City staff will hold a public meeting on Monday, June 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. to present a proposal for a "complete streets" project on Broadway that will add bicycle lanes. The meeting will be held at All Occasion Catering, located at 922 N. Central Street.

City staff will seek input from community residents and property owners about a proposal to restripe North Broadway between Depot Avenue and Central Street.

The “complete streets” proposal calls for adding bike lanes to this section of Broadway and reducing the road from four to three traffic lanes.

Broadway is already three lanes north of Central Street, and the state’s Broadway Viaduct replacement will convert the bridge to three lanes. So making this section of Broadway between Depot Avenue and Central Street a three-lane road would add consistency, reduce confusion and lane mergers, and therefore improve safety, according to traffic engineers.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, a change from four lanes to three lanes can generate a reduction in crashes by 19 to 47 percent.

Adding bike lanes to this section of Broadway would implement one of the top 25 priorities identified in the City’s Bicycle Facilities Plan. Completing this “missing link” would connect existing Central Street bike lanes to Fort Sanders, the University of Tennessee and the City’s 18-mile downtown greenway system via Second Creek Greenway.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) conducted a traffic study of this section of Broadway in 2015, finding daily traffic to be approximately 10,000 drivers with a projection of fewer than 11,000 drivers by 2035. The Federal Highway Administration advises that roadways with an average daily traffic volume of 20,000 cars or fewer are strong candidates for adding bicycle lanes and reducing traffic lanes.

For more information on the City’s Bicycle Facilities Plan, please visit www.knoxvilletn.gov/bikeplan .

Anyone needing a disability accommodation to attend the public meeting should contact the City’s ADA Coordinator, Stephanie Cook, at [email protected] or 865-215-2034. For an English interpreter, contact Title VI Coordinator Tatia M. Harris at 865-215-2831.