CIRCULATION AND TRAFFIC

Traffic problems are not noted in any survey or public discussion related to planning or development in Barling. This lack of concern about circulation or traffic problems is directly related to the ability of the current road network to handle the current traffic.

Periodic problems occur during high traffic times, such as morning or evening commute. Typically these problems occur on Arkansas State Hwy 22 or Arkansas State Hwy 253. Other high traffic volumes occur before and after school on local streets adjoining Barling Elementary School.

However, with the anticipated growth that will follow development at Fort Chaffee, Barling is expected to gain 10,700 new jobs and a permanent population of about 12,000 persons. This will add to the current street network a significant increase in vehicle trips per day. The current road network appears to be inadequate for such an increase. Potential problems include physical congestion of the roadways compounded by the visual clutter that could follow strip development such as already exists on Hwy 22. Thus, it is imperative that Barling officials begin to focus on traffic issues before the need arises.

The existing State highway system in Barling is related to the rural nature of Barling's past. In 1887 State Hwy 22 was known as Little Rock Road, denoting a major road connecting Fort Smith and Little Rock as it passed through several rural communities, including Barling. Current State Hwy 255 is also shown on an 1887 plan of Barling connecting Barling School, Barling Methodist Church with residential parts of the City. Hwy 22 has been widened through Barling, but increased development has offset some of the efficiency gained by the improvements. In contrast, Hwy 255 appears to be unchanged even though it serves as a truck route connecting the Fort Smith industrial park to Van Buren and Interstate 40 via Hwy 59.

The local street network is impeded by many factors. Barriers include the railroad at Fort Chaffee, Highway 22 which diagonally divides the city in two, and the Arkansas River flood plain. These force local traffic onto the few streets which cross those barriers. Intersections at Highway 22 are particularly complicated because the City is laid out on a North-South grid pattern while this highway traverses the City from the Northwest to the Southeast creating intersections that are rarely at 90^. In addition, local traffic is restricted by three complex intersections at H Street and Hwy 22, the intersection of Highway 22 and Highway 255, and the intersection of Hwy 59 and Hwy 22.

Traffic patterns for the State Highways in Barling are shown on Map ---. Traffic counts were done by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) in 1997.

With the anticipated completion of the US Highway 71 North freeway connection between the Fort Smith MSA and Fayetteville-Springdale MSA in November 1998 the relocation of US Highway 71 South to DeQueen moves up as the priority project for Western Arkansas.

The relocation of US Highway 71 in Arkansas is part of a 1991 congressionally designated High Priority Corridor running form Shreveport, Louisiana to Kansas City, Missouri. This project will complement the existing Interstate system, integrate regions of the country, improve safety and efficiency of travel and commerce and promote economic development (Draft EIS US 71 October 1996).

In 1998 the US Congress appropriated an additional $5 million for the design work on the portion of US 71 South from Alma to Greenwood crossing Fort Chaffee. The right-of-way has been established and is part of the reuse plan for Fort Chaffee. Work on this highway section is expected to begin within ten years.

This section of what will become re-designated as Interstate 49 is a crucial connection for Barling. Currently, residents must travel nearly five miles down Highway 22 to connect with Interstate 540 and travel another five miles to Interstate 40. The other alternative is to travel seven miles north on Highway 59 and another two miles on Interstate 540 to Interstate 40. Interstate 49 will immediately connect Barling residents on the Interstate system. This connection will add to the economic vitality of Barling opening the City up to a variety of new job producing businesses.

AHTD has notified the City of Barling of its intent to resurface Highway 22. While a resurfacing project would not normally require significant notice the Highway Department intends to add a center turn lane. This will eliminate impediments to traffic flow created by those vehicles trying to make left turns into local businesses. However, typically such lanes can add to traffic problems caused by inattentive drivers trying to use the same space from different directions resulting in a collision.

Coincident with the reuse of Fort Chaffee will be the addition of two major new regional routes. One is the extension of State Highway 253, Strozier Lane, into the Fort with a planned intersection with US Highway 71 South. The second is the extension of Massard Road in Fort Smith into the Fort to intersect with a planned extension of Planters Road from the Fort Smith South Industrial Park. Massard Road will then be further extended a planned freeway intersection with Interstate 49. These regional road networks will connect existing business and industrial concerns with Interstate 49 and planned business and industrial areas in the part of Barling currently known as Fort Chaffee.

