Proposed James White Parkway Extension in Knoxville

A public hearing will be held at South Doyle Middle School December 6 at 5:00 PM over the proposed extension to the James White Parkway in South Knoxville. The TDOT description of the proposed project and lengthy history is here. The proposed project has drawn significant opposition because of the number of homes that will have to be taken, plus the degradation to the numerous trails and such that have been constructed in the area that would occur were the project to proceed. Parts of South Knoxville do not want through traffic to bypass it by going around Chapman Highway. Here is a partial list of project opponents. The proposed project would cost more than $100 million dollars.

• Knoxville News Sentinel Editorial Board
• Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero
• Knoxville Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis
• Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett
• The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club
• Legacy Parks Foundation
• Ijams Nature Center
• South Haven Neighborhood Association
• Metro Pulse's Frank Cagle

The project is designed to alleviate an expected increase in traffic on Chapman highway in the future. Alternatives that have been proposed are improvements on Chapman Highway. Chapman Highway, being one of the main streets in south Knoxville, can certainly be upgraded in its bike/ped friendliness with sidewalks and bike lanes as part of any overall improvement project.

Knoxville - North Gay St Redevelopment

Metro Pulse is reporting that a plan to modify north Gay St so that it would have wider sidewalks and traffic lanes, but reduce the number of lanes from 4 to 2, is in its final stages of planning. The plans were started around 2009. Crossing 2 lanes of traffic will be easier than crossing 4 at the same time. Being a heavily biked area, the modifications would make that section of road much more of a complete street. Where else do we have streets that could use some similar sort of "diet?"

Smart Growth America - Nashville Report

Nashville was featured in Smart Growth America's email as a city that has successfully redeveloped its Riverfront. The riverfront has now become "an asset for revitalization efforts" and is a place that people want to go to, rather than simply go by. The fact that Rick Bernhardt, a Nashville planning executive, remarked that "Not any one of the downtown attractions can succeed on its own, but the synergy from different elements, along with the locals and tourists creates something special" points to the importance of good planning. This development took decades, and has helped to revitalize downtown.

Out in Knoxville, a similar process has occurred and is ongoing with its own riverfront. I believe the same is occurring in Chattanooga, and perhaps Memphis and elsewhere as well. Note how although such growth does not automatically tie into bike/walk things, the development of urban landscapes inherently favors biking and walking.

Heat wave with 100+ degree temperatures

The Knoxville News Sentinel is reporting near record-high temperatures Friday across the state. The all-time record temperature was broken in Nashville at 109 (was 107). Chattanooga hit 106, tying its all-time record. Same with the Tri-Cities at 102. Knoxville tied its June record at 102 as well. Oak Ridge broke the June record at 104. The Tour de Rocky Top, taking place today (Saturday June 30) had its century ride (100 miles) cancelled this year due to the heat for safety reasons.

Attack on Knoxville cyclist - case under investigation

Knoxville cyclist David Thomas was attacked by a motorist riding on Magnolia Avenue, and received surgery for his injuries. The case is under investigation, and anybody with information about the case should contact the Knoxville Police Department. Details of the attack are currently sketchy. What are ways in which cyclists and pedestrians can be better protected from criminal attack?

Knoxsplat.com - Knoxville Area Commuting Challenge

I just received an email from Chuck Morris detailing some of the dismal facts surrounding the commute situation in the 7 county area surrounding Knoxville. A green commuting event is scheduled for Friday, May 27 at Market Square in downtown Knoxville at noon to highlight the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization's SmartTrips program.

The dismal facts of the current situation are quoted below.
About 1/2 pound of CO2 emissions would fill up a beach ball that is 24 inches around when inflated. The average U.S. commuter generates 57 pounds of CO2 each day. That's about 100 beach balls per day for each person!

The average commute time for the 7-county Knoxville region is just over 26 miles one way. 84.5% of commuters in our region drive alone to work daily.

If just half of the region’s drive alone commuters took an alternative to driving alone for one day, at 20 miles to the gallon average, they would save nearly half a million gallons of fuel. At $4 per gallon that would represent a savings of around $2 million dollars.

Knoxville Third Creek/Neyland Greenway signs

(Sign images are adapted from the Manual of Traffic Signs, by Richard C. Moeur)

This past weekend when I went through Knoxville's Third Creek and Neyland Greenways, I noticed that the Neyland Greenway had its old "cross traffic does not stop" signs replaced with the much more straightforward yield signs. Portions of Neyland Greenway runs parallel to Neyland Drive, and turning traffic from Neyland Drive will cross the greenway. As previously mentioned, parallel paths to roads have a problem with intersections, in that turning traffic has a conflict with path traffic. The yield signs remind greenway users to the fact that at every such intersection they are to yield to any turning traffic for their safety. Fortunately, the number of intersections is not large, so the number of yields is manageable.

At the Third Creek Greenway. there is a partial detour due to a KUB (Knoxville Utilities Board) project. There, I saw the new combo Bike/Ped sign with a "Share the Road" supplemental for the first time when the greenway was detoured onto sparsely used service roads of the University.

Dogwood Arts Festival Bike Rides April 9-10, 2011

The Dogwood Arts Festival is ongoing in Knoxville, and as part of it were two bike rides through town for riders to enjoy the views. The first ride took place April 9 from Ijams Nature Center and was cosponsored by the Smoky Mountain Wheelmen bicycle club. It wound through the Island Home Neighborhood, and was the first such ride in South Knoxville. The second ride was April 10, and started and finished at the Laurel Church of Christ and went through the Sequoyah Hills Neighborhood. It was cosponsored by the KnoxRevolution bicycle club, which did a marvelous job at marking the route, as well as having someone point riders to every turn. The Knoxville Police Department kindly provided some support with traffic. Several dozen riders participated in each ride.

