By Bill Dries - The Daily News -

The tentative plan for bicycle lanes on Madison Avenue between Cleveland and Cooper streets is broadening to look at larger changes or adjustments in the Midtown street environment.

And a decision on how to do that and restripe the street is due by the end of July.

That’s what a group of more than 100 citizens heard Wednesday, June 29, from city Chief Administrative Officer George Little at the first of three public hearings at Minglewood Hall.

“Really what we needed to address were a broader set of issues … around the subject of the kind of communities we want along Madison Avenue,” Little said. “We want to put it in a much larger context.”

The city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Kyle Wagenschutz recommended in April eliminating a lane of automobile traffic in each direction on Madison for a bicycle lane and buffer in some places and a bicycle lane, buffer and parking lanes in other places along the two-mile stretch of road. There also would be a median strip.

The recommendation was eagerly embraced by some who urged the city to move ahead with restriping and paving Madison. It also drew organized opposition from more than 60 business owners along Madison who floated a proposal to have a shared bicycle lane and better signage instead of a dedicated bicycle lane in each direction. That, in turn, prompted those favoring the lanes to talk of boycotts of some of the businesses or writing pro bike lane slogans on their receipts from the businesses.

Steve Auterman of the architecture firm LRK Inc. told those at the meeting that the plan for Madison likely will be a block-by-block plan.

“You may not get everything you want,” Auterman told the crowd. “But if we’re successful, maybe 80 percent of you will get 80 percent of what you want.”

The architecture firm was called in by Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr.’s administration two weeks ago to hold the set of three meetings and come up with recommendations, drawings and plans for Wharton by the end of July – the deadline to use or lose federal stimulus money.

LRK did a broader study in 2005 of major Midtown streetscapes including the Overton Square end of the street as Playhouse on the Square began planning for its new building at Union Avenue and Cooper.

“There are a lot of differences between one block and another and another,” Auterman said. “There’s a lot of variation along the street.”

The city had some traffic count meters out on Madison to get an up-to-date traffic count to settle arguments about whether auto traffic on the two-mile stretch continues on a decline dating back to the 1990s.

The next two meetings – July 6 and July 13 at 5:30 p.m. at Minglewood – will hopefully involve those citizens who showed up this week. At those meetings, the topics will move to more specific topics like options for Madison and what role bicycle lanes will or won’t play in what comes next.

In the five breakout sessions that followed on Wednesday, one of the phrases on the big white tablets as a priority was to “maintain Midtown patina.”

“I don’t know how to say it,” the citizen who suggested it said. “It would be a ‘creative eclectic experience.’”

Every group came at one time or another to public transportation and all found it lacking.

One man termed his trolley experiences “very aggravating.” Another group questioned whether bus routes couldn’t be customized as “public transportation for entertainment” or “a more localized environment” with night service routes.

A show of hands surveyed before the breakout groups showed only two people used public transit on a regular basis. That went to a show of four hands for those who use the Memphis Area Transit Authority occasionally.

Three-fourths of those in the crowd said Madison was their destination for shopping, dining and entertainment. Half said they drive the street every day.

Few admitted to driving more than 40 mph in what is a 35 mph zone.

“I’m not sure I believe that,” Auterman said, adding later that motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians probably will remain a volatile mix.

“We will have to deal with conflict,” he said. “How we deal with it will be important.”