AHTD intends to reroute State Highway 255 through part of Fort Chaffee. The planned route will follow the existing Fort Smith Boulevard from Gate 5 to Gate 4. The new highway will then follow the existing road North, West of the existing Army Reserve Center on Highway 22. The existing road alignment will be adjusted to that of State Highway 59. Thus, a new intersection will exist between State Highways 255, 22, and 59. This will result in all truck traffic bypassing residential areas in Barling. The current Highway 255, from Strozier Lane to Highway 22, will be re-designated as a local street.

Whereas freeways are designed with limited access to serve regional through traffic, local streets serve a variety of needs: movement of pedestrians, bicycles, motorscooters, cars and trucks; property access; public open space; parking; and transit.

Arterial streets serve area traffic and local traffic generators. Their primary purpose is to accommodate through traffic. In order to increase the capacity of the arterials, limitations on parking and turning and on driveway curb cuts must be evaluated as an alternative to street widenings. Street widenings in built-up areas have frequently taken right of way used for pedestrians and street trees, leaving inadequate building setbacks. Also, wider streets generally discourage pedestrian crossing. Ideally, arterials are located around, rather than through residential neighborhoods, commercial centers, industrial areas and colleges.

Collector streets supplement and provide access to arterial streets and provide access to neighborhoods. On such streets the need of through traffic and turning and parking must be balanced. At certain times, such as rush hour, one function may take precedence over others.

Local streets primarily provide access to abutting properties. Ease of access, pedestrian safety and parking have priority over traffic movement. Ideally, neighborhood streets are designed to discourage through traffic and unsafe speeds.

Improvements in the functioning of the local street network should continue to be explored, such as better synchronization of signals and simplification of complex, overburdened intersections. The diagonal connection between Church and Fort and H and Fort create very wide and oblique intersections. Rerouting of truck traffic by the rerouting of State highway 255 through Fort Chaffee should reduce the congestion at Church and Fort. Consideration should also be given to closing H Street at Highway 59. This local street will soon be severely overburdened as development occurs adjacent to Highway 59. Vehicle traffic will attempt to make this a new throughway to avoid intersections at Church and Fort and Highway 59 and Fort. While there appears to be adequate right--of-way to widen H Street, the cost of construction, reduction of building setback, speed of traffic, and other problems associated with heavy traffic will severely impact this residential area. The risk of vehicle collisions and vehicle-pedestrian accidents would greatly multiply with anticipated heavy traffic.

As development of Fort Chaffee progresses and vehicle traffic in Barling increases, Transportation Systems Management (TSM) programs should also be pursued to make more efficient use of existing roadways. Carpooling and vanpooling are encouraged to increase vehicle occupancy and thus decrease total numbers of vehicles. Staggered work hours and flextime options are sought to reduce peak loads on roadways. TSM programs require monitoring to ensure their continuation and to evaluate their efficiency.

Crucial to keeping traffic congestion in check is planning and phasing of development. Analysis of road capacity should precede any approval of more intensive development or expansion of the area of development. Proposed developments outside city boundaries which impact city streets should be carefully reviewed by the City, and the County should be appraised of City concerns. Every effort towards regional cooperation in shaping growth into patterns for efficient transportation should be made.

The convenience of automobile travel depends on availability of parking. Parking is typically plentiful in suburban locations where land prices have been low and becomes less plentiful and more expensive in more intensively developed areas. Barling residents will generally want to have parking readily available on their neighborhood streets and at commercial centers.

Parking standards should reflect reasonable expectations of the number of cars which will be associated with a particular development. Lowering of parking standards should not be used as a device to attract development or as an incentive for high rise development. Factors which may reduce parking requirements include small size of units, senior occupancy, proximity to transit, or monitored use of Transportation Systems Management programs such as vanpools, ridesharing, and shuttle service. The question of whether apartments generally have fewer vehicles per unit than condominiums should be studied in connection with strategies to review parking requirements.

Plentiful free parking encourages automobile use and typically reduces the attractiveness of walking by spreading out activity centers and increasing encounters between pedestrians and cars. Barling may want to give consideration to paid parking as part of its overall traffic management while avoiding rates which would discourage downtown shopping.

There is a concern that parking charges will push parking onto neighborhood streets. This is especially a concern around traffic generators such as schools, medical service centers, and job producing centers. Neighborhood parking stickers are resorted to in many communities where parking problems persist around major traffic generators and may be considered in Barling.

In the downtown area, parking garages will become feasible as the vitality of a retail pedestrian core grows. Provision of parking under buildings is encouraged as an alternative to surface parking where consistent with maintaining attractive frontages. In order to protect traffic flow and pedestrian safety and to allow for screening of parking facilities, the number of curb cuts are minimized.

