City Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said the time had come to re-examine whether the city should keep some of its downtown one-way streets.
The City Council will vote next Tuesday on hiring the engineering firm of Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon to study the conversion of seven sections of one-way streets. Cost of the study is $69,500.
Mr. Bailey said it may be impractical to convert all of the sections back to two-way, but it may be feasible to convert many of them.
He said two-way streets "are generally felt to be safer."
Sometimes where one-way streets are involved "you have to make three turns instead of one to get to where you are going," he said.
Mr. Bailey said the one-way streets mainly emerged in the 1950s and 1960s when downtown was being abandoned and many people were moving to the suburbs.
He said it created streets with a faster flow to the suburbs, but he said it "disregarded the quality of life in the neighborhoods" along the way.
Funding has not yet been identified, he said.
Officials said some of the conversions could lead to expanded bicycle lanes and additional vehicle parking.
City officials said "time is of the essence" and the study would start within 10 days of getting the approvals.
A scoping meeting was held at the BWSC-Chattanooga office with city of Chattanooga staff last Dec. 21 to discuss the project. Based on discussions with city staff, the study area includes:
- 8th Street between Chestnut Street and Houston Street;
- 7th Street between Pine Street and Georgia Avenue;
- 6th Street between Chestnut Street and Lookout Street;
- 5th Street between Market Street and Georgia Avenue;
- Walnut Street between 5th Street and Georgia Avenue;
- Lindsay Street between Vine Street and Houston Street;
- Houston Street between Vine Street and Market Street.
The corridors total 2.66 miles in length, and contain approximately 19 existing signalized intersections that could potentially require modification, it was stated.