Draft Nashville transit maps show 86 miles of new sidewalk, bus rapid transit on pikes
A new series of maps released Thursday show what a proposed tax increase for dedicated transit funding could yield for Nashville residents, including up to 86 miles of new sidewalks, 38 miles of dedicated bus rapid transit lanes concentrated on major roadways and upgrades to around 600 traffic signals.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell's administration is working to finalize a detailed transit improvement program based on 70 transportation plans and more than 66,000 pieces of public feedback collected by Metro over the last decade. The maps released Thursday are drafts of what could ultimately land on Davidson County voters' ballots in November.
O'Connell's administration is currently considering a half-cent sales tax surcharge to fund the "Choose How You Move" transit improvement plan. While the plan doesn't yet have a final price tag, O'Connell has said he expects it to be in the billions, spread over 30 years.
"All the financial details are not finalized yet, so the maps are not constrained to a specific number ā but they represent a working draft of what the mayor and his team believe might be possible," Deputy Communications Director Alex Apple said in a statement Thursday.
Light rail is notably absent from the draft plans. O'Connell said the comparatively high cost per mile for light rail would "wind up capsizing" what is intended to be a "comprehensive transportation plan."
"We don't want to have this be a significant burden to taxpayers. We want the impact to be widely felt, and I think in a comprehensive transportation program we will get to explore new levels of service Nashville has not enjoyed historically since our street car era," O'Connell said during a March 8 news conference. "We will also be able to modernize our traffic grid, we will also be able to add safer infrastructure on the ground connecting people to transit, and we will also be able to add community transit centers, park and rides and other amenities that let people access a traditional bus network. It's a series of trade-offs."
Bus Rapid Transit and other bus improvements
The maps show a mix of dedicated bus lanes, priority service lines and other service expansions and improvements throughout the county.
The majority of high-capacity transit improvements are concentrated in the center of the county, branching out toward Southeast Nashville and the upper east boundary of Davidson County.
"I think what we've seen historically is lots of West Nashville was not particularly interested in higher-capacity transit," O'Connell said on March 8.
Higher capacity routes will focus on where demand is growing most.
"We've seen the southeast part of the city grow very quickly. We've seen extraordinary demand for transit in East Nashville, and we've also started to push in North Nashville where the Rip Patton Transit Center is about to open. I think that we're focused on where we think transit trips are likeliest to originate or end," O'Connell said. "In fact, the part of West Nashville that is the largest transit trip generator in the region is Vanderbilt and the medical center, so we are trying to serve that area. But more than anything, we're trying to make sure that countywide, people get access to options."
Bus Rapid Transit
Bus Rapid Transit corridors with dedicated bus lanes would be concentrated on Murfreesboro, Gallatin, Dickerson and Nolensville pikes, with West End being considered as a potential fifth BRT route, depending on cost. Service on those routes would run every 10 to 15 minutes, 24/7.
Amanda Wall Vandegrift, a financial planning consultant working with Metro to develop the transportation improvement program, said "robust" BRT costs roughly $48 million per mile, including fully dedicated bus right-of-way, high-quality stops, upgrades to signals and sidewalks along the corridors, and other "bells and whistles" seen in peer cities with bus rapid transit systems. Light rail typically costs $200 million to $500 million per mile.
Priority corridors
The draft also shows 16 miles of "Transit Priority Corridor" composed of a mix of dedicated bus lanes and mixed traffic lanes downtown and along a portion of Charlotte Pike. Priority service would run multiple routes downtown every three minutes or less, with routes running every 15-20 minutes or less on Charlotte.
Express routes
Express bus service routes could be implemented along Interstate 24 from to Joelton to southeast Nashville, and portions of Interstate 65 toward southwest Nashville and Interstate 40 toward northeast Nashville.
Frequent service
Frequent service routes operating 24/5 could be implemented near the city core with offshoots into Vanderbilt and Midtown, East Nashville, along Gallatin Pike to the county border near Goodlettsville, Lebanon Pike toward the county's eastern border and into Southeast Nashville. Frequent service routes would run every 15 minutes during peak times, every 20 minutes in evenings and every 30 minutes overnight.
New routes and local service improvements
Local service improvements in Bellevue, North Nashville, East Nashville, Madison, and from the Sylvan Park area to Berry Hill and into South Nashville would run from 4:30 a.m. to midnight, every 30 minutes, seven days a week.
New and extended routes could be added in Antioch, along Highway 100 in southwest Nashville, in a south-north route along Donelson and McGavock pikes, and with routes along Dickerson Pike in northeast Nashville and along Old Hickory Boulevard.
Sidewalks
The draft maps show a potential 86 miles of new sidewalks (not including sidewalks already funded through the Nashville Department of Transportation's WalknBike plan), including sidewalks within half a mile of Bus Rapid Transit routes on the pikes and within a quarter mile of other transit routes.
In comparison, Nashville funded and constructed 6.55 miles of sidewalk in 2023, according to a news release.
Signals
Approximately 600 upgraded signals could be placed along main travel corridors from the city center toward the county's borders.
New technology could be used to identify traffic patterns and adjust signals based on demand, in conjunction with a new Traffic Management Center slated to launch this fall.
What's next
The maps illustrate key concepts first introduced at a meeting of O'Connell's Technical Advisory Committee on March 6.
O'Connell will present a Community Engagement Plan developed with guidance from a neighborhood impact-focused Community Advisory Committee at the committee's next meeting on March 20.
A joint meeting of the two committees and countywide informational sessions about the proposal will be scheduled in the coming weeks.
O'Connell's administration faces a tight timeline to pull together the plan in time for the November election:
March 29: Determine financial plan for audit
May 31: Financial certification from State Comptroller
June 7: Transit Improvement Plan/ordinance filed for Metro Council review
August 6: Metro Council final reading and vote
August 22: Transit Improvement Plan ballot language must be submitted to the Davidson County Election Commission
October 16: Early voting begins
November 5: Election Day
Evan Mealins contributed.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Draft Nashville transit maps: 86 miles of sidewalk, bus rapid transit
