The Metropolitan Council voted unanimously to put Mayor O’Connell’s transportation plan on the November ballot. I did so because I believed, and still do, that improving our transportation infrastructure is a very important issue funded by an increase in the sales tax. District 27 voters deserve to have a voice. As I have seen the Choose How You Move referendum discussed on Facebook and Nextdoor, many are focusing solely on the issue of bus transportation. This transportation plan is multi-faceted. It has a lot of moving parts. (pun intended) I hope as you decide how you will vote you will also take into consideration all the other parts of this plan. To help you do a deeper dive, I share the following from the Mayor’s press release of April 19th,2024:
From The Mayor’s Office
Sidewalks
Choose How You Move will add 86 linear miles of sidewalk, which is about the same distance as Nashville is from Cookeville. One out of every three Nashville residents will have direct, walkable access to a transit stop. We’ll have a 50 percent increase in walkable neighborhoods. This is how we supercharge Nashville’s entire priority sidewalk network.
Signals
The transportation improvement plan will deliver smarter traffic signals that use technology to manage traffic flows and communicate wirelessly with our transit vehicles to keep them evenly spaced and moving quickly. There will be 592 new or upgraded traffic signals concentrated in some of our highest traffic areas. The signals tie into a new Traffic Management Center opening later this year. At that center, NDOT can see where traffic is heaviest and adjust our system in real-time to keep Nashvillians moving.
Service
Nashvillians will benefit from the Choose How You Move plan, whether we take the bus or not. But we’re going to make riding the bus easy, reliable, safe, frequent, and an all-hours option – a good fit for a 24/7 workforce.
This initiative will establish 54 miles of high-capacity All-Access Corridors, where the entire route is designed to move people faster and safer with transit vehicles arriving every 15 minutes for better round-the-clock service. These All-Access Corridors include 10 of Nashville’s most heavily used roadways, and they carry 80% of Nashville’s transit ridership (such as Murfreesboro Pike, Gallatin Pike, Nolensville Pike, Dickerson Road, West End, Charlotte Pike, Bordeaux/Clarksville Pike and more). They’ll have dedicated transit-only lanes in strategic locations. Nashvillians will be able to travel the length of Murfreesboro Pike 12 minutes faster than you can today.
Choose How You Move aims to build 12 modern transit centers at key locations in the city, so that riders can travel from neighborhood to neighborhood without having to go downtown.
The plan calls for building 17 Park & Ride facilities located near high-capacity transit routes, so that more Nashvillians (My addition: and those of surrounding communities that add to the congestion on our main roads) can access transit even if they don’t live near a bus route.
Choose How You Move is going to double the hours of our high-frequency daily service and increase total bus service by almost80%. That includes more express service and regional service while also expanding WeGo Star service and the WeGo Access program to 24/7 availability. The plan offers extended service hours for the local routes serving Nashville’s prime entertainment district and expands WeGo Link for curb-to-curb service.
If the referendum is approved by voters, low-income residents of Davidson County will qualify for fully subsidized transit passes. A Nashville couple earning $48,000 a year could qualify for unlimited rides on the WeGo Public Transit system.
About two-thirds of the new transit centers and bus stop improvements will be in historically underrepresented communities. This is how we bring the cost of living down for our residents and meet the needs of our 24/7 workforce.
Safety
Choose How You Move upgrades 285 bus stops to improve lighting, weather cover, and real-time location tracking. Twenty-five intersections will be redesigned as Vision Zero intersections to reduce the risk of injury, a major improvement as 59 percent of Nashville’s fatal and serious injuries occur on six percent of the city’s roads. Thirty-nine miles of Complete Street projects along our high-injury network will make Nashvillians safer, and there will be 35 miles of new or upgraded bicycle facilities.
The program makes safety improvements on 78 miles of the Vision Zero High Injury Network, places where a high number of traffic deaths and serious injuries are occurring, creating safer streets for pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, and transit users alike.
