SAFETY & SIGNALS

What's in the Choose How You Move program

By Wesley Smith & Meredith Montgomery     October 8, 2024

At Walk Bike Nashville, we believe a vote for Choose How You Move is a vote for streets where people are prioritized, a vote that will accelerate our mission to make our city more walkable, bikeable, and livable.

Over 15 years, the program will incrementally transform our streets, doubling the pace we build sidewalks and bikeways, and doubling the amount of bus service. The alternative, to do nothing, will leave us with much of the same - too few improvements moving far too slow. We can change that. To build Streets for People, we must support Choose How You Move, and we're not taking your vote for granted.

We addressed the program’s sidewalks, bikeways, and bus service upgrades in our first post. Next up, a look at the safety and signal improvements. 

Safety

In 2022, Nashville set a record for pedestrian fatalities. In total, around 100 lives are lost each year to fatal crashes in Davidson County alone and hundreds more are injured. The truth is, the vast majority of these aren't "accidents", but predictable and preventable crashes. Just 6% of streets account for 59% of fatal and serious injuries for all modes of travel. Combined with Nashville's ongoing Vision Zero efforts, Choose How You Move will reconfigure our most dangerous streets to both save lives and move people more effectively. 

In a way, the entire program is a safety improvement program. Choose How You Move will improve a third  of Nashville's high injury network, where the majority of fatal crashes occur, and 35 of Nashville’s most dangerous intersections. This reconfiguration will transform the character of our main pikes. Bike lanes and transit lanes provide more protection for pedestrians, and fewer car lanes on these big corridors will reduce crossing distances. Narrower lanes and landscaped medians will reduce speeds of vehicles while additional and improved crosswalks will make it easier and safer to cross the street.

These improvements are overdue and without this dedicated funding, the pace of change will continue to be deadly. Dickerson Pike provides a good example. Last year, the Tennessee Department of Transportation committed to a transformative complete streets project on Dickerson Pike from Trinity Ln. to Ewing Dr.--a 1.7 mile segment of road. If we secure funding through Choose How You Move, a much larger portion of Dickerson Pike will experience a transformation: 6.25 miles from Nissan Stadium to Skyline Walmart.

Signals

Nashville's traffic signals are archaic, using dial-up technology dated to the days of AOL. If you’ve ever attended a major event in the city, you’ve likely seen an MNPD officer manually controlling the signals to help improve the flow of traffic. This will no longer be necessary with Choose How You Move which will upgrade two-thirds of all signals in Davidson County. These improvements will stretch to the county line, tying signals to NDOT’s new transportation management center where traffic demand is monitored, and traffic lights are adjusted in real-time to maximize flow for all users.

This makes it less likely you'll sit at a light for minutes at a time in the early morning or late at night. It means special events and unexpected traffic jams can be adjusted for remotely. It also means buses will have even faster trips in dedicated lanes with signal prioritization. And, of course, signal improvements will help people walking and biking too.

Leading pedestrian intervals can be deployed at more intersections giving people walking and biking the opportunity to start crossing before drivers get the green light. Modernized signals will also allow pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHB) to be better coordinated with traffic flow of the corridor. PHBs are highly effective for midblock crossings because they stop vehicular traffic when activated by a pedestrian. Additionally, detection system upgrades will allow us to collect higher quality data related to behavior and near misses which can help inform design decisions to improve safety.

Getting Involved

If you feel, like us, that Choose How You Move will improve our transportation system, you should get involved. 

First, pledge your support of this program by joining our Streets for People campaign. If you're ready to knock doors, make calls, or speak to community groups, get involved with the Nashville Moves campaign, and let them know Walk Bike sent you. We're also excited to see the launch of Shift Nashville, a joint effort between the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Equity Alliance, and Stand Up Nashville (SUN) to support the transit referendum and ensure equity throughout the implementation of the program. And last but not least, tell your friends!