farragutpress

Solutions?

In wake of teenager’s serious hit-and-run injuries, residents in Thornton Heights seek answers to residential speeding: Burnette, Smoak at special meeting with 30

September 18, 2024 by Alan Sloan

A vehicle speeding while going north on Thornton Drive during a neighborhood meeting with two Town of Farragut government officials became a symbol of residents’ anger and frustrations with speeding motorists in Thornton Heights subdivision, which surrounds Concord United Methodist Church.

The meeting included about 30 adult residents living along Thornton, Roane, Hughlan and Farr drives and Towne Road.

Perhaps sparked by the Aug. 8 hit-and-run accident seriously injuring an FHS 16-year-old student waiting for her morning bus at the corner of Thornton and Hughlan, residents met with Town of Farragut South Ward Alderman Drew Burnette and Town administrator David Smoak to give their opinions and ask questions: what can the Town do to help slow down drivers?

This roughly 60-minute exchange came in the southeast parking lot of CUMC Wednesday evening, Sept. 11.

“You all have had a pretty tragic accident within the last few weeks,” Burnette said. “... So I’m really here for two things: one is the absolute most important thing, which is feedback. I want to hear from you. I don’t want to assume I know what you’re going through. I don’t want to assume I know what the problems are. Speeding is a problem all over, right? But I want to hear from you on the speeding, on the roads, on the cut-through.

“And if you see me writing down, I’ve got a big space here for notes,” he added.”That’s the first thing, is I need to hear from you all, what you’re experiencing and what your frustrations are.

“And then the second piece is we’ve got processes in place.”

About half of the adult residents on hand had at least one question and/or comment for Burnette and Smoak.

Burnette said the Town would “start with a speed study” in this area.

Meanwhile, resident Joe McBride said he “started back in 2007 trying to get this traffic calming (speed bumps) through the Town of Farragut, and here’s a letter that I got back 17 years ago. … They told me it’s not in a fiscal budget. I see calming (speed bumps) around Town. I see all the other stuff around Town. Where do we fit in?”

“I can tell you this is not true anymore; it is in the budget if it meets the traffic study requirements,” Burnette said.

Smoak advised that whatever residents in this area decide they want, there must be “50 percent plus one (resident)” in this community who approve in order for the Town to take action, whether that be speed bumps and/or any other speed-calming measures.

Burnette said the “process has been narrowed down to have the effective areas vote specifically on those traffic calming applications,” letting those most affected be the only ones to have a vote.

One resident skeptical of speed bumps said motorists “don’t slow down there either. … They’ll hit those speed bumps at 50 miles an hour.”

Burnette said speed bumps are “a fairly easy thing to obtain.”

Without a Town police force, having Knox County Sheriff’s Office to enforce the speed limit was not considered a viable option due to lack of availability.

“In terms of lowering the speed limit, though, there are studies that show that as you decrease the speed limit from 25 to 20, the visibility of pedestrians goes up significantly more …,” one resident announced. “… You increase the visibility of pedestrians in a significant way so that increases the safety of those people walking along the road.”

A resident suggested installing at least one electronic/digital speed monitoring device to show motorists their speed and indicate it’s “Too Fast,” which are included along McFee Road, in Concord Hills subdivision and along Everett Road, among other locations.

One resident said he’s taken “an active effort, in some cases, of physically slowing traffic. I’ve stopped people in the road and told them they’re going too fast.”

Yet another resident said, “The crazy thing is the speeders in here aren’t the 16 year-olds, they’re the 70 year-olds.”

Cut-through traffic in this neighborhood is prevalent “because traffic is so bad — it’s worse Friday, but it’s terrible all the time,” one resident said.

“I mean, I have cars on my bumper, honking and everything trying to get through the neighborhood, cutting through because Kingston Park is so backed up,” she added.

It wasn’t clear that considering sidewalks in this community would be either allowable from a construction/ordinance standpoint or from an expense standpoint.

Burnette warned the residents, “if you don’t get consensus, and then the vote fails, you’ve got to wait a certain period of time before you can even go back for traffic calming measures.”

As for procedure without a subdivision HOA, “Each street will have two to five people that are representatives of that street. Our engineering team will get with your team on that street and talk through what’s the most effective thing,” Smoak said.

(More comments/questions in next week’s part 2 report)