyler said the city will look to Jefferson Avenue to begin “long-discussed” improvements between Front and Cleveland. The design process for this has already begun, and in early spring the city will begin the public engagement phase.
Another project Oyler looks forward to in 2020 is the installation of 500 new federally-funded bike racks around the city in partnership with the Memphis Area Transit Authority. The racks will be primarily located near existing bus stops to “encourage synergy between using transit and bicycling for the last- and first-mile connections.”
Finally, Oyler anticipates the launch of a public safety education and awareness campaign around walking and bicycling. The effort will be funded by revenue collected from the city’s Shared Mobility Program, which officially launched in July.
“We have made great strides over the last several years in terms of infrastructure improvements, but this campaign will be some of the city’s first efforts to improve education and awareness among the general public in terms of street safety,” Oyler said.
