A lot to report on in the month of April. We’ll start off with some original reporting.

Construction of the PARC project has begun! This first step involves improving Pinhook Creek, which will help with flood mitigation. Construction of the skybridge is still another year or two away.

New bike lane expected on Seminole Drive. Seminole Drive, which connects to Lowe Mill, is being repaved and expected to included a painted bike lane. Future improvements on the road are being planned.

Huntsville PD love their new ebikes, but more ebikes won’t be coming soon. Anyone who attended Panoply likely saw the new ebikes in action. They were very popular among both the officers and guests. The ebike unit patrolled panoply for 14 hours, which is longer than would be possible with a regular bike unit.
They currently have 2 ebikes with desire for more ebikes with a full time ebike patrol unit, but there currently isn’t funding appropriated for it. With support from the public and police department, this could change in upcoming years. The ebike unit has been a great benefit to community building, as officers on bikes are much more personally visible and approachable compared to officers inside vehicles with tinted windows.

Now for news from other outlets

Affordable Housing and Transit Series: Huntsville
This articles includes new updates and data regarding the University Drive BRT. While its mostly good news in the article, this part is a little disappointing

Although dedicated lanes would offer the most time savings, the city has been leaning towards mixed traffic operations for most of the route because that approach is more flexible, less expensive, and faster to implement.

Since day 1, I’ve been pushing for dedicated bus lanes, and you should to. When a bus has its own lane, it will never get stuck in traffic. A dedicated bus lane is the best way to ensure the bus transit is actually rapid. People will take the bus when its quick, and avoid the bus if its slow and faces delays.
Not only does this benefit bus service, it also benefits emergency vehicles, giving ambulances, fire trucks, and police a clear lane to move through when car traffic is heavily congested.

What would it take for Huntsville’s metro area to catch Birmingham?
This articles compares metro sizes of Huntsville and Birmingham. A lot of great data is included. As an urbanist, I believe city size and density matters more than metro size. Huntsville’s core has more people living in it than Birmingham already. Birmingham’s large metro is mostly people living in other cities who only go to Birmingham for work, while Huntsville has a larger population of people who work AND live here.

MidCity District’s transformation earns the 2026 Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU)
Midcity has seen great urban development and certainly earned the recognition. You can see the full list of winners here https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2026/04/02/meet-2026-charter-awards-winners

Huntsville moves ahead with Old Monrovia Road streetscape project
The road separating Madison Plaza and Midcity will be seeing improvements that make the street safer for all, including adding a multi-use path.

Huntsville approves study on passenger rail service to neighboring cities
This study will examine where passenger rail is most feasible. Its an exciting first step in adding passenger rail options between cities. They will focus primarily on connections to Nashville, Birmingham, Florence, and Atlanta. The study will detail which corridors to prioritize and costs of implementation. The study is being led by DB E.C.O. North America, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, a national German railway company.
The study is expected to take a little over a year to complete

Below are slides from the presentation during the city council meeting