Tag: Bikeway and Pedestrian Program

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Whatever Happened To: the Greenline Extension From Tillman to Tobey Park

Credit: City of Memphis

Whatever happened to the project to extend the Shelby Farms Greenline west from Tillman? 

For the third installment of our occasional series, called “Whatever Happened To,” we’re checking in on that project. The $5.3 million plan was announced in 2016, nearly six years ago, and no construction has yet to begin on it. 

Here’s how the project was described by the city of Memphis Bikeway and Pedestrian Program’s website in October 2016: “The scope of this project is from the Greenline’s current terminus at Tillman Street to Flicker Street. Due to the necessity of crossing an active railroad, the city will construct a bicycle and pedestrian bridge in between the Union Avenue and Poplar Avenue viaducts. 

“Additionally, the city intends to build a new trailhead at Flicker Street, under or near the Union Avenue viaduct. Once complete, the bridge will allow the Greenline to one day push through Tobey Park, into the [Mid-South Fairgrounds], and possibly beyond.”

Since then, three different people have occupied the White House, a two-year pandemic changed the world, and The Fairgrounds is now called Liberty Park. 

For answers on the delay, we turned to Nicholas Oyler, manager of the city’s bike and pedestrian program. 

Memphis Flyer: Whatever happened with this project?

Nicholas Oyler:  This one is also federally funded. So, it’s also beholden to those same environmental clearance requirements [as the Poplar-Cooper Connector] and there are some other formalities that must be met. 

Ah, okay.

There’s also acquiring a formal railroad right of way. The project involves building a bridge over an active railroad. Anytime there’s a railroad involved, there’s even more legwork that has to be done, more boxes to check.

(Credit: City of Memphis)

We’ve been in that environmental review phase ever since the project started. The good news on this one is that we received that environmental clearance just last August. 

So that cleared the way for the project to proceed with design work. The engineering design consultant has finished 60 percent of the construction plans, so we have the preliminary plans. Those will get reviewed by the state and by us internally. 

We will be meeting with project stakeholders probably in the next three to four months. We’ll start talking about more of the amenities, the landscaping, opportunities for public artwork, and that sort of thing.

Kind of similar to [the Poplar-Cooper Connector], we anticipate we’ll be reaching construction mid-2023. 

Have the plans changed?

 Currently, the Shelby Farms Greenline stops at Tillman Street on the west side. This project will push it further to the west. So, it’s going to continue past Tillman, where it currently ties in with the Hamp Line. 

A conceptual drawing of how the bridge could look. (Credit: City of Memphis)

It will continue past Tillman, go under the Poplar Avenue viaduct, and then kind of rise up, become elevated to go over those active railroad tracks that the Union Avenue viaduct goes over. It will come down and then land at Flicker Street, near the skate park and Tobey Park. 

It is moving forward. Like I said, we expect construction to begin on this in mid-2023. 

A conceptual drawing of new life under the viaducts under Poplar and Union. (Credit: City of Memphis)

Is there anything I left out or anything you’d like to add?

On a related note, we have since received a separate federal transportation grant that allows us to start studying the feasibility of continuing a connecting path. It probably won’t be the Greenline as we know it, meaning it won’t necessarily be a separated, off-street path. 

 But we’re developing some kind of connection for people walking and people biking to continue from Flicker Street farther west to Cooper Street in Midtown. This one is just starting. It’s much earlier in the whole process. At this point, it’s just a feasibility study. But that’s another exciting connection that’s underway. 

A conceptual drawing of a bike and pedestrian bridge over East Parkway to help connect the Greenline to Downtown. (Credit: City of Memphis)

The bigger picture here is we have this Greenline project in the works already. Then, like I said, there’s the segment between the Greenline and Flicker that is [coming together]. Then, you have the Peabody Avenue project, which is going to link up with the existing bike lanes on [Martin Luther King Avenue] that we did a couple of years ago. 

One day, once this Cooper and Flicker segment of the Greenline is finished, we’ll have a continuous, seamless corridor running all the way from Downtown out to Cordova. It’ll be a corridor about 30 miles long.

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News The Fly-By

Week That Was: Lawsuit, COVID-19 Numbers, and MATA

CREDIT: Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

This map shows new coronavirus cases by ZIP code reported over the last 10 days.

Vanderbilt Downgrades Numbers

Vanderbilt University researchers have downgraded COVID-19 numbers across the state in a new report that shows an improving situation here but does not account for the reopening of the state’s economy.

Three weeks ago, researchers with the school said the state’s virus situation remained “fragile and uncertain.” That report looked ahead at when (or if) the state would need to, once again, close its economy if spikes in the virus returned and hospitals got swamped.

