Weekly Update

This is my first day in the office after a long weekend, so here's the update for last week. I spent about 3 hours with a City of Knoxville Traffic Signal Engineer on Wed testing just 3 1/2 intersections to make sure bicycles would trigger a green light. Clinch/Henley had to be adjusted a little since some recent resurfacing and construction work (you have to be in the center of the lane). Clinch/11th, I discovered, is a bit strange. Instead of positioning your bike over the center pavement cut (center of the lane), you should be just a few inches to the right of it. We had one non-success story. If you are on Hill Ave turning left onto Hall of Fame, a bicyclist won't get a green light. That loop detector is very old and can't be adjusted to make it work. There is a push button there, which is awkward to use when you are on a bicyclist. I'll let you decide if if would be better to just go straight on Hill, or use Church Ave to get to Hall of Fame instead, or...
We also tested the left turn from Summit Hill onto MLK, and the straight thru from MLK (which turns into Hill at that point). There will be more testing this week and next. If there is an intersection which hasn't worked for you, let me know kelley.segars@knoxtrans.org

Just a refresher, it's based on metal not weight. If you see two pavement cuts, you should be on the right one (right 1/3 of the lane). If you don't see a pavement cut at all, try that side also. But many signals are simply on a timed cycle. The cycles may be fairly long for side streets, esp at night or on weekends.

More later!