Parking along major arterials lessens traffic capacity. Except where parking is desired to shield pedestrian use of the sidewalk, such parking should not be considered. Restricted parking zones have to be enforced to realize gains in traffic capacity.

To diminish the number of large vehicles parked in neighborhoods, secured parking facilities for trucks and recreation vehicles are encouraged in the industrial area. Park and ride lots for carpoolers could relieve pressure on other lots and adjoining neighborhoods.

ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

The autonomy and mobility afforded by the automobile has won dedicated drivers who typically do not count the full cost of their choice. Collective costs of automobile proliferation- noise, loss of air quality, consumption of limited energy supplies and valuable land, traffic accident losses, increased travel times and psychological stress- have made clear the need for alternatives.

Many people - young, old, disabled, and low income people are dependent on some form of public transportation for access to education, jobs, health care, shopping, and recreation. Public transit in the Fort Smith MSA is in its infancy. As development and growth occur the demand for public transit will require the response of public agencies.

Discretionary use of transit is primarily dependent upon frequency of service and proximity, both of which are linked to the form of development. Denser development supplies more potential riders along a route; low density development requires more routes to bring service close to most residents and each route may have too few riders to be economically feasible. Mixed use development improves the efficiency of transit as commuters both leaving and entering the area at the same time utilize bus capacity in both directions. Concentrated activity centers are also more efficiently serviced than dispersed economic and social activity.

The other major element in transit use is habit. The habit of using cars is often only broken by infirmity, a gas crisis, or lack of parking at the destination. A significant shift towards transit use could be effected by national and state actions to increase funding for transit and to increase the price of gasoline with additional taxes to compensate for environmental damage and depletion of energy resources.

In the long run, the most effective way to promote transit use at a local level is to concentrate job and housing growth near transit stations or along major bus routes. Transit providers indicate a higher proportion of ridership within 1/4 mile of a bus line and 1/2 mile of a transit station.

The site design of subdivisions and projects should reflect transit needs with appropriately located bus turnouts and convenient pedestrian access to bus stops. Transportation Systems Management programs also encourage transit use. When appropriate, reductions in parking requirements commensurate with provision of transit passes can be negotiated with developers. Traffic mitigation measures should have enforcement mechanisms such as conditional permits which can be revoked or occupancy permits which can be withheld.

Greater use of bicycles would have many benefits. Bicycles are a quiet, nonpolluting form of transportation which does not directly consume fossil fuels or require vast amounts of land and expensive infrastructure.

Bicycling can be publicly encouraged with the provision of bikeways to major destinations and requirement of bike racks/lockers at destination points such as shopping centers and places of employment. Safety of bicyclists is a consideration in the design of new public right of ways and subdivisions; provision of separate bikeways provides relative safety. Safety of parked bicycles from theft could also receive more attention by law enforcement personnel and project designers. Places of employment could also encourage bicycling by providing showers and lockers.

Walking is another form of transportation which can be promoted with safe, attractive facilities. A network of pedestrian and bikeways between activity centers and transit facilities as well as between residences, schools, and neighborhood shopping encourages walking and riding while walled developments which do not provide such connections may make driving necessary.

Typical walking distances are short, perhaps 800 feet at most between parking and destination. But people will walk much further if their destination is visible or if the walk is made attractive. Shop displays, sidewalk cafes, newsstands, seating, exhibits, landscaping and open space such as creeks invite walking. Short cuts through blocks or over barriers also encourage walking. Warm, closely spaced lighting at night, trees and other landscaping separating pedestrians from vehicular traffic, and highly visible pedestrian crossings make walking safer and more pleasant.

Walking will also be encouraged by mixed uses in activity centers. Provision of residences, commerce, transit and open space within walking distance makes a rich, car-free lifestyle possible and provides an interesting contrast with the low density neighborhoods and single use industrial areas which are more typical of Barling. Potential exists around principal shopping centers, medical centers, governmental centers and schools to develop a better balance of retail, office, and residential use, so that walking becomes a viable method of transportation. Anticipation of more intense use in these activity centers would suggest acquisition of space for parks which would also provide pedestrian routes.

Use of alternative transportation - transit, bike and foot - makes possible more intensive use of land with less roadways and parking lots. The total number of parking spaces is also reduced by mixed use as the same spaces can serve daytime and nighttime uses. Consumption of less land in urban growth has obvious benefits in energy conservation, agricultural productivity, and air quality.

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES