Walk Bike Nashville calls on city leaders to focus on cheaper, quicker transportation projects

Metro Nashville needs to refocus on quick and low-cost transportation projects in order to keep pace with the region’s fast growing transportation challenges. We need to ensure safety is at the core of all street-design decisions. Metro also needs to move more quickly, using quick-build design strategies to accelerate cost-effective street improvements to benefit all Nashvillians.

These are some of the key takeaways in Walk Bike Nashville’s 2018 Moving the Music the City Report Card, which they released today.

In summer 2017 Metro Nashville released “Moving the Music City: 2017-2020 Transportation Action Agenda” to provide the urgency and blueprints to address Nashville’s critical transportation needs. One year later the administration has changed, but the critical need to address road safety, traffic and meeting the transportation demands of our region remain.

“The short-term goals outlined in the Moving the Music City Action agenda are more important than ever with the loss of the transit referendum,” says Nora Kern, Executive Director of Walk Bike Nashville. “We don’t need billions of dollars to make our streets safer, more efficient and more multimodal. What we need is clear leadership from the Mayor’s office and continued proactivity and creativity from our metro transportation staff—to get as much done as possible with the budget we have.”

The 2018 Report Card reviews the 5 goals outlined in the original Moving the Music City Action Agenda and determines which goals are on track, ahead of schedule, or behind schedule. The data was compiled by Walk Bike Nashville over the last two months with support from WeGo Transit, Metro Nashville Planning, Metro Public Works and Metro General Services.

Some key highlights from the past year included in the report card:

Successes: 

  • WeGo now offers free transfers and has expanded service in North Nashville
  • In the last year and a half we have seen buffered and protected bike lanes nearly double, to 31.9 miles
  • HubNashville has transformed how community members communicate with the city
  • The updated sidewalk requirements have generated almost $3 Million in in-lieu funds in the first year
  • Metro Planning has launched Nashville Connector, a new program to reduce single occupancy trips in the urban core.

Challenges

  • The loss of the transit referendum will delay WeGo’s ambitious long-term plans.
  • Almost no quick-build projects have been constructed to address the top crash locations in the city – identified back in 2014. This includes no construction of the projects that were funded along Nolensville in response to Envision Nolensville.
  • Pedestrian fatalities have continued to rise dramatically, yet the city has not yet created a plan to proactively and systematically address safety issues across the city.
  • Roads, sidewalks, and bikelanes continue to be frequently blocked or closed due to construction.
  • Many of the proposed transportation innovation programs have not yet gotten off the ground, including an autonomous vehicle pilot, car-sharing and parking overhaul.