Kibby Clayton -- Lifetime Achievement:

Our lifetime achievement award. Named after one of our founders, this award recognizes someone who has made substantial contributions to the movement to make Nashville a more walkable, bikeable, and livable.

• Tom Grooms: Tom Grooms has been essential to Walk Bike Nashville for nearly all of it's 20+ years of existence. Not only was he a founding board member, but he has continued to work to support Walk Bike Nashville every year since. He is one of our most reliable volunteers, he's willing to help whenever or wherever he's needed, he has closely followed national trends that impact our work, and he passionately works to advance walking and bicycling in Nashville.  Walk Bike Nashville would not be where we are today without Tom's support, time, and passion. At the end of 2020 Tom Grooms rolled off the Board of Directors onto the Advisory Board. 
• Cedric Duncan: Cedric is the lead organizer for Bike for Equality, a group that organizes bike rides and bike events to promote racial equality and to make all voices heard. This year he rose to the challenge and organized rides to the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, and Ride the Vote, a voter registration bike event before the election.
• Bob Murphy and his team at KCI: Bob's commitment to a walkable and bikable Nashville is a lifetime achievement that has resulted in countless conversations, projects and policies that have shaped our city's current 45 miles of greenways and 140 miles of bikeways! 

Advocate of the Year

The Walk Bike Nashville Ambassador, neighborhood leader, or community advocate who has done the most through community advocacy to promote walking and biking. This award can be given to an individual or a group.

• NextThirsday Bike Rides have been leading bike rides the third Thursday of every month. This is a free ride open to all. They have used their platform to amplify groups doing get out the vote efforts and raise funds for Safe Haven Family Shelter. Additionally they created some great how-to videos, our favorite is How to Ride in the Winter. 
• Cedric Duncan: Cedric is the lead organizer for Bike for Equality, a group that organizes bike rides and bike events to promote racial equality and to make all voices heard. This year he rose to the challenge and organized rides to the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer, and Ride the Vote, a voter registration bike event before the election in addition to completing his Masters of Business Administration at TSU. 
• Tina Fox of Black Girls Do Bike Nashville, for her work in establishing a Nashville chapter of Black Girls Do Bike and supporting a community of women of color who share a passion for cycling. The group champions efforts to introduce the joy of cycling to all women, but especially, black women and girls. They are establishing a comfortable place where female cyclist can support, advise, organize meet-ups/rides and promote skill-sharing. Tina has been leading bike rides and been growing the Black Girls Do Bike Nashville, they now have over 200 members on Facebook. 

Government Champion of the Year:

This award goes to the person in the public sector, either elected or unelected, who has made the greatest impact in making Nashville more walkable, bikeable and livable in 2020. 

• Justin Cole, WeGo Transit: For many years Justin Cole has worked behind the scenes to make Nashville a better city for those not driving cars. As Senior Transit Planner at WeGo he works to make the transit system better for those who need it most, as demonstrated by his work with the Better Bus Plan. He has also spearheaded innovative projects like the Nolensville Bus Shelter program, which expanded and improved several sidewalks and bikelanes. A frequent bus rider and bike commuter himself, Justin is an advocate on the inside for a better transportation system. 
• Derek Hagerty, Metro Public Works: Derek Hagerty has made a huge impact in the past few years on our streets. He has successfully revamped and managed the wildly popular Traffic Calming program, which has brought permanent physical interventions to slow down cars to many neighborhoods around the city. He spearheaded the effort to bring a temporary Slow Streets program to Nashville during Covid, including partnering with Walk Bike Nashville for the October 2020 Slow Streets. And he continues to be an ally to Walk Bike Nashville, working to find and implement workable solutions that make our streets safer and better. 
• Cortnye Stone & Jeff Hammond -- For their work moving forward the 25 mph speed limit reduction. Cortnye and Jeff have worked together over the last year plus to advance the city-wide local-street speed limit reduction, from navigating potential sticky politics, to developing a community education plan, to developing the technical plans to make it happen. Nashville will be a safer city because of their work. 
• Councilmember Emily Benedict: Since joining Metro Council CM Benedict has been a strong advocate for making Nashville a more walkable city. She chaired the special Sidewalk Committee, and spearheaded the committee's work trying to find solutions to speed up and streamline the Metro sidewalk installation process. In addition, she worked with CM Van Reece to push for a crosswalk at the intersection of Gallatin and Stratford Ave. This is part of a 7/10th of a mile stretch on Gallatin Pike between Greenfield Ave at the Inglewood Kroger and Ardee Avenue at Sip Cafe, that had no safe crossing until the light was installed. This improvement will help save lives.

Most Walkable/Bikeable Project -- Non UZO

NEW for 2020, this award will be given to the private or public development that is best designed for those on foot, bicycle, scooter, mobility device or bus. This project should create safe and welcoming spaces for those not in cars, and help go above and beyond what is required in the code. This project can be from anytime in the past 5 years. This project should be in Nashville but outside of the Urban core, defined by the UZO. 

