Traffic on West Broadway Avenue is about to slow down, as members of the Maryville City Council voted unanimously to reduce speed limits on sections of the highway to reduce collisions Tuesday evening, Aug. 6. The changes will bring parts of the road down to 45 or even 40 mph.
West Broadway Avenue will become a 45 mph zone from the city limits to just past Garwood Lane, while the road until around Old Niles Ferry Road will become a 40 mph zone. City staff said the change should be in place by the end of the month.
Growth
In a work session last month, city staff told council members that West Broadway Avenue, also known as U.S. 411, is a regular source of crashes with and without injury. The current speed limit for this stretch is 50 mph within city limits, while it remains 55 mph in the county. According to an agenda packet provided to council members, city officials haven’t adjusted that rate since the highway became five lanes in 1996.
With more and more people moving to Maryville, Director of Engineering and Public Works Brian Boone told council members a reduced speed limit will better match drivers’ expectations for a developed area like West Broadway.
“We’re carrying about 40,000 cars a day during average traffic, and it has not slowed down in the last 20 years,” he said. “It’s good growth — it’s the kind of growth you want, but you’ve got Dollar General, you’ve got Weigels, you’ve got Aldi coming in, and we need to say it’s an urban center.”
Dangers
A 45 mph zone, he said, will also address safety concerns brought up by the city’s Traffic Safety Group — a cooperative body made of Maryville Police officers, traffic operations employees and members of the engineering and public works department. The group analyzes traffic trends across the city, and West Broadway Avenue has been problematic for years.
In 2019, a 63-year-old Lenoir City man died turning onto West Broadway Avenue from William Blount Drive when another driver ran a red light, knocking him into incoming traffic. Later that year, a 58-year-old woman died turning onto the road from Cherokee Heights Drive.
In 2022, a school bus turning left on a green light near Cherokee Heights ran into oncoming traffic. There were no injuries, but the subsequent cleanup closed one lane of the highway for hours while first responders worked to move the bus.
More recently, a 2023 Knoxville Regional Roadway Safety Action Plan identified the road as part of the “High Injury Network” of arterial roadways — a group of high-traffic roads that see frequent life-altering crashes that include serious injuries or death.
“After you identify these high-injury networks, you come up with projects and strategies to address the problems,” Boone said. “The number one thing on the list is a reduced speed.”
Similar corridors lined with urban growth are commonly 45 mph zones, he said, which keeps the new limits congruent with the surroundings.
Standard Maryville speed limit signs are 24 by 30 inches, but to combat habitual speed and increase visibility in the area, Maryville staff have printed 30 by 36 inch signs to post the new speed limit. Additional, oversized signs provided by the Tennessee Department of Transportation will warn drivers of the coming change beyond the city limits.
Maryville staff are waiting for utility marking before driving new posts.
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