Nashville voters have a consequential decision on this year’s ballot: Whether to vote “for” or “against” a referendum that would increase the Davidson County sales tax to fund a slate of transportation and transit projects.
A proposed $3.1 billion would create bus rapid transit corridors, add 86 miles of new sidewalks, build a dozen new transit centers and update traffic signals, among other efforts. You can find all of WPLN’s explanatory stories unpacking elements of the plan at WPLN.org/transit. And what follows below is a Q&A answering questions gathered from our audience. Submitted questions have been edited for length and clarity.
Covering the basics
What is the referendum?
In Tennessee, state law says local governments can ask voters to dedicate portions of some types of taxes specifically to fund transit. The law requires governments to develop a “transportation improvement plan,” detailing what would be improved and how funds would be used. Voters will have the final say, as the referendum appears on their ballots (take a look at the official language here) this Election Day.
What’s included in the referendum?
In its entirety, the transit plan is 94 pages. For a deeper dive, we explained what’s included in that plan here and here. But, let’s hit the highlights of what officials are seeking:
- a bus rapid transit (also known as BRT) network. This high-capacity transit system would offer a bus system unlike what Nashville currently knows: in some places it would include dedicated lanes just for transit and traffic signal priority to keep buses running at reliable intervals. (Of note — this is the only type of high-capacity transit introduced in this plan. Light rail would not be introduced).
- updates to the existing bus network. Many routes would experience an increase in service frequency, with 14 routes added to the “high frequency network,” which would expand service operation to all hours of the day, every day of the year.
- a dozen new transit centers — like those in Green Hills and North Nashville — across the city
- 86 miles of new sidewalks
- nearly 600 new or upgraded traffic signals
- 17 new park-and-ride facilities (some attached to the transit centers)
How is it financed?
The plan asks voters to approve a half-cent sales tax increase to cover a large share of the costs. The mayor’s office estimates this would cost the average Nashville family an additional $70 per year. The plan also anticipates that, if the referendum is approved, Nashville could leverage this funding to access over a billion dollars in federal funds to help pay for it.
What happened last time?
Nashville has attempted to establish dedicating transit funding once before, in 2018. The approach, the plan, and the financing differed substantially from this year’s attempt (you can learn more about how the 2018 plan compares here). Ultimately, voters decided against that plan.
Now, onto questions from our listeners.
Cost questions
Does the ballot language capture the total cost of the transit projects?
The ballot measure includes two cost figures: the plan’s total capital (construction) cost at just under $3.1 billion, over the course of 15 years, as well as the annual operating cost to operate services of around $111 million per year. These numbers are calculated in today’s dollars.
Under the rules of the IMPROVE Act, the transit plan was subject to an independent financial audit. This calculated the all-in costs of the transit plan over a 15-year period as $6.9 billion. This figure includes construction costs, operating costs, interest payments on bonds, and operating reserve funds. It also factors in inflation.
How will the transit plan ensure that residents in satellite cities, such as Belle Meade, pay their fair share?
Residents of satellite cities — Berry Hill, Belle Meade, Oak Hill, Goodlettsville, and Forest Hills — are part of Davidson County and will see the referendum on their ballots.
But who votes on the plan is different from how it would be funded. The plan would draw from sales taxes collected on purchases made within the county — and that includes shopping by residents of Davidson County and those from neighboring counties and visiting tourists. The city estimates 60% of sales taxes are paid by shoppers from outside Davidson County.
Could you help me understand the claim that 60% of the sales tax revenues will be paid by tourists and “out-of-towners” as appears in a pro-transit mailer?
The mayor’s office points to local numbers and state tax collections data from the Tennessee Department of Revenue and the Department of Tourism Development. The state defines visitors and tourists as those who travel more than 50 miles to visit. That definition excludes most daily commuters, but still found in 2022 that nearly two-thirds of local taxes were attributable to visitors and tourists. The mayor’s office said it “conservatively adjusted” the figure down to 60% in its messaging.
Who gets a say?
In most government projects there is a Request for Proposals (RFP) and a transparent analysis of the alternatives. Why is this different?
Metro is following the requirements of the state’s IMPROVE Act, which allows municipalities to consider dedicating taxes to transit. The act requires a transportation improvement plan, an audited finance plan, sign off by the state comptroller, and approval by the local legislative body (the Metro Council) before going to voters.
Will there be any transit between surrounding counties and the Nashville downtown area?
WPLN dove into the regional elements of the plan earlier this summer. But, in a nutshell: the bulk of the changes in the proposed transit plan would take place within Davidson County. There are some service upgrades included for the WeGo Star, Middle Tennessee’s singular commuter rail service. There are also proposed places where neighboring counties could “plug in” and extend transit services.
The Regional Transportation Authority, a board of county and city mayors across ten counties, plus state appointees and a TDOT representative, has endorsed the plan. Michael Skipper, the executive director at the Greater Nashville Regional Council, says there’s a likelihood that if Nashvillians approve dedicated funding for transit, other counties could follow suit.