Beginner friendly rides like these serve not only to get people introduced to riding, but can also serve as an introduction to the fun aspects of cycling, in addition to letting more experienced riders enjoy a leisurely ride.

Knoxville downtown pedestrian struck by turning vehicle

It was just reported that a woman was struck at the intersection of Church Avenue and State Street. She was crossing with the light in the crosswalk, when a vehicle turned into her.

Looking at a map of the intersection, where Church Ave is two-way and State St one way, it appears that the most likely scenario is that the car driver did not notice her when she crossed. Now, the car was turning, and since the pedestrian had a green, it follows that the car must have had a red light.

Knoxville Regional TPO Bicycle Rack Grant Program

The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) has a bicycle rack grant program, that make it so that any private business or non-profit, or other agency can get one standard upside-down U-shaped bike rack installed for just $21. (Additional racks are available at full price.) Non-profits and community service agencies may be eligible to have the $21 waived. The counties for which the program applies are Knox, Blount, Jefferson, Anderson, Loudon, and Sevier. The racks install into existing concrete. The steps for an installation are as follows (quoted courtesy of the Knoxville TPO):

Job Opportunity - Knox County Health Department

(Information quoted from League of American Bicyclists Email)
The Knox County Health Department is seeking a Health Planner to lead projects focused on the built environment and health.

The application is available here. Deadline is January 28.

Mini Adventure Series

A new addition to the Mini Adventure Series has just recently been released. The series, by Knoxville locals Elle Colquitt and Jon Livengood, provide a series of invigorating recreational bike rides. The first book of the series describes rides on the back roads of the Knoxville area, the second is for off road mountain bike trails throughout the state, and the third is on the back roads of the Chattanooga/north Georgia area. That book also has urban routes listed. Elevaton gains and distances are included along with cue sheets.

Christmas time - example of bike decor

Well, it's that festive time of year again. One of my friends (Pete Hines) from Michigan, who loves to build a variety of lights for his bike, has built the following setup for his bike shown here.

(Photo courtesy of Angela Todd.)

Last year, at the annual Tour de Lights in Knoxville, we had more than 400 riders. Let's hope for an even larger showing this year at the fourth annual event. Events such as this one are not only fun, but can go quite a ways toward raising awareness of issues.

(Edit: Please note that due to forecast rain, the Tour de Lights this year has been rescheduled to the same time, but a new date. The date of the event is now Tuesday, December 21.)

Campbell Station Rd expansion complete

The Farragut Press Enterprise is reporting that the widening of Campbell Station Rd is complete. This stretch of road has been widened to be 5 lanes, with bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. This project is an example of a road widening that also completed the street, in that all modes of travel are readily accommodated now. It is also located in such a way that quite a few neighborhoods have ready access to all the Farragut Schools (Primary, Intermediate, Middle, and High) in addition to the Farragut branch of the Knox County Libraries.

Putting more cyclists and pedestrians on the road is a good thing, even when there aren't special facilities for them in that drivers would tend to be more alert. One effect of bike lanes in areas is that people tend to venture beyond the areas with the lanes, putting more bikes on the road overall.

East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition (ETCFC)

Yesterday at the University of Tennessee's homecoming celebration, I had a chance to visit the College of Engineering where I was able to pick up a brochure from the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition. The brochure contains many statistics for the area that are quite striking; basically, their two main goals are to (1) "reduce dependence on foreign oil, and (2) improve regional air quality and sustainability." The coalition is a participant in the Department of Energy's Clean Cities Program.

Electric Bicycles - HummingBike

This report on a Knoxville startup company, HummingBike, that makes electric bicycles serves as a reminder to advantages that these vehicles bring. Most of the advantages are there regardless of whether the bike is electric or not. The advantages listed in the article are as follows.

Knoxville News Sentinel Editorial - Tennesseans can walk away from obesity

In an editorial Friday, the Knoxville News Sentinel noted that healthy lifestyles are not inherited, and that Tennessee ranks second in the nation (tied with Alabama) for obesity rates. A new free program by the Knoxville Track Club seeks to get people walking rather than running, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 6:30 PM at Cherokee Blvd. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee is also encouraging school walking programs.

Congratulations Knoxville for Becoming a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly Community!

The League of American Bicyclists has just awarded Knoxville it's bronze level award for being a bike-friendly city. The award was earned in large part due to the hard work of the Knoxville Regional TPO and its wonderful transportation planner Kelley Segars, along with the local bike advisory committee and hundreds of area cyclists. To date, the only other city in the state that has earned the award is Chattanooga since 2003. A complete list of bike friendly communities is available here (PDF).

The level of progress made in recent years is wonderful, but there is still much to be done both in Knoxville and elsewhere. Major projects are underway in Memphis under Mayor Wharton. Also, let's not forget smaller communities and towns such as Farragut and Oak Ridge, where bike lanes and sidewalks are parts of substantial construction taking place.

Knoxville Bike/Ped Happenings

Kelly Segars, Principal Transportation Planner for the Knoxville Regional TPO (bike/ped coordinator) shared several very good links for Knoxville area bicyclists and pedestrians.  These resources are definitely worth checking out and visiting regularly.  Lots of good things going on in Knoxville!

www.bikeknoxville.blogspot.com - has updates on the bicycle program work.
www.knoxsmarttrips.org - has a calendar of events for May, (Bike Month) which include tons of bike stuff
www.knoxsplat.com has info on our Commuter Challenge, which encourages people to bike (and transit, etc)
We're also on facebook. www.facebook.com/bikeknoxville

Staying informed on what's going on in your community helps empower you, the advocate.
Pat Clements