Nashville bus stops have not kept pace with modern needs. After traveling to other cities and used their bus systems to great effect it is clear that we are severely lacking in even the basics such as a clean and inviting stop that is a part of a walkable grid.
Nashville is certainly not compliant with ADA requirements for bus stops and seems unable to solve this issue. This is not an issue just in remote or out of the way locations but in major corridors ripe with shopping, post offices, libraries, school and traffic.
I'm all for transportation but I do not want to think we are going to bypass our basic needs. We don't have sidewalks. We don't have inviting bus stops...now. If we don't have a full sidewalk grid, how are people to get to public transportation? It is a little hard to have confidence when we have been begging for these basics for years.
The money needed for light rail could provide AWESOME sidewalks with great lighting at pedestrian scale and it could tree line all streets. Just saying.
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| This is actually a pretty good bus stop for Nashville - it is in the busy Green Hills area |
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| Simple concrete pad that does not connect to a sidewalk grid |
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| Hillsboro High students waiting by the side of busy Hillsboro Pk Note: no sidewalk. |
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| Typical in its lack of appeal |
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| Uninviting |
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| This north bound bus stop, also on Hillsboro Pk, is literally a concrete pad that does not connect to anything. We had to cross 5 lanes of traffic to reach it. |
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| The stop sign on the opposite of the street represents the south bound bus stop at Hillsboro and Golf Club. It is a grassy ditch. |
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| This bus stop is on Harding Rd. There is literally no place for a person to stand. No clear access to the parking lot due to bushes. |
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| This is my 'favorite'. This bus stop on Powell Av in front of One Hundred Oaks has no access. That grassy hill is not ADA compliant and has a fence at the top. I'm curious of anyone can actually use this stop as I can only think this was a mistake to put a bus stop sign here. For comparison, a few Chicago bus stops:   |
The Tennessean Article
"Harding Rd. There is literally no place for a person to stand. No clear access to the parking lot due to bushes."
ReplyDeleteAs difficult as it may seem to believe; the Harding Rd Kroger stop used to be worse. It was at the entrance, just to the left of frame on your photo. Which means the rider shown would've been standing in the turn lane dodging motorists turning into the Kroger parking lot.
I have complained often about that stop.
There's a logical place (across from the stop on the opposite side of Harding Rd) with a crosswalk added.