• Hart Lane Sidewalks -- Ragan Smith & MPW: This capital project extended some much needed sidewalks from Jere Baxter Middle School along Hart Lane. The project required blasting through a rock wall to make room. The project was led by Andrew Smith at Metro Public Works, with support from CM Van Reece. Ragan Smith was the project engineer. The hillside in this area was deteriorating and fenced off for years blocking the sidewalk on the side with Jere Baxter Middle School. It’s not a glamourous project but very badly needed. Some information is on the Public Works website. https://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Capital-Projects/Hart-Lane-Pedestrian-Improvements.aspx

• Nolensville Bus Stop Shelter Project -- WeGo & CDM Smith: This innovative project updated key bus stops along the Nolensville Corridor. The bus stops included boarding islands, incorporated the bike lanes, and several other unique designs. The very unique project required collaboration with WeGo, Public Works, Planning, and TDOT. It also helped WeGo develop their Bus Stop Guidelines in full! https://www.nashvillemta.org/Nashville-MTA-Nolensville-Pike-Bus-Stop-Improvement-Project.asp

Most Walkable/Bikeable Project -- In UZO

In Urban Zoning Overlay: NEW for 2020, this award will be given to the private or public development that is best designed for those on foot, bicycle, scooter, mobility device or bus. This project should create safe and welcoming spaces for those not in cars, and help go above and beyond what is required in the code. This project can be from anytime in the past 5 years. This project should be within Nashville's Urban core, defined by the Urban Design Overlay

• Arthur Avenue Cycle Track / KCI Technologies & MPW: The Arthur Avenue Project, in its totality, was about so much more than transportation. From its conceptual stage to the construction phase, it was a true community partnership at many levels—from neighborhood residents to multiple Metro Nashville government agencies and non-profits. Due to its proximity to downtown, gentrification has begun to negatively impact the neighborhood’s historically-black population, and residents desired to leverage its revitalization to provide transportation opportunities and ensure a seat at the table of this area’s transformation. One of five bikeway design projects in North Nashville/Germantown, the cycle track utilizes existing pavement width to increase the safety of all transportation users by clearly delineating motorized and non-motorized traffic. An extensive public engagement element was completed, including a resident-led planning effort on the front end, and the ultimate outcome of the project is its contribution to making streets safe, culturally relevant and welcoming while also providing much-needed transportation connections for residents to employment and services downtown.  

• 21st-Broadway-Division St Intersection: MPW,  Little John & RPM: This was complete about 5 years ago, and it’s in the UZO. Just do a before and after of the intersection in Google StreetView and you will see why! It closed off a slip lane and installed ped crossings and signals that are drastically improved. It also added an improved bus stop that at one point was in the middle of the craziness! Sidewalks were widened substantially (compare the sidewalk in front of Mellow Mushroom to the sidewalk adjacent to Aertson. It was done by Public Works in conjunction with redevelopment related to Aertson. It was also the first large development project that incorporated sidewalk improvements from the Major and Collector Street Plan based on context of the area.   https://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Capital-Projects/21st-Broadway-Division-Pedestrian-Enhancement.aspx

• Commerce Street Protected Bike Lanes -- MPW & KCI Technologies The long awaited bike lanes on Commerce Street in downtown Nashville were finally installed in winter 2019-2020, becoming the first projected bike lanes in downtown Nashville. The wide, two-way cycle track, replaced a lane of travel to provide bike and scooter riders a comfortable place to ride North-South through Downtown. It will ultimately connect several of the major new developments downtown -- including Nashville Yards and 5th and Broadway. 

• Division Street Protected Bike Lanes: MPW & KCI Technologies In 2019 MPW installed a road diet on Division Street to add protected bike lanes between Division Street Extension to Music Row Roundabout. It makes a key connection between the bridge with has the separated bike lanes and Music Row. It was an actual road diet, too! You won’t find much info because it’s one that Metro decided to just proceed forward with after talking with some major stakeholders and not anticipating much pushback given the low traffic counts. From an engineering perspective, it was a no brainer!

Business/Organization of the Year:

The Nashville business or organization (must be located in Davidson County) that has done the most to support walking and biking this year. This support can include making their office supportive of multi-modal transportation, work to make the larger community more walk/bike friendly, or leadership on local issues related to walking or biking.

Frothy Monkey (5th Ave) / Downtown Partnership:  For their work creating a parklet on 5th Ave, with public bike parking, that is undergoing installation now. This parklet on 5th Ave Downtown is one of the first parklets in downtown Nashville. It will provide seating in the street, as well as a public bike rack. It was designed by the Civic Design Center, includes planters donated from Public Works, the Downtown Partnership is constructing the platform and maintaining the planters, and Frothy Monkey worked to coordinate and install the project. 

• Oasis Bike Workshop: Oasis Bike Workshop has long been a leader in empowering young people to bike through their earn a bike program, their work within public schools, and their mountain biking team. This year they have stepped it up to an even higher level with the opening of Nashville’s first public, surfaced, pump track in Watkins Park. For over four years Dan Furbish of Oasis has led the fundraising, brainstorming and development process with support from Nashville Metro Parks, Nashville Parks Foundation, SORBA Mid TN and many more! The pump track will provide a space for countless kids and adults to fall in love with bicycling, right in the heart of North Nashville.