Narrowing Hixson Pike
Proposal to cut lanes and slow speeds at Riverview stirs opinions
Aproposal to narrow a stretch of Hixson Pike to traffic, slow cars to 25 mph and add parallel parking and bike lanes to the road at the Riverview shopping district is drawing laurels and darts.
“It’s not trying to take cars off the road, but make it as safe as possible,” said Matt Skudlarek, co-owner of The Daily Ration restaurant at Hixson Pike and Dartmouth Street. “Pedestrian safety is the biggest issue for me.”
But motorist Don Helms said he thinks the proposal is “a terrible idea.”
“It slows traffic down too much,” he said. “It seems like bikes are taking over.”
Chattanooga’s transportation department is looking at the potential changes to boost safety and efficiency in a two- to threeblock section of Hixson Pike and surrounding streets around the Riverview Village Center.
Bert Kuyrkendall, the city’s transportation engineer, said the car crash rate in that area is 63 percent higher than the state average and there’s a safety issue.
“We need to get people down to a slower speed,” he said. “It will make it safer for pedestrians and make the area feel safer.”
Also, Kuyrkendall said, the moves would give that area more of a sense of place and make it “kind of like downtown.”
Hixson Pike would narrow from five lanes of traffic to three, including a turn lane. Driving in-bound from Hixson, that merger would start about a block earlier than it now does as the road turns into the three-laned Barton Avenue. The new traffic merger would begin at about Dartmouth Street rather than near the traffic light at Dorchester Road.
Kuyrkendall said space would be created on the outside of Hixson Pike for about 15 to 20 vehicles to parallel park. Those vehicles would be separated by bike lanes. Also, there would be new and improved sidewalks, streetscapes, enhancements for the disabled, painted “bulb-outs,” or artifical narrowing of roads, and bus loading zones, according to the proposal.
Speeds would drop from 35 mph to 30 mph at the approaches and then to 25 mph, Kuyrkendall said. In addition, designed parking spaces would be added on side streets in the area, he said.
But Chattanooga businessman Chris Beasley, who lives about a half mile away, questions putting parallel parking on that redesigned piece of Hixson Pike.
“Street-level parking with people trying to parallel park, or opening doors, or walking out between cars, which hides pedestrians from motorists, [it] seems like those things would decrease safety,” he said in an email.
Also, Beasley wondered about truck deliveries to restaurants and other businesses in the area.
“I know they say they’re making a plan [for truck deliveries] but there is no way you can guarantee that all businesses and all truckers follow that plan … ” he said. “If trucks are left to idle in a left-turn lane while making deliveries, they will obstruct traffic at three intersections, and obstruct visibility, making pedestrians less safe.”
Skudlarek said people at a recent community meeting raised concerns that Hixson Pike would end up looking more like the busy and sometimes congested Frazier Avenue.
He said the proposed Hixson Pike reconfiguration would be more roomy than Frazier. Also, he said, a traffic study showed the changes, including lowering the speed limit, would add just 15 seconds for motorists traveling toward downtown at peak hours. Outbound, the changes would add about 40 seconds at peak, he said.
“There’s an influx of people who walk, bike and go to businesses in that area,” Skudlarek said.
Faith Hayes, who lives off Hixson Pike, said she can see the proposal working.
“There is a lot of traffic through here,” she said at a Riverview convenience store. “It would be better for pedestrians. Sometimes people drive too fast through here.”
Kuyrkendall said early estimates are that the changes would cost from $50,000 to $75,000. The city plans to review community feedback, make changes to the proposal and issue a new plan on the department’s website, he said.
Kuyrkendall said the city council wouldn’t need to sign off on the proposal. If the transportation department decides to go forward, changes could start rolling out in mid- to late-May to early June, he said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-7576318.