The new report does not contain the words fragile or uncertain. Instead, it shows just how much the data and its model have changed since the first report in early April.

For one, the April report predicted the transmission rate (the number of people infected by one person) would reduce to 1.0 by mid-May. That number was reached — statewide, anyway — by mid-April. Current transmission rates in Memphis and Nashville hover around 1.0, according to the paper. All of this changed their predictions altogether.

MLK50 Sues the City

Wendi Thomas

The editor of local news organization MLK50: Justice Through Journalism is suing the city of Memphis for refusing to include her on its media advisory lists.

The complaint was filed in federal court Wednesday by attorneys for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the press on behalf of Wendi Thomas, editor, publisher, and founder of MLK50.

The lawsuit alleges that the city, along with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and chief communications officer Ursula Madden, violated the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions by repeatedly denying Thomas’ requests to add her email address to the media advisory list.


MATA CEO Talks Money

The city’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal 

year allocates $10 million less to the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) than this year’s.

In Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s proposed budget, which he presented to the Memphis City Council earlier this month, MATA would get a little under $19.2 million in fiscal year 2021, down from this year’s amount of $29.2 million.

Justin Fox Burks

However, Gary Rosenfeld, CEO of MATA, said he does not anticipate this affecting the agency’s ability to provide services over the next year, largely due to a substantial stimulus package from the federal government.

Under the federal CARES Act, MATA is slated to receive approximately $35.7 million in aid. Rosenfeld said the guidelines for spending CARES Act funds for transit is fairly liberal.

“This money is available and we will charge whatever we can legitimately charge to these accounts,” he said. “We should not see any type of degradation of service because of the city’s financial situation. We should be okay as long as we move cautiously and make sure every expenditure we want to use the stimulus package for is legitimate based on the rules and regulations.”

Graceland to Reopen

Graceland is reopening on Thursday, May 21st, and you won’t have to fight the crowds.

Like other attractions that are easing back into operation, there are changes that focus on social distancing, capacity, and health and safety guidelines. Mansion tours are being reduced to 25 percent capacity and restaurants will be at 50 percent capacity with outdoor patio seating available. The Elvis Presley’s Memphis exhibition complex will also limit the number of visitors.

Other changes include having Graceland employees wearing masks and guests being encouraged to wear masks. There will be temperature checks for guests and employees, enhanced cleaning and sanitization procedures, social distancing markers, hand sanitization stations, and touchless payment options.

The Horseshoe Casino, Tunica

Horseshoe Tunica to Resume Gaming

Horseshoe Tunica will resume gaming operations at 8 a.m. Thursday, May 21st. The casino will operate at 50 percent capacity in accordance with the Phase One Casino Reopening Guidelines issued by the Mississippi Gaming Commission.

Slot machine banks will be arranged to allow for social distancing, and table games will be offered with limited seating. Poker, the Sportsbook, Village Square Buffet, the Laurel Lounge, and the WSOP bar will remain closed until further notice. They are expected to reopen in phases according to public health authorities and consumer demand. A full list of the amenities that will be available is at Horseshoe Tunica’s website here.

Clock Tower Comes Down

The massive clock tower that straddled the trolley tracks on Civic Center Plaza is gone. It was demolished this week by crews making way for new developments Downtown.

This is the briefest of descriptions for the demolition given by officials in the city of Memphis website:

“Beginning Friday, May 8th, at 7 a.m., and lasting until Thursday, May 21st, Main Street between Poplar Avenue and Adams Avenue will be closed to traffic. The section of Main Street around the area of the [Memphis Area Transit Authority — MATA] clock tower will be fenced off to allow public works in association with MATA to demolish the structure.”

The tower had to go, specifically, to make way for the development of the Loews Hotel (below), which is to be built on Civic Center Plaza.

Vehicle traffic will run on Main Street right where the clock tower stood earlier this week, according to Robert Knecht, director of the city’s public works department, which is overseeing the Main Street project. You can sort of get the gist of the thing in this image:

Pepper Rodgers Passes Away
Pepper Rodgers, who was head coach of the Memphis Showboats of the USFL in the mid-1980s, has died at age 88. A former football player, Rodgers also was head coach of the Canadian Football League’s expansion Memphis Mad Dogs in the mid-1990s.

He and his wife, Livingston, lived in Reston, Virginia.

Born in Atlanta, Rodgers was a quarterback and kicker for Georgia Tech. He was later the head coach at Kansas, UCLA, and Georgia Tech.

He’s the author of the 1985 novel, Fourth and Long Gone, and his autobiography, Pepper, which he wrote with Al Thorny.

