Roy Exum: Please Change Your Mind

  • Wednesday, October 12, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

The front page headline screamed “Changing Lanes” on Tuesday morning when anyone with a conscience knows it should have read “Change Your Mind.” About half of those surveyed by the Chattanooga Department of Transportation are in favor of cutting down the size of M.L King Blvd. and Bailey Avenue when this is clearly the most bone-headed decision ever, this at a time when no one can deny our existing streets are in deplorable condition. We need to fix necessities, not waste money on any more bicycle foolishness.

In recent months I have conducted a private experiment, driving from Erlanger Hospital to East Brained. I have traveled down Third Street to Brainerd Road, down Bailey Avenue to Brainerd Road, and followed Central Avenue to Rossville Boulevard, using I-24 to the 1-75 junction. So I can tell you that the safest, quickest way is via Bailey Avenue to Brainerd Road.

This is because the eastbound lanes of I-24 are now almost continuously congested as you approach the “Ridge Cut.” Chattanooga is well-known throughout the South as an unpredictable traffic hazard and – candidly – that’s not anyone’s fault. It is simply what has taken place over the last 60 years.

Consider this: In 1956 when the 30-year project of building America’s interstate system began, the United States population was around 170,000,000. About 30 to 40 percent of these people did not own cars, using buses, trolleys, cabs, “hacks,” and other modes of transportation that they had back then.

Today the population is on the high side of 322 million and it is believed that, in the Land of Opportunity, we now have almost 254,000,000 cars. Add the ever-growing number of trailer trucks that have replaced the trains on our interstates. The strain on our interstate program is more than any sage could have ever predicted it would be 60 years ago.

Chattanooga, where three interstate highways meet, is a key part of what is called the Strategic Highway Network, a smaller grid designed by the Department of Defense that links different military bases within 400 miles of the next military base in case the U.S. is ever invaded. As a priority location, the interstate highways here should have been better adapted years ago.

Then there is this: The interstate system was designed for people to drive from state to state, not back and forth from Cleveland, Ooltewah, Ringgold, Fort Payne or any other of our burgeoning satellite communities. But with suburban sprawl booming as families escape the city, today people think nothing of a 20-minute commute into the city. Because of so great a load, the traffic delays are growing. If there is a car crash on I-75, the delay could be several hours with as much use as our interstate system is now trying to handle.

That’s where long-range planners really fumbled the ball. The same can be said for our streets both within the city limits and across our surrounding counties. Our system is almost “old enough to retire” and is achingly overdue to be upgraded. The work being done on Highway 27, both downtown and across the Olgatti Bridge, should have been done years earlier but our schools, our public services, our welfare and everything else in local state and federal budgets are all competing for the same dollars.

Traffic in Chattanooga has never been as heavy and now we want to cut one of our main ingress-egress in half? To limit the number of vehicles on one of our main thoroughfares is unfathomable. The advocates say UTC students have a difficult time crossing the street which can easily be remedied if the little cherubs get out of bed a little earlier. That’s terrible reasoning. The whole thing is nuts.

City Council member Carol Berz has been tirelessly trying to invigorate Brainerd, which they now hope to call Midtown, but it appears a far better name may be “Inaccessible” if you maim the main artery. The primary goal of city streets planner Blythe Bailey should be to make it easier to get from Point A to Point B instead of harder. I read that the road alterations were expected to delay a commute by 10 to 15 minutes. Not one person east of Cameron Hill wants to put up with a 10-to-15-minute delay every day because of ghost cyclists.

Personally I am of the opinion we need far more practical people involved in our streets planning. I really believe Blythe has the city’s best interests at heart but before we implement this we ought to have firefighters, ambulances and our police pore over anything that would delay emergency service by “10 or 15 minutes.”

I am all for bicyclists having access to their “three feet from the curb” but not during rush hour in either direction. North Shore shouted down bicycle traffic with no severe circumstances from the decision. Happy people still ride bicycles there with little safety risk. Some police even ride their bicycles on Frazier Avenue. I can’t see why any traffic flow must change.

I strongly believe the bike lanes on Broad Street have caused far more bad than good. I have yet to talk to anyone who enjoys them and I am assured they have hurt good businesses that pay city taxes. Please, give me the name of one firefighter who wants to take a responding engine down Broad Street. At 10:50 a.m. yesterday there were three service trucks and a shuttle bus that had the first nine blocks on Broad Street limited to one lane. It is a disaster. Why haven’t we taken these lessons to heart?

Yet what is easily the most perplexing question that our City Council must answer -- as they seek re-election -- is why are we changing any street designs, on behalf of a very small percentage, when the great majority is instead clamoring for simple and thorough street repair? We have some dangerous conditions for cars within the city limits that any bicycle would be structurally challenged to maneuver.

What MLK and Bailey Avenue really need most is someone with common sense.

royexum@aol.com

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