City completes six neighborhood traffic-calming projects this year

KNOXVILLE - In recent weeks, the City put the finishing touches on its sixth traffic-calming project for 2019-20. The project is part of the City’s Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program.

From left: Chilhowee Park Neighborhood Association members Joe Woods, Teresa Cox, Sherene Jacobs, Kelle Jolly and Karen Pace stand behind a speed hump on Woodbine Avenue. Image courtesy of City of Knoxville

The program, a joint effort by the City’s Office of Neighborhoods, the Engineering Department and residents, is designed to help neighborhoods address traffic-calming issues and apply for engineered traffic-safety solutions.

It’s a thorough and lengthy process. First, residents meet and share information and preferences. They collect petitions to gain support from their neighbors before traffic engineers conduct speed studies and tailor a plan for devices, such as speed humps, that are specific to each community’s preferences, street design, traffic patterns and topography.

Interested in starting the process in your neighborhood? For information on the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program, or details about starting a Slow Down in K-Town anti-speeding education campaign in your neighborhood, click here.

Meanwhile, check out this City Blog post about what neighbors in the Chilhowee Park Neighborhood Association are saying about their new speed humps on East Fifth and Woodbine avenues.

As one Chilhowee Park area resident put it, “The speed humps have changed the whole vibe of our neighborhood. I see people out walking and utilizing the streets again.”

Other neighborhoods where Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program traffic-calming projects have been completed:

• West Hills Community Association: Corteland Drive and Marlboro Road
• Fountaincrest Neighborhood Association: Hillcrest Drive
• Beverly Place residents: Beverly Place
• Westmoreland Hills Homeowners Association and Nubbin Ridge Road residents: Westmoreland Boulevard, Nubbin Ridge Road and Whitower Drive
• Wesley Neighbors Community Association: Wesley Road, Sheffield Drive and Gainesborough Drive

Assistant Neighborhood Coordinator Eden Slater encourages neighborhood residents to start their application process early, because building consensus and Engineering staff doing the technical work takes several years.

“Developing a neighborhood-specific traffic-calming plan is intricate and requires effort, dialogue and collaboration,” Slater said. “People interested in the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program should go online and familiarize themselves with what the process entails. Please contact the Office of Neighborhoods. We can help navigate through the process and share what’s worked well in other neighborhoods.”

Due to the large number of applications in process and limited funding, it typically takes three to five years for a traffic-calming project to move from concept to design to installation.

Published September 19, 2020