GULF SHORES — The city plans to lower the speed limit on East 2nd Street and allow golf carts in the community surrounding Meyer Park.

The road, which connects Canal Road to Fort Morgan Road to the east of the W.C. Holmes Memorial Bridge, is part of a detour in place during the Pedestrian Bridge project to connect Waterway Village in the area of Tacky Jacks and Big Beach Brewing to the district's north side across the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) around Lulu's.

Jenny Wolfschlag, Gulf Shores' city engineer, said the city is coordinating with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to lower the speed limit on East 2nd Street to 25 mph rather than its current 40 mph. She isn't sure if the entire road will be affected, but she said the change would span "from 22nd to 24th for sure." All the other roads "in this network" have a posted speed limit of 25 mph.

With the corner turn of Canal closed, the detour provides access to East 2nd Street from Canal Road using East 24th Avenue and East 23rd Avenue, resulting in traffic traveling down East 3rd Street along a side of Meyer Park.

"We're also looking to enhance safety around (Meyer) Park," Wolfschlag said during a June 2 Gulf Shores City Council meeting where she gave an update on the project and related traffic through the Gulf Pines neighborhood. "We want to make sure the park is a safe and welcoming environment for all of our families and all the park users."

Some safety features mentioned by Jon Walker, city administrator, included creating barriers between the fields and the roads and "improve landscaping at the park" to decrease blind spots.

Jacobs, the same company the city partnered with for its 2024 traffic report, is in the process of completing a traffic study on the neighborhood. Wolfschlag said the study is about to enter phase two, which will entail recommendations after data from phase one is reviewed.

She said these recommendations could include parking additions, roundabouts, "things that narrow the street" in certain spots, speed bumps and "traffic deterrence" like one-way streets.

While this study is set to be complete in four to six weeks, the city will take suggestions from the company prior to its completion such as the addition of "local traffic only signs."

"We're trying to be proactive and take care of things as quickly as we can, but we want to also make sure that we're doing the right things in the right order," Wolfschlag said on the study timeline. "So, we are trying to make some small changes along the way, but if they have some bigger recommendations on bigger picture issues it might take a while to get those back and implemented."

TRAFFIC STUDY ANALYSIS

SLIDE PROVIDED

A traffic study completed in the Gulf Pines neighborhood, which spreads east from Meyer Park south of the ICW, during and after spring break shows more than 90% of the traffic used East 2nd and East 3rd streets and did not drive deeper into the neighborhood, Wolfschlag said.

The 10% or less, on average, of the traffic that did travel through the neighborhood during and after spring break is "a typical count, she said, attributing the number to "residents, deliveries and that sort of thing."

"We did see an increase on the detour route — around 10% in traffic volumes — the week after spring break versus the week of spring break," she said.

While "there's no real rush hour" in the neighborhood, a "pretty steady" flow of traffic travels through the area from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week.

Spanning out from the neighborhood, confirming previous analysis from the state transportation department, Wolfschlag's city update shows that since the Foley Beach Express Bridge toll was removed last summer, both Highway 59 and Canal Road have seen a decrease in average number of vehicles using those roads per day by about 17% and 18%, respectively. On the other hand, the Foley Beach Express in Orange Beach has seen an increase of 58% vehicles since the toll was removed, Wolfschlag said.

'BIGGER PICTURE' PLANS

City Administrator Walker said the four main goals moving forward concerning the Gulf Pines neighborhood are to implement the recommendations from the Jacobs study once completed; improve safety surrounding the park; lower the speed limit on East 2nd Street; and approve the use of golf carts in the Gulf Pines community.

Wolfschlag said there are plans to propose a citywide mobility plan in the 2026-2027 budget, which will evaluate multiple modes of transportation throughout the city. A component of this transportation study Wolfschlag is examining the use of golf carts in the Gulf Pines community.

"This would really open up connectivity not only within this neighborhood but between the west and the east side of town," Wolfschlag said.

She plans to work out this idea and "bring something back" to the city council by the end of the month. With this connectivity, Wolfschlag says a resident could drive a golf cart from East 10th Street to "the post office or the grocery store."

"Golf carts. We've been talking about that for a while," Gulf Shores Mayor Robert Craft said. "Hopefully that won't take four to six weeks. We should be able to make that decision pretty quickly."

While the main focus of the updates were on immediate next steps for the Gulf Pines neighborhood, Wolfschlag mentioned a "long-term plan" the city has for the Pedestrian Bridge detour.

Wolfschlag said the city is acquiring property to "create a roadway that will completely divert the road around the neighborhood."

For the long-term plan, a bypass would be created on East 2nd Street, south of Dolphin Avenue, and connect to Canal Road a few blocks past East 10th Street.

SLIDE PROVIDED