Streamline Broad Street

Streamline Broad Street re-imagines a new commercial district that prioritizes the pedestrian experience by enhancing the safety, sustainability, and quality of urban design in downtown Chattanooga. This study explores the possibilities of a comprehensive approach to stormwater management, transportation infrastructure, and pedestrian accessibility within the public right of way. The redistribution of parking and traffic flow optimizes car travel lanes, safeguards cyclists, and creates larger pedestrian spaces. The expansion of sidewalks features pedestrian amenities like benches, newspaper boxes, and bike parking, while offering the space for large events like street fairs and outdoor seating for adjacent restaurants. This plan distinguishes the biking and vehicular experience by providing separated travel lanes, and bikers are further protected by their placement in front of stopped traffic at intersections, which keeps them in view and provide a head start once they are signaled to proceed. Curb extensions at cross walks shorten pedestrian exposure and travel distance, while slowing traffic and reducing unnecessary vehicular paving at intersections. Framing the orientation of this design, the intersection of Broad Street and MLK Boulevard acts as the gateway to the City Center with Broad Street terminating at the Tennessee Aquarium and Tennessee River. To highlight these vital intersections, the pedestrian scramble crosswalks allow comfortable crossings while all other traffic is halted. Strengthening the plan’s commitment to integrated stormwater management, the redesigned streetscape showcases sustainability through the integration of multiple green infrastructure improvements such as uncompacted soils to support large canopy trees, porous paving, and rain gardens. Trees reduce stormwater through interception and evapotranspiration, while rain gardens and porous paving provide infiltration and distributed storage, and the resulting run-off volumes and peak flows are greatly reduced while prime urban public space is created. Streamline Broad Street serves as a prime example of an integrated approach to managing the complexity of urban systems at the pedestrian scale.