Funding
In Tennessee, the IMPROVE Act allows local governments to levy a surcharge to generate new revenue specifically for public transportation. A sales tax surcharge of a half penny would make Davidson County’s sales tax rate equal to almost all of our neighboring counties. Nashville would be one of the last of its neighboring counties to choose to increase its local sales tax from 2.25% to the most common effective rate of 2.75%.
For every $50 you spend, you’ll see an extra 25 cents in sales tax on your receipt. For most Nashvillians, the cost will be at or under $70 per year. For comparison, the cost of owning a car is more than $1,000 per month for new vehicles according to AAA. That includes loan interest, depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and fees.
Nashville is one of only four cities in the top 50 U.S. Metros that does not have dedicated funding for transportation. Sales tax is the single most common local funding source used for public transportation nationally. Most of the top 50 cities (85%) use some form of dedicated sales tax to fund local transit.
The sales tax surcharge presents an opportunity to share the cost of transportation improvements between people who live here and those who don’t. Nashville is unique because about 60% of our sales tax is paid by people who live somewhere else. That means visitors to the city will pickup the biggest share of the costs of this new transportation improvement program.
On the federal level, Nashville has a finite and unprecedented opportunity to bring more federal tax dollars back to Music City if we act now. Dedicated funding would provide the matching funds needed to leverage over $1.4 billion in future federal dollars to invest in transportation and improve access over the next 15 years.
The financial elements of the plan are undergoing a third-party audit and will be reviewed by the Tennessee Comptroller and are subject to change. (Added note: The Tennessee Comptroller’s audit approved Choose How You Move plan as submitted.)
Timeline
If the sales tax surcharge is approved by voters on November5, 2024, revenue collections could begin on February 1, 2025. The sales tax surcharge would end when all outstanding debt has been repaid.
The program has been designed so residents see improvements starting right away. Early projects include a WeGo Link microtransit pilot program, WeGo service enhancements, safety and lighting improvements, initial sidewalk improvements, and the introduction of traffic and signal improvements.
Within two years residents will see substantial bus service improvements such as expanded hours and frequency, continued sidewalk and signal installations, and the development of the first Complete Street project.
Within five years: More than 150 signals upgraded and modernized, along with upgrades to the Traffic Management Center to support these changes, and the first All-Access Corridors will begin high frequency service on West End, Charlotte Pike, and in downtown between Elizabeth Duff Transit Center and SoBro via James Robertson Pkwy, Rosa L Parks Blvd, and Lafayette St.
Within 10 years: 60 miles of new and upgraded sidewalks will be built, above and beyond NDOT’s regular sidewalk program; more All-Access Corridors will begin high frequency service including Murfreesboro Pike, Gallatin Pike and Clarksville Pike, in downtown on James Robertson Parkway from Elizabeth Duff Transit Center to the East Bank, and service to the East Bank from SoBro via the Gateway Bridge.
At 15 years: Metro will have upgraded nearly all 600 traffic signals, will have secured 78 miles of the Vision Zero high-injury network with safety improvements, will have completed all 86 miles of new sidewalk, and will have implemented high-capacity transit on 10 of Nashville’s busiest corridors with Dickerson Pike and Nolensville Pike improvements coming online.”
How Will I Vote
Let me start off by saying that I have never ridden on a Nashville bus. (My wife did for a short time in the late 70’s when we were newly married and only had one vehicle.) We do not live on a transit route, but we do drive downtown occasionally. The new transportation plan provides for nearly 600 synchronized, smart traffic signals. This will reduce much of our stop and go traffic and lower fuel costs that can help offset the sales tax increase. For non-bus ridership, there will be some 17 Park and Ride locations that will offer commuters alternatives to driving downtown thereby decreasing traffic on our main corridors for those who choose to drive.
For these reasons, although I am not a bus rider, I will be voting for the plan. With the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area growing as fast as it is, I believe we must look to the future and start making improvements in our transportation infrastructure and how we get around.
Also, and maybe most importantly, I do represent a number of lower income constituents that do need to use public transportation to get to work, doctor’s appointments, shopping and other life needs. They deserve enhanced bus stops and transit centers that improve the efficiency of our transit system and protect riders from inclement weather.
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