The city of Chattanooga has extended Frazier Avenue’s temporary traffic pattern to Thursday morning in an effort to collect more data to inform a permanent restructuring of the roadway.
The announcement follows the city’s move to reduce Frazier’s four lanes of traffic — two in either direction — to one lane either way, from Barton Avenue to Market Street, temporarily during every weekend in December.
On New’s Year Day, the city announced the traffic pattern would continue on weekdays until Monday. On Monday, the city decided to extend it again to Thursday morning.
City spokesperson Liam Collins, in a phone interview, would not comment on whether the city anticipates any further extensions.
The temporary traffic pattern, along with a permanent speed limit reduction to 25 mph, was put in place following a fatal crash over Thanksgiving weekend that killed two pedestrians and injured another.
The driver, charged with vehicular homicide by impairment in an alleged road rage incident, struck and killed the pedestrians after losing control of his vehicle and mounting the curb onto the sidewalk in front of the Walnut Bridge Gift Shop.
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In a news release Monday, the city said traffic engineers need more data from weekday traffic to inform a final decision on a permanent traffic pattern change on Frazier Avenue.
Until at least Thursday morning, the release continued, engineers will monitor traffic speeds, the number of cars traveling and travel times.
“After we got through the weekend traffic pattern, we decided — via our experts and engineers — that more data was needed to make a comprehensive and effective change,” Collins said. “It was simply that we needed, that we decided, we needed more data on that front.”
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Chattanooga City Council Vice Chair Jenny Hill, of North Chattanooga, said in a phone interview it’s important to collect traffic data on days outside of the weekend.
“It’s been important for the traffic pattern to be studied during the weekdays so that we can understand how this particular traffic pattern affects the roads that are around Frazier Avenue,” said Hill, whose district contains the site of November’s fatal crash.
She said it’s important to gauge the effect on truck deliveries, the movement of emergency vehicles, ease of access to businesses and pedestrian and vehicle safety.
Hill said she has not come to a conclusion on what a permanent traffic pattern should be.
“But I’m confident that with thorough stakeholder input and studies like these that we will come up with both a short-term and long-term plan that will meet the needs of most people,” Hill said.
Jon Jon Wesolowski, a pedestrian advocate with the Chattanooga Urbanist Society, said in a phone interview that weekdays should have been studied from the beginning.
“We should know all traffic patterns, not just weekend ones,” Wesolowski said. “I’m optimistic that whatever delay in traffic this does or doesn’t cause will be worth the tradeoff for the safety of pedestrians.”
He said he would like to see the temporary traffic pattern remain in place until a permanent pattern is finalized.
“I don’t think they should take away the barrels until they have something better to put in place,” Wesolowski said.
Contact Ben Sessoms at bsessoms@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / A pedestrian walks by a floral memorial at the intersection of Forest and Frazier avenues on Nov. 27.