City Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said planners are "taking a deep breath" before narrowing traffic lanes while adding protected bicycle lanes like just happened on Broad Street.
A number of concerns have been raised by residents as well as merchants on the Broad Street bike lanes.
Mr. Bailey, at the North Chattanooga Summit on Tuesday, said similar changes on busy Frazier Avenue in North Chattanooga have been delayed from this fall to next spring and now to next summer.
He said 15,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day travel on Frazier Avenue - one and a half times the traffic on North Market Street, which also recently was given a "road diet" with the number of roads narrowed.
The speaker said one engineering challenge in adding a bike lane along Frazier is that it causes complications at North Market at the end of the Market Street Bridge. He said it would add more time motorists have to wait at the traffic signal.
Mr. Bailey said Manufacturers Road, which is also slated to get the same treatment leading to Moccasin Bend, has about 5,000 vehicles per day.
He said the city, before proceeding on the other projects, wants to make sure that the "stakeholders and the business owners are buying into it."
Mr. Bailey said the city wants to encourage more bicycle traffic and the best way to do that is to give bikers a lane that is protected by some type of barrier or curb.
He said where there are not protected bike lanes available then motorists often have to contend with "a lot of unlawful cycling activity," including riders going the wrong way and not following other rules of the road.
In addition to the Manufacturers Road "safety" redesign, the third project in line is Cherokee Boulevard, Mr. Bailey said. He said some merchants there are favorable toward narrowing the current five traffic lanes and, among other things, making more street side parking available.
Mr. Bailey said the recent changes on North Market Street were primarily aimed at improving safety. He said the design does allow a designated bicycle lane, but it also should cut down on motor vehicle wrecks with the traffic lanes not being so close together.
He said one problem that remains is a bottleneck between around 7:50-8:15 a.m. that causes delays of up to six minutes for those coming into town.
City Officer Rob Simmons, answering a question from the audience, said it is the responsibility of motorists, when they are turning right while going north on Broad Street, to watch for bicyclists coming up behind them. He noted that those on bikes can cover much more ground in a short time than pedestrians.
He said only pedal-propelled bicycles are allowed in the Broad Street bike lane. He said it will probably be up to a judge to decide if electric bikes can be there.