Reid Hedgepeth had heard vaguely about plans for the Shelby Farms Greenline when it began to take shape two years ago. But the City Council member didn’t quite know what to expect when the greenline began taking shape behind his home in High Point Terrace.

He was concerned when, before it opened, a section of the greenline behind his home became a favorite of cyclists – motorcyclists. It made for a memorable third birthday party for his daughter and caused him to have doubts about living next to the still uncertain civic catalyst.

His opinion changed dramatically when officials with the greenline – now operated by the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy – limited access of motorized traffic from the cross streets by installing barriers.

“On a scale of one to 10, I think the greenline turned out to be a 12. I’ve never been so wrong in my life,” Hedgepeth said recently. “Two years ago, I didn’t own a bicycle. Nobody in my family owned a bicycle.”

At the moment, Memphians seemingly can’t get enough of bicycle and pedestrian trails, paths and lanes. But the recommendation to cut a lane of auto traffic in each direction on Madison Avenue’s Midtown leg for bicycle lanes made in April by city bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Kyle Wagenschutz is easily the most controversial of its kind since the opening of the greenline put these types of projects on a fast track.

Madison Avenue between Cleveland and Cooper streets is two of 5.32 miles of Memphis street surface to be repaved with a $3.1 million federal grant under President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, one in a series of federal grants for road resurfacing including the addition of bike lanes.

All of the maintenance and repaving is federally funded, as is the new pavement marking, but the city gets to decide where the lines are to be drawn. For now, the summer plans to begin installing bicycle lanes on Madison and other streets have been slowed by the recent floods, which have kept city public works crews busy with tasks other than remarking streets.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will have to make a call settling the controversy – approve or reject bike lanes on Madison.

“No decision has been made,” Wagenschutz said. “It’s been delayed again – the implementation – because of the flooding. It’s been pushed back. I don’t have a firm date.”

While a decision has yet to be made, Wagenschutz has been listening to concerns from those on both sides of the debate.

“We continue to work and meet with business owners along the corridor and interest groups who are both in support of and in opposition to,” he said. “The mayor has not made a decision.”

The Madison controversy differs greatly from another city street that could soon be brandished with bike lanes. When Wagenschutz hosted a public hearing last month on the proposed North Parkway bicycle lanes there was no vocal opposition to that idea.

There were some concerns voiced about how to handle transitions in traffic, but no one at the standing room only hearing at Rhodes College appeared opposed to the bicycle lanes that would, like the Madison Avenue plan, eliminate one lane of traffic in each direction.

The difference is the four-mile stretch of North Parkway is mostly residential, unlike Madison and its many businesses. And the city plans to stop the North Parkway bike lanes from intersecting with East Parkway where North Parkway turns into Summer Avenue and the road’s name change comes with a much different land use that is predominantly business-oriented.

Meanwhile, more than 60 business owners on Madison Avenue oppose bicycle lanes because they say it will hinder vehicular traffic and hurt business.

“It’s not that we are against bicycles or bicycle lanes. Nothing like that,” said Mike Cooper, owner of Mercury Valet Service Inc., near Madison and McLean Boulevard. “We need the traffic. We don’t need any impediments.”

Cooper and the other merchants have instead advocated shared lanes with plenty of signage urging motorists to share the road.

“The rules aren’t being enforced,” Cooper said. “Bicycles are entitled to a lot of things they are not getting. If we do this, we are in a position to enforce those rules without the potential to drive traffic to parallel venues like Poplar or Union, which has happened in the past.”

Advocates of the lanes say the only way for bicyclists to be safe is with a dedicated bicycle lane. They contend it will mean more business along the street, not less, thanks to an increase in walkers and cyclists.

In his recommendation, Wagenschutz terms the two-mile stretch of Madison “an ideal candidate” for the transition to a bike lane and one lane of auto traffic in each direction with a median strip.

“Precedents from varying cities in North America show that corridors like Madison do not see traffic volume reductions after the ‘road diet’ is implemented,” he said. “Businesses in other cities, and locally, have found that being located next to roadways with low traffic speeds and increased usage of bicycles have benefited sales, revenues and patronage. Customers tend to spend more money when they travel to a business by bicycle than they would if they traveled by car.”

Some of the bike lane advocates have organized Facebook- and Twitter-fueled campaigns to make their point that include boycotting the businesses opposed to bike lanes or at least writing their support for the lanes on their receipts from those businesses.

Madison’s business community has always been predominantly and overwhelmingly small, local and non-chain with very diverse pursuits. It’s a mix that includes nail salons, laundromats, private mail centers, recording studios, doctors offices, dental practices, apartment buildings, and nightclubs and restaurants.

The eastern end of the Madison bike lanes would be in Overton Square, the entertainment district born in 1970 defining Midtown’s makeover for a then younger generation.

The square is already a hub for bicyclists making their own connection to Overton Park. It’s made the square a rallying point for both sides.

Live From Memphis’ Bikesploitation Bike and Film Festival was held last month around the time of Bike to Work Day. Both events speak to the rising popularity of cycling in Memphis. (Photo: Courtesy of Live From Memphis)

The battle of Madison Avenue is literally an argument about the street itself. And it’s not the first battle over the east-west thoroughfare.

Depending on who you talk to, the scars of the previous battle are the trolley tracks that run from Main Street to just east of Cleveland.

Construction of the Madison trolley route that opened in 2004 left many of the small businesses along the route between Main Street and Cleveland with no access for customers for months at a time. And many didn’t last long enough to see the end of the construction, even despite the Memphis Area Transit Authority finding ways to partially compensate some.

Those that did survive or came later say traffic from the street to their doors has never recovered.

For those who use Madison on car or bike, the tracks are not something to be taken lightly. That is especially true for bikers who have learned through trial and error to always ride across the tracks when they are horizontal to the bike wheels. But that isn’t always possible. Add automobiles shifting lanes to avoid the tracks and the interplay between cars and bicycles and trolleys becomes more complex. The trolleys are the only element in the triangle with a predictable course. But the tracks still take a path that isn’t limited to one lane of traffic.

The Madison bike lanes wouldn’t begin until Cleveland where the trolley tracks have one final spasm of tracks going in different directions before settling into a single track down the center of Madison that ends just short of Watkins. Presumably the bicycle lanes would begin somewhere around Watkins. If not, the western end of the Madison bicycle lanes would involve some drastic changes in the trolley tracks.

The Madison debate isn’t so much about the presence of the trolley tracks. It’s about the hit businesses on the other side of the Cleveland intersection in particular took when the trolley line was installed. Backers of the bicycle lanes say it’s not a fair comparison because the bicycle lane conversion will take weeks compared to the years it took to build the trolley line.

Opponents of the bicycle lanes say it’s a valid comparison because Memphis drivers have long memories.

Architect Bob Horrell said traffic is still less than it was before the trolley as customers avoid Madison entirely for other east-west routes like Union rather than weave from lane to lane to avoid the tracks. Horrell’s firm has been on Madison since 1974. His employees rode bicycles to work then and still do. With them, he has mapped out an alternate route that includes Monroe Avenue as the east-west roadway for bicycles through the critical part of Midtown. But Horrell said he knows the alternate east-west route wouldn’t qualify for the funding for the bike lanes because the streets are smaller.

“If I have to go to Downtown now, I go Union Avenue,” he said. “I used to go Madison Avenue west for 20 something years. Now I avoid it like the plague.”