New speed cameras coming to Knoxville school zones following City Council approval

Yahoo

28-05-2025

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Knoxville City Council approved several agenda items Tuesday night by either a unanimous or 7-1 vote. Among the items passed were two items addressing speed and noise cameras in school zones.
The City of Knoxville aims to eliminating traffic fatalities on city roads by 2040, that plan is called 'Vision Zero.' Two items on Tuesday's agenda, one to acquire the products and services needs, the other to authorize the use of these automated enforcement systems were passed. They are two key pieces that city officials hope will help them reach their goal.
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'It's incredibly important. This was an item that was identified in our Vision Zero action plan. In the action plan, it identified 30 different action items,' Vision Zero Coordinator Cody Gentry said. 'Included in that 30 action items was to expand our automated enforcement program and that's exactly what we have done.'
Gentry said speeding is one of the main causes of fatal and injury crashes. The new speed cameras will hopefully help reduce speeding in school zones.
'In these school zones, that's where we have a lot of our vulnerable users, that's where we have kids walking to school, that's where we have a lot of pedestrian activity,' Gentry explained. 'We want, not only those students that are outside of the vehicles, but we want people driving through the school zones, we want the drivers and pedestrians, maybe parents, we want all of those users to be safe.'
Councilwoman Gwen Mckenzie echoed Gentry's thoughts.
'Safety in schools and for our children is paramount,' McKenzie said. 'We see speeding is really a bad habit that a lot of people have, so anything we can do to cut down on potential accidents happening and keeping our students safe, we're all about it.'
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The implantation of the school zone speed and noise camera will happen in stages. The noise cameras will be placed first and the hope is to have some of the speed cameras up in a few areas by this Fall. This will all be prioritized based on traffic and speed studies in those areas.
One other item on the agenda that drew a long discussion was the Magnolia Avenue and Chilhowee Park redevelopment plan. The item passed 7-1, McKenzie said this redevelopment will bring life back to a once vibrant area.
'There's been a lot of disinvestment in that part of East Knoxville for quite some time now, over a decade,' McKenzie said. 'This particular resolution is critical to be able to make sure that happens and happens in a very uniform and structural way where the community has input as well.'
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