Midlands Voices: Kerrey Bridge popular, well used

The writer is a professor in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Since its opening in September 2008, the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge has been the occasional target of criticism as useless "government pork." But, by and large, it also seems to have become a relatively popular community attraction and, at least to some degree, a symbol of Omaha's downtown redevelopment and the "Back to the River" movement.

Yet only limited information has been available on the usage of the bridge by area citizens. Although the early user counts (see World-Herald articles on April 3, 2009, and May 30, 2010) indicated relatively high rates of bridge usage, they were limited to some extent by their use of relatively small convenience samples. More recent data now allow us to improve on that.

During May 2011, graduate students, using a carefully developed checklist, counted all entries to the Kerrey Bridge from the Omaha side from 8 a.m. until midnight on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All counts were done prior to the flooding that occurred along the Missouri River during the summer and fall.

During the three days of observation, we counted 5,050 entries to the Kerrey Bridge, with an overall rate of 107 users per hour. As one might expect, Saturday was easily the busiest day on the bridge, with an average rate exceeding 150 users per hour. Approximately 90 users per hour were counted on Friday and Sunday. The graphic at right shows the hourly user profile for each of the three days.

In terms of demographics, the Kerrey Bridge was used nearly equally by men and women during our three days of observation. In fact, just over one-half of all bridge users were female. And Omaha's black and Latino citizens are making use of the bridge as well, accounting for nearly one in five of all the entries we recorded.

With regard to the types of activity taking place on the bridge, approximately 9.3 percent of all the bridge users we counted were cyclists and another 4.8 percent of them were joggers or runners. So running and cycling together accounted for just over 14 percent of all uses of the bridge, and the remaining uses were comprised primarily of walking, with a very small number of children in strollers or carriages and some skaters and wheelchair users.

Based on this new evidence, any concerns that a Missouri River bridge devoted exclusively to bicycle and pedestrian activity will become an unused "white elephant" should be put to rest. In fact, the possibility for overcrowding on the bridge seems quite real, at least during its peak hours of use.

In a previous paper, it was suggested by this writer that the Kerrey Bridge had become much more than a transportation corridor; it had become a destination in itself, used as much for simply enjoying the outdoors and sightseeing as for serious exercise. Nothing in the present report refutes that idea.

In fact, these results are consistent with a body of nationwide research indicating that simple, low-demand outdoor activities close to home are done by most Americans more frequently than anything else.

As to the possibility of overcrowding on the bridge, it would not be too surprising if the volume of traffic we have been seeing was not entirely anticipated by bridge developers. Whether or not that is true, future planning for the area surrounding the bridge should keep the potential for overcrowding in mind, especially during weekends and other peak periods of demand.

Above all else, one thing surely seems certain: The Kerrey Bridge brings people to the Omaha riverfront. Whether it does so as a stand-alone attraction or in combination with other downtown venues such as the CenturyLink Center is a topic for future investigation.

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