This week, a City of Knoxville crew added bike lanes to the Gay Street Bridge and on Sevier Avenue from Blount Avenue to Dixie Street. Additional markings and signs will be added.
Once utility work near the intersection of Island Home Avenue and Sevier Avenue is complete, the crew will continue these bike lanes on Sevier to Anita Avenue.
A portion of the new bike lanes are buffered; there's a 2.5-foot-wide painted buffer between the bike lane and the motor vehicle lane, which is intended to provide a more comfortable, safer route for the bicyclists.
This is a milestone - Knoxville's first buffered bike lane separating bicyclists and moving vehicles!
This week's striping of the bike lanes follows a Sept. 22 public meeting at South Knoxville Elementary School, 801 Sevier Ave., where City traffic engineers presented a plan for adding two bike lanes – one eastbound and one westbound. The improvements will eliminate the center turn lane and upgrade the roadway to include one vehicular lane in each direction with two 5-foot-wide bike lanes.
This stretch of Sevier Avenue also was one of 11 streets prioritized by citizens at a May 21, 2014, public meeting when asked where they wanting bike lanes added. Last spring, City officials presented a finalized Bicycle Facilities Plan that recommended ways to create better, safer connections for bicycle riders, and the plan detailed and prioritized dozens of projects.
Kudos to the City's Engineering Department and Office of Redevelopment for planning the bike lanes and incorporating alternative transportation as the South Waterfront is redeveloped!