Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
The frustration that Knox County continues to allow for growth without addressing the infrastructure needed to support that growth is growing. Substandard roads with lane width and line of sight issues continue to absorb more and more traffic with seemingly no plan in place to address it. Northshore Drive in Choto is a prime example. It is beyond its recommended capacity at the Jefferson Park neighborhood and there’s more growth coming.
Meanwhile, in the Town of Farragut this community has been tackling our substandard roads and addressing the safety, capacity and connectivity of our transportation network since we were incorporated in 1980. There’s a map on the Town’s website that illustrates the roads that have been improved since incorporation.
In the mid-80s, under Mayor Bob Leonard’s leadership, the Town began to build out a sidewalk/trail system when roads were improved to address the safety for those traveling in cars as well as pedestrians and bicyclists. There is a map that illustrates the Town’s extensive sidewalk/trail system on the Town’s website. The Town continues to plan for improvements to the remaining substandard roads through the capital improvement program and budgeting process.
For years, the Town’s road improvement projects had design parameters that were aligned with long-established transportation engineering design standards. McFee Road, Old Stage Road and
Everett Road were built to those long-established standards. This community has learned that those standards lead to roads that are too fast and can make for very inhospitable and unsafe conditions
for the pedestrians and bicyclists traveling on the sidewalks and sidepaths next to these very fast roads.
Thankfully the transportation engineering profession has recognized this issue as well and has amended their standards to allow for much greater flexibility while addressing safety in road design.
During last week’s planning commission meeting, the planning commissioners approved amendments to our road standards. These amendments took into consideration the existing context of each individual road and provided design parameters from which a safe road can be constructed while preserving the character of that road and minimizing impact on the homeowners along the respective roads.
For example, regarding Evans Road, the old standards would have produced a roadway similar to McFee Road. The amended design standards have a reduced lane width, a natural ditch stormwater drainage (as opposed to curb and gutter) and one 8-foot asphalt trail. With the flexibility we now have, the Town may be able to fit this amended cross section in its existing right of way on Evans Road.
The Town’s roadways can be attractive assets when their context is considered during the design process. The amendments to the planning commission’s subdivision regulations consider the unique qualities of each road and seek to preserve those unique qualities while providing for a safe road.
Louise Povlin, Farragut
