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Knoxville mayor, city staff present Vision Zero plan, secure federal SS4A grants and quick-build work
Summary
Knoxville's mayor and Vision Zero coordinator presented the city's Vision Zero action plan, reported SS4A federal grants (one ~$10 million and another over $22 million) for sidewalks, shared-use paths, and median work, and highlighted quick-build safety projects executed in weeks.
Knoxville Mayor India Kincannon and city staff on March 26 briefed the TPO on the city's Vision Zero program and recent federal grant awards, outlining construction projects and quick-build safety measures intended to reduce traffic fatalities to zero by 2040.
Mayor India Kincannon opened the item underscoring the program’s purpose: “We think that you should be able to move around our community without dying or getting seriously killed or injured,” she said, noting traffic fatalities outnumber violent-crime deaths in the city. Cody Gentry, the city's Vision Zero coordinator, reviewed the plan’s high-injury network and action items. “Vision 0, our goal is to get to 0 deaths on city streets by 02/1940,” Gentry said.
Gentry outlined federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grants the city won: an earlier 2023 award of $10,000,000 (about 80% federal share, according to the presentation) that funds several planning and construction items, including pedestrian improvements at three Magnolia Avenue intersections, and another subsequent SS4A award exceeding $22,000,000 that includes Chapman Highway construction between Blount Avenue and Fort Dickerson. Gentry said the Chapman Highway work will add a separated shared-use path on the west side of Chapman, a landscape median to manage access, and pedestrian facilities where none exist today; he said the shared-use path segment is approximately 0.8 miles.
Gentry emphasized quick-build projects the city is deploying to produce rapid safety improvements at low cost. He described a recent Sutherland Avenue quick-build where rubber curbing and lane geometry changes were installed within weeks “spending a couple thousand dollars rather than some of those other projects … getting huge safety benefits here by spending just a fraction of the cost of some of those larger projects.”
Board members discussed passenger and commuter rail, regional transit foundations, and how Vision Zero work intersects with county and state routes; staff noted many high-injury corridors are state routes and that partnerships with TDOT are necessary for some corridor work. Knoxville staff said the Vision Zero action plan will continue to be a platform for smaller quick-build actions as well as larger construction projects funded by the SS4A grants.
