A destination for tourists and locals alike, Frazier Avenue is the main street of Chattanooga’s Northside. On November 25, 2023, two drivers jockeying for position in this four-lane corridor sent one vehicle up on the sidewalk, where it hit a visiting family, critically injuring the husband and killing his wife and daughter. No strangers to traffic violence, citizens and City leadership quickly committed to rebuilding Frazier Avenue as a less dangerous street through a semi-permanent tactical urbanist intervention. City engineers completed a community-based design effort that informed a plan submitted to Speck Dempsey for peer review.

The plan was a tremendous improvement, but moderate car counts indicated that a more comprehensive redesign was possible. Speck Dempsey redrew the seven-block corridor from end to end, turning a three-lane design into a two-lane street with occasional turn lanes, resulting in improved pedestrian and cycling facilities and quadrupling on-street parking supply (56 stalls vs. 17), a feature much desired by local merchants.

Whenever additional lanes allow drivers to jockey, vulnerable street users are at risk. On Frazier Avenue, as on many American main streets, restriping to better match demand is a prudent path to business vitality and saved lives.