Frasier in North Chattanooga

North Chattanooga has a problem with traffic. Certain times of day Frasier & Cherokee are just nuts and it really backs traffic it. The problem is, quite frankly, a lack of planning. They also now plan to put bike lanes down Frasier. If they plan to remove all street parking maybe, but if not and they cut the lanes down, it is going to be a disaster.

The problem is all the freeway traffic is generally funneled through two intersections, manufacturers/cherokee and cherokee/frasier/market. Why? Why oh why did they ever do this? All the people simply coming home wanting to get around to Hixson Pike or to North Market street have to run this gauntlet.

When Whole Foods was put in they should have put in a new road connecting Manufacturers with North Market, up by way of Manning. This would bypass those two intersections greatly increasing traffic flow. People heading to a North Chattanooga neighborhood could then take North Market, or even take it all the way around the hill to Hixson Pike if they so desire. This makes the commercial area more accessible for people who want to do shopping right at that moment. They did, however, not do this. I've spoken with some people who get off at the next exit, Dayton Blvd, just to avoid all this traffic, when their ultimate destination is Hixson Pike. Others get off at 4th street and take Veteran's Bridge over, which isn't too bad, but we shouldn't be sending commuter traffic down 4th street if it isn't necessary.

As I posted in my 27-24 bypass plan, we should have a Manning street ramp for TN-27. Then I would connect Manufacturers with Manning via a new road cutting between Whole Foods and the Knitting Mill. Very little eminent domain would be needed for this. It would not take anyone's property whole, and leave all adjacent property owners better off. Specifically the current residential locations north of Whole Foods should be, if they aren't already, rezoned C1, this makes their land much more valuable and while no one should be forced to leave, I'm sure many would sell at nice high prices (compared to what their land was worth previously) to make room for new commercial development. This would, in effect, create another "shopping street" for North Chattanooga, which still needs many more shops, doctors offices, and other services for the current (and rapidly growing) population.

Once this is done traffic through the bad intersections mentioned above would be lessened as people would have a new route away from TN-27. Overall, the Manning ramp aside, this short road section change would be relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things compared to the impact it would have.