Bike Lane to be removed in Main Street re-striping

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn (WDEF) — The stretch of Main Street that goes from Broad Street to Dodds Avenue will be re-striped by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

That restriping will remove the dedicated bike lane, instead using that area as a buffer between car traffic and on-street parking.

That decision is now facing criticism from local cyclists, who say their input should have been considered.

Ben Richards Operations director, White Oak Bicycles told us, “I think I here at White Oak we’re always kind of disappointed to see when bike infrastructure gets removed. I think bike lanes have generally been proven to reduce vehicle speed, which is overall safer for pedestrians and multimodal transportation so it’s really disappointing to see a bike lane removed.”

TDOT says the section of restriped road will be shared by both bikes and cars, with no dedicated bike lane.

The National highway Traffic Safety Administration in a 2023 report says that just under 3 percent of traffic fatalities involved a cyclist. Over 80 percent were in urban areas.