A lot of developments have happened in February! We’ll start off with some original reporting from us.

Huntsville Police Department will soon have ebikes. The department already use regular bikes for patrols, but they will be replacing two of them with ebikes. The new ebikes will be used on the upcoming sky bridge to patrol the entire length of the bridge.

On February 11th, we reported on new unannounced bus route changes. A week later, the city officially announced the changes. The announced changes are as follows:

ORBIT BUS ROUTE 3  HOLMES – UAH

Route 3 (Outbound Only) Update – as of Feb. 16, 2026:

• Deleted Stops: Stops between Holmes Avenue at Fairway Drive and 14^th Street have been removed.
• New Outbound Routing: From Holmes Avenue – Left on Triana Boulevard toward Governors Drive.
• Right Governor’s Drive
• New Stops: Service now includes stops at Food City and Flying Biscuit Café.
• Right on 14^th Street
• Left onto CCI Drive to VA Clinic
• Resume normal route making left on Holmes Avenue

In addition, other routes saw changes

ORBIT BUS ROUTE 5  BYRD SPRING 

Route 5 Update – as of Feb. 16, 2026:

• Service frequency improved from 60 minutes to 30 minutes, 6:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

ORBIT BUS ROUTE 9  OAKWOOD 

Routes 9A and 9B Update – as of Feb. 16, 2026:

Route 9A

• Route change from Jordan Lane (outbound) – Bus tuns left (west) onto Putnam Drive.
• Discontinued Route Segments – Bus no longer travels outbound to University Drive.
• Executive / Sparkman new routing – From Putnam, the bus turns left onto Executive Drive, proceeds past Ascent Trail directly to Sparkman Drive.
• Previous service along Ascent Trail and Bonnell Drive is now part of the Route 9B.

Route 9B

• Routing from Social Security Office – Continue Research Drive / Corporate Dr, Left (north) on Old Monrovia, Right on University, left on Sparkman Drive, Right Executive Drive, Left Ascent Trail, Left Bonnell, Right Sparkman to regular route.

Holmes Avenue project to improving multimodal options moves forward
The 3.25 mile project continues to move forward. The project is expected to start in 2027 and be complete in 2030. The project will cost around $30m, with the city providing $9m of that.
From what I have seen and read, the bike and pedestrian improvements look to mostly be painted bike lanes or sidewalks widened to become multi-use paths. The bike lanes appear to be planned to be buffed and semi-protected, but its unclear how much of it will be. It should be usable, unlike the 1 foot wide bike gutters we see elsewhere in the city.
I haven’t seen a full breakdown of costs, but comparing resurfacing projections for other similar roads, the resurfacing alone will likely be at least $4m of the budget.
Its hard to say how big of an improvement this will be without more renderings or details, but its a step in the right direction, even though its likely still a car-first corridor.

UAH’s 58-acre campus expansion gets $14.2 million boost from federal government

Planned for the former Executive Plaza area on Sparkman Drive in Cummings Research Park, UAH plans to transform the 58-acre parcel to a mixed-use district that creates a college-town environment.

This would be located here

This, along with the Holmes ave project will create a bike corridor from midcity to UAH to downtown. This will create the best biking network in the city, connecting the most densely populated areas of the city with a bike network. I have seen proposals that include adding a pedestrian/bike bridge over Sparkman Dr, allowing for quick and safe crossings by foot or bike.

City of Decatur starting $3 million study to consider building new bridge
While not necessarily Huntsville news, there is a lot of work commuting between Decatur and Huntsville. Another bridge or expanding the lanes will work as a temporary solution, but in the long run, it will be a costly failure. Hopefully the study will look at more than just just feasibility of building a new bridge and will consider alternatives to a car bridge. To solve congestion, there needs to be alternatives to driving. A Rapid Bus Transit line connecting Decatur to Huntsville/red stone arsenal would be a necessary step in improving commute times and traffic flow.
A longer term solution would be to expand the train bridge, converting the rail to a passenger trail line. The train line already runs from Decatur to Madison to Huntsville.
Since Dale Strong is mentioned in funding the study, consider contacting him to voice your support of a bus line or passenger train line instead of a costly bridge expansion that will just become congested again in a few more years. You may also want to consider contacting one of Dale Strong’s opponents, so we can have someone advocating on bus and passenger train connections on the campaign trail.

Work to begin soon on Pedestrian Access & Redevelopment Corridor project
Work will soon start on the biggest pedestrian focused project in the city. The Pinhook greenway is my favorite part of the project. The sky bridge gets most of the attention, but the greenway along Pinhook creek will be a huge quality of life improvement.A small bridge will be built connecting Heart of Huntsville Road to the VBC/Big Spring Park.

Huntsville extends greenway network with two major expansions
A 2.4 mile multi-use path in south Huntsville and 1.6 miles of greenways in south-west Huntsville have been funded. The new paths are meant to increase connectivity with other paths and greenways.

Thats the urban news recap for February. If you made it this far, please consider filling out a survey to help steer the direction of Strong Towns Huntsville.
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