“You’ll see subsequent efforts in the surrounding counties to follow that policy,” Skipper says. “The projects may look different. The funding source may look different. But ultimately, those investments will tie into the steps that Davidson County would be taking after November.”
Who is behind the opposition to the transit plan and distributing the yard signs urging defeat of the transit referendum?
In recent weeks, yard signs representing both sides of the referendum have been popping up across Nashville. There’s the “Vote For Nashville” pro-transit sign, a product of the Nashville Moves campaign, interspersed with a red poster that reads “Vote NO transit tax.”
The latter is the product of the “Committee Against an Unfair Tax.” The group, which counts former Metro Council member Emily Evans and former state attorney Diane Neal amongst its organizers, feels the sales tax surcharge proposed in the referendum is “unfair, unsafe and unnecessary.”
While Evans described the group as a “shoestring campaign,” it is the leading opposition effort.
This time around, there is substantially less opposition than the 2018 attempt. Notably, the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, one of the groups who led a robust opposition effort in 2018, opted to not issue an opinion on this referendum, instead leaving it up to voters.
In recent weeks, other small opposition efforts have emerged. Bill Howell, the former treasurer of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (Howell resigned from NOAH in protest of the group’s endorsement of the referendum), formed a group that takes issue with the regressive nature of the sales tax. The campaign, which supports transit upgrades, proposes that they are funded through a property tax increase instead.
And, while the referendum moved through the Metro Council with wide support, Council member Courtney Johnston has recently come out in opposition.
Technical details
Are there bus routes that go around the city, like Old Hickory Boulevard between Antioch and Brentwood, where traffic is always a nightmare?
Two components of the transit plan are expansions of services that would increase what WeGo labels “crosstown” service.
- Transit centers — Currently Nashville has three transit centers: the Elizabeth R. Duff Transit Center downtown, and the Hillsboro Transit Center, which opened in 2022 in Green Hills, and the Dr. Ernest Rip Patton Jr. Transit Center that opened this year in North Nashville. These centers allow for bus routes to get riders from different parts of town without transferring downtown. The transit plan would see a dozen new centers constructed in SoBro, the East Bank, Antioch, West Nashville, Madison, Nolensville, Donelson, TSU, Skyline, Vanderbilt, Bellevue and the airport. These centers would vary in size and type.
- Crosstown and connector routes — The transit plan promises to increase crosstown connector routes. Right now, WeGo offers a handful of these routes that aren’t reliant on passing through the downtown transfer station.
Currently, there isn’t a connector between Antioch and Brentwood in the plan. There is a proposed regional expansion partnership identified in Antioch, with possible expansions to Smyrna, La Vergne and Murfreesboro. A connector to Brentwood could depend on Williamson County “plugging in.”
“We’ve seen significant increases in ridership already on the crosstown routes because more connections really become possible,” WeGo CEO Steve Bland says of crosstown paths. “So we would like to have ‘Choose How You Move’ leverage that with more transit centers.”
How will the elderly get home from the bus stop? Unless there is a place near to leave your car this could become a dangerous undertaking.
In large part, officials agree that connectivity to bus stops should be improved — and that Nashville is decades and miles behind on establishing a quality sidewalk network. This is part of what’s known as the “first mile / last mile” problem of getting transit riders to and from bus stops.
“I absolutely know where people are coming from,” Bland says.
The transit plan seeks to add 86 miles of sidewalks, as well as “smarter” pedestrian signals at crossings, which would dovetail with Metro’s efforts on its Vision Zero safety program.
Bland also points to the WeGo Link program, which partners with rideshare companies to connect people to bus stops, and to WeGo Access for transit riders who have disabilities and who qualify for appointment-based door-to-door service.
Is part of the funding for the transit initiative based on a requirement that local zoning laws, rules, or regulations be changed?
One claim of the opposition effort, the Committee Against an Unfair Tax, is that the transit referendum would inevitably be tied to NEST, a set of zoning reform proposals introduced in the Metro Council earlier this year. While the bulk of these have been put on pause to allow Metro to review the bills, Emily Evans points to a 2022 federal initiative that encourages applicants of some funding streams to pursue zoning and land use reform.
However, the mayor’s office and WeGo push back on this assertion. Prompted by this question, Metro Finance and Metro Legal reviewed federal funding rules and said there is nothing that ties the federal funding eyed by the transit plan to zoning reform. The office says there are nine basic grant courses where the anticipated $1.4 billion of federal funding would come from — through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan Act — and none of those require zoning changes for Nashville to be competitive.
When a vast majority of commuters within Davidson County use cars to travel, why is the mayor proposing to remove driving lanes from major arteries? Working on the interstates into and out of Nashville would be the most fruitful transit reform, in my opinion.