Longtime friend Steve Ehrhart, AutoZone Liberty Bowl executive director, says, “He was one of the most creative and clever and ingenious people — not just a football coach. He was a very bright and intelligent guy. He always shook up the coaching world wherever he was.”

People Are Walking, Biking More

The number of people biking and walking here is higher than usual, according to new data from the city.

The city’s Bikeway and Pedestrian Program looked at data from nine automatic bicycle and pedestrian counters installed at different spots around the city that revealed a surge in activity, largely corresponding to the city’s Safer-At-Home order issued in late March.

The counters located in parks, along trails, and on city streets detect passing bikes and pedestrians to provide a total count of both modes or a combined count.

Survey Reveals Business Needs, Concerns

Businesses here are concerned about revenue, cash flow, and employee well-being, according to an ongoing survey conducted by the Greater Memphis Chamber.

The Chamber surveyed 600 businesses across the city to assess the impact that the COVID-19 outbreak is having on business and their arising needs.

The results include responses from surveys given between March 19th and 23rd, and then again between April 22nd and 27th.

There are 20 industries represented in the surveys, including manufacturing, real estate, restaurants, and entertainment. Of the 600 respondents, 55 percent indicated they were women-or-minority-owned businesses. Nearly three quarters of respondents estimated that their business is down year over year for February through April compared to the same time period last year, while 25 percent indicated business was about the same during those months. For the majority of affected businesses, or 20 percent, business is down between 11 and 20 percent.

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People Are Biking, Walking More Amid Pandemic

CREDIT: Facebook/Big River Crossing

Facebook/Big River Crossing


The number of people biking and walking here is higher than usual, according to new data from the city.

The city’s Bikeway and Pedestrian Program looked at data from nine automatic bicycle and pedestrian counters installed at different spots around the city that revealed a surge in activity, largely corresponding to the city’s Safer-At-Home order issued in late March.

The counters located in parks, along trails, and on city streets detect passing bikes and pedestrians to provide a total count of both modes or a combined count.

Overton park closed to car traffic in late March and began tracking bikers and walkers at its primary access points and the Old Forest gateways earlier this year. At the Old Forest Gateway near Rainbow Lake there has been a huge jump in bicycle activity since late March.

From the third week in March to the third week in April, the number of cyclists counted per week at that spot jumped by 2,000 users. While cyclist numbers hovered around 2,000, pedestrians counted were close to 6,000, according to the data.

On the graphs below, the Overton Park’s Tucker Street access point off of Poplar Avenue is referred to as Tucker, the Old Forest entrance near Rainbow Lake is dubbed Tyler, and the entryway along East Parkway is called Ben.

City of Memphis


On Big River Crossing, traffic increased to numbers similar to those in the spring following its opening. Counters along Big River Crossing were installed in fall 2016 and have been tracking traffic ever since.

This year, cyclist numbers began similar to that of last year, but by the second week of March, traffic was higher for that week than the same period in any previous year. And by the fifth week of March, the bicycle counts were more than double the average for that period with a total weekly count of 1,245. Last year, less than 400 users were recorded during that week.

City of Memphis

There are multiple counters along the Shelby Farms Greenline. Where the Greeline meets Germantown Parkway, a counter recorded a spike in activity beginning in the last week of March. Usage between late March and the end of April was, on average, 160 percent higher than the same period in 2019.

City of Memphis

Moving west, the counter along the Greenline at Farm Road tracked an average of 5,000 cyclists and pedestrians per week between the last week of March and the end of April. From the fourth week in March to the next week, there was close to a 200 percent increase in activity.

City of Memphis

Even further west, the Greenline counter near Highpoint Terrace recorded more than 7,000 users from late March through April. This is nearly double the average use for this time period.

City of Memphis


The segment of Wolf River Greenway that runs parallel to Humphreys Boulevard has seen the highest usage since tracking began in 2014. Compared to the previous five years, springtime usage climbed more than 80 percent on that portion of the Greenway. In the last week of March alone, nearly 6,000 cyclists and pedestrians were counted, compared to about 2,500 during that period last year.

City of Memphis

The city installed an on-street bicycle counter on Florida Street near Crump in 2017. While traffic recorded by this counter is in line with previous years during late February to late March, the first week in April shows a huge spike in usage. The count for that week was 64 compared to 22 in 2019 and 13 in 2018.

City of Memphis


Explore Bike Share began offering free 60-minute rides for 30 days on March 20th and recently extended the offer through May 20th. In the initial 30 days of the campaign, “Let’s Ride This Out,” check-outs from EBS’ top 30 stations usage increased by 54 percent compared to the month prior. Of those checkouts, close to 85 percent were new EBS users.