• Transportation Plan
  • Map 11: Transportation Proposals

Transportation Plan

This transportation plan includes projects that are currently being designed as well as long range improvements that are yet to be funded. For many years, transportation planning was equated with highway improvements, particularly with moving vehicles through older areas as opposed to improvements that meet the needs of residents and businesses that are located near a project. Alternative designs and ancillary improvements, such as separated sidewalks and landscaping, are identified where more pedestrian-scaled, neighborhood friendly projects can be realized. Such objectives are in keeping with the theme of building stronger neighborhoods. Other forms of transportation, including trolley, bus and bicycle facilities, are also addressed. Multi-modal systems are necessary to the vitality of the Central City.

An alternative for one part of North Central Street: onstreet parking, better sidewalks and street trees would enhance pedestrian safety and provide better business access in the “Happy Hollow” area.

Street and highway improvements

• Local streets in Oakwood, Lincoln Park, Lonsdale, Old North and Park Ridge: develop traffic calming measures, particularly using bulb-outs to avoid damage to parked vehicles, provide greater pedestrian safety and improve the streetscape.
• North Central Street: redesign to provide landscaping, greater sidewalk separation and traffic calming, thus protecting the neighborhoods while improving business access.
• Cumberland Avenue (17th to 22nd): slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety through traffic calming techniques and pedestrian improvements.
• I-40/James White Parkway improvements: this project also includes the new Broadway interchange and the 5th Avenue connector from Hall-of-Fame Drive to Magnolia and 5th Avenue.
• Gap Drive: extend to Texas Avenue, improving access from I-640 and to Clinton Highway.
• Henley Street Bridge: refurbish and widen.
• I-275/Baxter Avenue Interchange: improve ramps/turning radius.
• I-275/Heiskell Avenue Interchange: improve ramps/turning radius.
• I-275/Woodland Avenue Interchange: improve ramps/turning radius.
• Neyland Drive: slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety through traffic calming techniques and pedestrian improvements.
• Pleasant Ridge Road: widen to three lanes.
• Magnolia Avenue: continue to create the boulevard type of design, particularly in mixed use districts.
• Western Avenue (Texas to Keith): widen to four lanes with landscaped median, separated sidewalks and/or greenway trail.
• Woodland Avenue: provide turn lanes at key intersections between North Central Street and Huron Street, maintaining the two-lane facility and its sidewalks.

The road design for Nashville’s Music Row could be a model for improvements along such Central City arterials as North Central Street.

This photograph depicts the type of alleys that can be achieved when standards are in place for adequate turning into garage entrances.

• Alleys: adopt standards for alley design and garage setbacks, enhancing alley usefulness, and in turn, avoiding the need to park cars on sidewalks, planting strips and front yards.

This design for Magnolia Avenue should be the prototype for many road improvements including Western Avenue.

Sidewalks
This transportation plan calls for a network of sidewalks. The following are proposed:

• a system of separated sidewalks that would be within one-quarter mile of all households
• repaired and connected sidewalks within the older neighborhoods that were built on a grid system
• a network of well-maintained sidewalks in the most intensely developed areas, including Downtown, the university and adjacent neighborhoods

Transit
The development of Knoxville Central Station, a proposed downtown transit center, is the foremost project. Additional improvements are outlined in the KAT Action Plan 2010, including:

• Fifteen-minute service on key routes (Kingston Pike, Magnolia Avenue, Broadway and Chapman Highway)
• More neighborhood routes and later service
• An extension of “Call-A-KAT” throughout the city (a program for those who do not live near a route; they can call and be picked up and taken to the nearest route)
• Alternative fuel vehicles
• Extensive new service to UT and other areas near Downtown, particularly trolley service

Better linkages between Downtown, the university and nearby neighborhoods are critical transit objectives.