The rapidly growing city of Bentonville (population 56,000) in Northwest Arkansas has established a reputation as a world-class mountain biking destination and a key stop along the northern portion of the Razorback Regional Greenway — as well as being home to the corporate headquarters of Walmart.
Toole Design recently led final design for a network of bikeways in Bentonville that had its origins in proposed corridor designs developed for communities in the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. Targeted Bicycle Network Strategies were created for Bentonville, Springdale, Rogers, and Fayetteville, and the Bentonville report helped to establish a priority bikeway network in the Connecting Bentonville Plan.
Our designs introduced the City’s first-ever on-street bike lanes and provided critical connections between residential areas and key destinations such as Downtown, Applegate Trail, and Coler Mountain Bike Preserve. One corridor was repurposed from 3 lanes of vehicle traffic to 2, while another corridor underwent a more dramatic shift from 5 lanes down to 2 (with on-street parking). Notably, both were repurposing projects, achieving major impacts through only minor curb modifications.
Toole Design’s Raleigh Office Director Jared Draper, AICP visited Bentonville this fall for the final inspection. Take a look at some of Jared’s photos from the visit to see how Bentonville is making big changes on the ground.
