Choto residents talk roadway safety
By Ken Leinart
Traffic studies can tell you a lot of things about a community.
Where are the bottlenecks along a certain route? What’s the average daily speed on this road or that road? Where are crashes most likely to happen? What are the road conditions?
Under Knox County’s amended Comprehensive Land Use and Transportation Plan and Growth Policy Plan, several communities in the county were selected as specific areas of study under the heading of Advance Knox.
The study evaluates challenges related to increased development and traffic congestion and will evaluate current and future road conditions, look at alternative transportation (greenways, bike lanes) and how to improve safety, capacity, and connectivity to the surrounding area.
Cannon and Cannon Civil Engineering and Consulting firm shared its study findings Thursday, Jan. 16, for the Choto Peninsula in southwest Knox County.
“How does Knox County grow in an economic and viable way while maintaining quality of life? This is an opportunity to get feedback to help make better decisions,” Cannon and Cannon CEO Houston Daugherty told those attending Thursday’s information meeting. “Maybe you’re seeing something on your daily commute we’re not seeing.
“These are roads we drive daily and routinely and we can almost do on autopilot.”
Thursday’s meeting highlighted at least two areas along Northshore Drive for improvements that are planned and budgeted, plus others that are under further study.
One area in need of improvement is the intersection of Montgomery Cove and Northshore Drive, resident Mary Costner said.
“You can’t turn left onto Northshore there,” she said. “Especially in the afternoon because the traffic is heavier and the sun shines in your eyes. We asked Knox County to put in a round-a-about four years ago and they said no.
“A turn lane is not going to help.”
Costner said she hopes any improvements made will make roadways safer, “Not faster.”
Resident Ginger Sharpe said she and her then 15-year-old son witnessed, “a horrific accident” at the intersection three years ago. “We were the first ones on the scene. It traumatized my son. It traumatized me.”
Sharpe said the weather was bad and a young driver overcorrected after a skid and lost control of the car and hit a tree.
“There’s not a shoulder there, she just slid off the roadway,” Sharpe said.
She said traffic conditions around Concord Park and Jefferson Park are especially dangerous.
“I’ve seen people use the turning lane as a passing lane,” she said. “I think all of Northshore does have a problem.”
Similar stories were shared Thursday; congestion, narrow roadways and speeding cars were common threads.
But speeding, according to the completed traffic surveys, was not as big of a problem as it may seem.
“You look at the average daily speed and it’s 39 in a 35. That’s four miles. That’s not bad,” Farragut Mayor Ron Williams said.
He said whatever causes are determined and whatever solutions are settled on, “I hope it makes Northshore Drive safer and takes some of the congestion away from Farragut.”
Attendees Thursday night were presented with three charts. The first showed the peninsula traffic pattern as is. The second showed the two planned improvements and those under further review.
The third asked residents to mark areas they had concerns about with color-coded dots.
Daugherty said once Cannon and Cannon incorporates citizen feedback into its study he hopes there will be another information-sharing meeting.
“That would seem to make sense,” he said. “But that’s up to Knox County.”
More information on the study can be found at www.knoxcounty.org/epw/ChotoMobility.php.
