One-way traffic pattern proposed for downtown Van Buren

Richard Hodo will ask the Van Buren City Council at its Monday (July 20) meeting to consider converting the street through downtown Van Buren into a one-way street.

Hodo, owner of Sister’s Gourmet Bistro and five other buildings in the historic downtown area, said he has developed this idea since the early 1980s when he first bought property there.

“This is not something I just woke up with one morning and said, ‘Why don’t we do this?’” Hodo explained.

With its antique stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and historic appearance, downtown Van Buren is considered one of the top tourist spots in the Fort Smith region. The area draws thousands of visitors a year, including many who ride a tourist train between Van Buren — the old depot is at the east end of the historic downtown street — and Northwest Arkansas.

Hodo’s desire to create a one-way traffic pattern is to make the area safer for the pedestrian tourists, and to make the shops more accessible to tourists or locals who see the downtown area as a destination and not just a pass-through to other parts of town.

“We can make it (downtown street) safer for pedestrians and we can focus on bringing in the traffic that wants to be here and is not using downtown as a runway to get somewhere else,” Hodo explained.

Traffic through the downtown area increases each year, Hodo said, with much of that traffic not stopping in the downtown area. He said the increased traffic creates a hazard for pedestrian tourists.

“If we don’t do something, someone is going to get hurt or get killed and then we’ll say, ‘Gosh, why didn’t we do something about this?’” Hodo said. “If our goal is to get more people walking around there (downtown), then this is something we should look at.”

Hodo said he worked with parking and street experts at Van Buren-based Time Striping to determine that a one-way street would add about 50 parking spaces, which would create about 120 total parking spaces in the area. Hodo’s draft plan is to have the one way traffic travel west to the Crawford County Courthouse with parallel parking on the north side of the street and angle parking on the south.

He said Time Striping estimated the re-striping would cost no more than $30,000, not including new signage.

Hodo said three downtown merchants expressed opposition, but about 25 signed an informal petition supporting a one-way street.

Van Buren Mayor Bob Freeman told The City Wire he is neutral on the issue and is trying to weigh the pros and cons of a traffic change. He suggested the city might first conduct a traffic study and also look at the potential economic impact of such a move.