Bland says he doesn’t anticipate removing travel lanes. Rather, there will be portions of certain corridors — likely Dickerson, Gallatin, Murfreesboro and Nolensville pikes — that could be transformed into transit-only lanes for a bus rapid transit system. These lanes wouldn’t extend the length of the corridors.
“Anything that goes into those corridors requires a very detailed traffic impact analysis,” Bland says.
“It’s not a matter of taking away a car lane,” adds Michael Briggs, director of transportation planning for the mayor. “It’s really repurposing the streets to work better for everybody’s needs. And signal improvements could actually help with traffic flow.”
With regards to the interstates, there is collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Transportation on their Choice Lanes project. This initiative will eventually expand a stretch of Interstate 24 by four lanes (two in each direction) — all of which require a toll. However, baked into that legislation is a mandate that will allow public transit vehicles to use these lanes for free. And, included in the Nashville referendum, are four new express routes that would also use interstates.
Are there any explicit plans for light rail?
No. While Bland described bus rapid transit, when operated in its highest form, as “kind of like a light rail vehicle, but with rubber tires,” rail is not a part of this plan.
Will the WeGo Star train’s hours ever be increased to include weekends and evenings?
The plan does propose service changes to the WeGo Star, including spreading out trips throughout the day to allow for more evening service, adding weekend service, and increasing special services to more events.
Some of these changes could occur regardless of the outcome of the referendum. After soliciting public input, the Regional Transportation Authority is working to solidify its recommendations for the Star’s improvements.
How will the “updated traffic signals” work for pedestrians and cyclists? We’ve heard a lot about how this will improve traffic flow for drivers, but many times those of us on foot or bike rely on gaps in traffic flow to safely get around.
The plan calls for numerous newly marked crosswalks — with signals — says Briggs. Some of these are known as “hot” signals that flash and stop traffic. More broadly, he says improved signals will include more “leading pedestrian intervals,” which give people on foot a head start crossing before vehicle lights change. This is already common in downtown.
As a corollary, Briggs hopes that better synchronization across signals will smooth travel for drivers, reduce their frustration with starts and stops and ease conflicts among different modes of travel.
Specific scenarios
What is the frequency of transit service from Old Hickory Village to Green Hills?
Right now, taking a bus to get from Old Hickory to Green Hills is not possible, as WeGo doesn’t operate in Old Hickory.
However, the referendum offers various updates for the neighborhood: It would establish an Old Hickory connector route, connecting Madison to Hermitage, and connecting Old Hickory residents to the bus system.
There are also proposed park and ride facilities nearby, including one in Madison and one in Goodlettsville (both would be around 5 to 6 miles away from Old Hickory).
What is stopping WeGo from improving service to the airport right now?
“The quick and easy answer is funding,” says Bland with WeGo. “It’s kind of a zero-sum game with the amount of funding we have.”
Currently, bus service to the airport runs every 45 minutes. Under the new plan this would change, as the current 18 line would see some frequency upgrades, and would expand the hours it operates.
The plan would add a new service route off the Murfreesboro Pike line, which is one of the “All-Access Corridors,” meaning it would see major frequency upgrades. There would also be a new connector route between the airport and Opry Mills. The airport would also receive a transit center upgrade, with bus bays and passenger amenities.
Much of the western section of Bellevue is not covered by the existing transit plan. Will that change?
Bellevue would see several service changes. The plan would extend service to the YMCA on the 3 line, which is a part of the frequent transit network (buses would run every 15-20 minutes during the day, 20-30 minutes overnight, and would operate every day year-round). Bellevue would also be the site of a new transit center, which would function as a park-and-ride facility with potential regional connections to Kingston Springs and Dickson. The plan would also add an express route to downtown, as well as a new connector route along Old Hickory Boulevard.
As far as getting to hard-to-access sections of Bellevue, Michael Briggs of the mayor’s office points to WeGo Link, which would be expanded under the plan. He also says, once the transit center opens, there could be an opportunity to reexamine how service is working.
I think the plan lacks increased neighborhood access — it is more of a “do what we currently do but better” plan. I live in Sylvan Park and accessing downtown would require walking 25 minutes to a bus stop. Why not make sure every significant satellite neighborhood has a bus route that goes through it?
“WeGo does its best job operating fixed-route bus service on main corridors,” Briggs says. “Because if we start getting into neighborhoods, it begins to make those trips much longer and you’re not able to pick up as many people.”
To address this gap of neighborhood access, Briggs points to a few things:
- Transit centers (there is one proposed for West Nashville, near Sylvan Park) and park-and-ride facilities
- Improving the sidewalk network to make walks to transit centers safer. In the plan, there is a proposed sidewalk just west of Sylvan Park along Charlotte, connecting the area to White Bridge.
- WeGo Link, the service that subsidizes rideshares for passengers needing a ride from their doorstep to the bus stop.
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