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Interested in Hot Springs, Arkansas

Rock2uf

By Rock2uf
in Arkansas

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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Hey Johnny, did you hear about this?

The city of Hot Springs, at the urging of Central Business Improvement District 3 property owners, embarked on a $ 750, 000 endeavor that will narrow Central Avenue from four traffic lanes to two along a three-block stretch bordered by art galleries, restaurants and retail shops. The new look is also to feature 49 curbside parking spaces, four loading zones, and new sidewalks with brick pavers, trees, benches, ornamental lighting and trash receptacles.

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

Posted
Posted

Hey Johnny, did you hear about this?

The city of Hot Springs, at the urging of Central Business Improvement District 3 property owners, embarked on a $ 750, 000 endeavor that will narrow Central Avenue from four traffic lanes to two along a three-block stretch bordered by art galleries, restaurants and retail shops. The new look is also to feature 49 curbside parking spaces, four loading zones, and new sidewalks with brick pavers, trees, benches, ornamental lighting and trash receptacles.

That's part of the deal of making downtown Hot Springs more pedestrian friendly that I was reading about in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette right? I don't know what it will do for vehicle traffic but I think making more areas of Hot Springs more convenient for pedestrian traffic is a good idea. It also sounds like it will be a nice area to visit with the new galleries, restaurants and retail. I wish I could find some rednderings of what it will look like. It sounds like it will be closer to what I think they should have done for Dickson St here in Fayetteville.

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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That's part of the deal of making downtown Hot Springs more pedestrian friendly that I was reading about in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette right? I don't know what it will do for vehicle traffic but I think making more areas of Hot Springs more convenient for pedestrian traffic is a good idea. It also sounds like it will be a nice area to visit with the new galleries, restaurants and retail. I wish I could find some rednderings of what it will look like. It sounds like it will be closer to what I think they should have done for Dickson St here in Fayetteville.

I know from experience that central avenue is pretty bad.

I think this re-development of central should help the tourism industry in Hot springs as well by making it more pedestrian friendly.

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johnnydr87 Burg

johnnydr87

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It's a terrible idea in my opinion (narrowing the road). Central avenue is already pretty choked up, and this made it a whole lot worse. Traveling from my house to school now takes substantially longer.

They said they would revert back to four lanes if it didn't work in a 3 month trial.

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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It's a terrible idea in my opinion (narrowing the road). Central avenue is already pretty choked up, and this made it a whole lot worse. Traveling from my house to school now takes substantially longer.

They said they would revert back to four lanes if it didn't work in a 3 month trial.

Has it made that part more pedestrian friendly at all?

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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It's a terrible idea in my opinion (narrowing the road). Central avenue is already pretty choked up, and this made it a whole lot worse. Traveling from my house to school now takes substantially longer.

They said they would revert back to four lanes if it didn't work in a 3 month trial.

I was wondering if it would cause any problems like that. It's a shame though because the idea of making areas of downtown Hot Springs more predestrian friendly sounds like a great idea. I guess it's just a matter of finding a way to do it.

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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I was wondering if it would cause any problems like that. It's a shame though because the idea of making areas of downtown Hot Springs more predestrian friendly sounds like a great idea. I guess it's just a matter of finding a way to do it.

I guess it just sounds good on paper, but may'be isn't the best idea then.

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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Hey Johnny, did you hear about this?

The city of Hot Springs, at the urging of Central Business Improvement District 3 property owners, embarked on a $ 750, 000 endeavor that will narrow Central Avenue from four traffic lanes to two along a three-block stretch bordered by art galleries, restaurants and retail shops. The new look is also to feature 49 curbside parking spaces, four loading zones, and new sidewalks with brick pavers, trees, benches, ornamental lighting and trash receptacles.

Get ready to crawl down Central during tourist season. I suspect it will make it more tourist-friendly, though.

Central, from one end to another, is as crowded as any road in Arkansas. People in LR and NWA don't know how easy they have it - the two most overcrowded roads in AR by far are Central and Harkrider in Conway, both victims of poor planning.

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Mith242 Gigalopolis

Mith242

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Get ready to crawl down Central during tourist season. I suspect it will make it more tourist-friendly, though.

Central, from one end to another, is as crowded as any road in Arkansas. People in LR and NWA don't know how easy they have it - the two most overcrowded roads in AR by far are Central and Harkrider in Conway, both victims of poor planning.

Even though I was there earlier this year I can't say I know the Hot Springs roads very well. I guess there's no easy way to reroute traffic away from Central? It would be great if they could find some way to get some of the vehicle traffic away from at least some areas of the downtown and open these areas up to more pedestrian traffic.

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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Get ready to crawl down Central during tourist season. I suspect it will make it more tourist-friendly, though.

Central, from one end to another, is as crowded as any road in Arkansas. People in LR and NWA don't know how easy they have it - the two most overcrowded roads in AR by far are Central and Harkrider in Conway, both victims of poor planning.

How bad are those roads?

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Aporkalypse City

Aporkalypse

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How bad are those roads?

The problem is that they are essentially the ONLY arteries in towns similar to Rogers or Springdale.

I-40 runs through Conway and there is a bypass in Hot Springs but neither are used much for traffic through the towns the way I-540 is. The quality of the roads isn't that bad but it's just the issue of having one 4-lane road carrying all of the crosstown traffic. You can go from one side of town to the other in these towns and never break 20 mph.

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mcheiss Metropolitan Area

mcheiss

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The problem is that they are essentially the ONLY arteries in towns similar to Rogers or Springdale.

I-40 runs through Conway and there is a bypass in Hot Springs but neither are used much for traffic through the towns the way I-540 is. The quality of the roads isn't that bad but it's just the issue of having one 4-lane road carrying all of the crosstown traffic. You can go from one side of town to the other in these towns and never break 20 mph.

Man that's bad. Hopefully that doesn't kill of the growth in Conway.

Walnut (Main artery) in Rogers is bad, but we have been constructing new roads and arteries on the west side of the city to help alleviate traffic. Just a few weeks ago we opened up a new section of a 5 lane road near the Interstate.

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  • 1 year later...
hogwash Whistle-Stop

hogwash

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Anyone noticed they are nearly done reworking the Central Ave. exit on the 270 bypass in HS? Looks like things will a lot better flow wise.

No offense to itk, I know you are tied into AHTD or road design somehow, but whoever originally deisgned that exit sucks. They should have known that area was going to be prime for big developments (increased vehicle trip generation). I don't know how many times I personally wished I could find that person and let them have it.

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