Just over a year ago, Davidson County voters approved a transit referendum that dedicates more tax dollars to bus service and other transportation projects.
It was a significant step for a city lagging behind the rest of the United States. Nashville was one of the last cities of its size without a dedicated stream of tax dollars for transit, and it showed — lacking rapid public transit options, heavy traffic jams, and the state ranking high in the nation for most vehicle miles traveled per capita.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell made it a keystone of his early administration to pass a referendum that would establish a half-cent sales tax increase to go directly toward funding transit. Along with it came a nearly 100-page proposal of the city’s approach to overhauling its transit system.
What was in the initial plan?
The $3.1-billion plan, called “Choose How You Move,” plotted out 15 years of transit upgrades — including 86 miles of new sidewalks, expanded bus service, bus rapid transit systems along major corridors, updated traffic signals and a dozen new transit centers.
O’Connell and his team drew upon the work of various advisory committees, dozens of prior planning efforts and 65,000 pieces of community input from the past decade. There was also clear influence from the city’s prior (unsuccessful) attempt at establishing dedicated transit funding in 2018. That more expensive plan proposed a light rail system and downtown transit tunnel and O’Connell’s effort went in different directions: smaller in cost and scope, more limited taxation and no light rail.
What changes have been underway?
Progress has been made on some fronts, after the city began to collect revenue from the new sales tax in the spring.
One effort that has materialized is the launch of Journey Pass, the free bus fare program for low-income residents. Metro ramped up enrollment during the federal government shutdown, as Nashvillians relying on suspended federal benefits (such as SNAP or utility assistance) struggled with overall cost of living. To date, Metro has signed up more than 6,000 people in the program.
“It will save a lot of money that I don’t have,” Mauricesa Sherril, a mother of three, said during a signup event at the Metro Action Commission. “I’m already struggling to pay my lights, my rent.”
Has Metro started on infrastructure updates?
While the bigger projects — like the transit centers or bus rapid transit system — will not break ground until later into the 15-year timeframe, early design efforts have begun on some items, including for Gallatin Pike’s bus rapid transit upgrades and for a new downtown transit center, south of Broadway.
Other less-daunting projects have moved faster, like sidewalks and signals. Throughout the year, O’Connell has unveiled various efforts for localized upgrades to the sidewalk network. In October, O’Connell earmarked $31.4 million for 17 sidewalk improvements, plus another $32.4 million for new smart signals at 115 intersections. And, in December, the Mayor’s office and NDOT announced smart signals at 36 intersections along Lebanon Pike.
Sabrina Sussman, the program director overseeing Choose How You Move, says these are projects that should slowly become visible to Nashvillians.
“Sidewalks and signals are the things that you’re going to see first,” Sussman told reporters this fall. “You might notice sidewalk construction, traffic cones and actual construction. Signals are a little different — there’s sort of two pieces to it: One, you may be looking for a change in the bright yellow actual signal, but what you may not see happening is some of the fiber being laid, cabinets off to the side being installed. And so you have to sort of look to make sure you’re seeing some of those changes.”
There’s also been a “queue jump” added at the intersection of Murfreesboro Pike and Edge O Lake Drive. This technology lets buses bypass 1,400 feet of backlogged traffic, giving the bus a better chance to run on time.
There are also periodic service expansions that WeGo adds every season. Through these, the city has added longer hours on various routes and expanded WeGo Link, the program that subsidizes rideshares for passengers needing a ride from their bus stop to their door.
What elements will the city not be delivering?
In the last year, Nashville’s transit landscape has evolved beyond the Choose How You Move plan, and that’s impacting the city’s efforts.
In July, the Elon Musk-owned Boring Company unveiled plans to construct an underground tunnel between downtown Nashville and the airport. Within the tunnel, a fleet of Teslas will operate as a rideshare service. State officials touted the project, which will be funded entirely by private dollars, as a relief to the city’s traffic issues. Others — including city leaders — expressed concern over the tunnel’s potential impact on Nashville’s environment and existing infrastructure.
A good portion of the tunnel is set to run beneath state-maintained Murfreesboro Pike. That corridor was initially identified as a high priority in Metro’s plan, and was set to be one of the first major corridors to receive bus rapid transit treatment. But as the Nashville Business Journal reported, the Boring Company project has impacted the city’s plans, moving Murfreesboro Pike down the priority list while Nolensville and Gallatin Pikes moved up.
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