Instead of a Transit Referendum, How About a Pedestrian Infrastructure Referendum?
I have been thinking a lot about why the Transit Referendum did not pass (May 2018). Without a culture of walking, not many have had the experience of being late or caught in a rainstorm and hoping on a bus. My main theory is the Transit Referendum failed, in part, because we have not fostered a culture of pedestrianism in Nashville.
We valet our cars when there is visible parking a block away. We complain about traffic and yet, without a safe way to walk, getting out on foot is for the few: those who have to and those who are determined.
I voted for transit but worried that we were putting the cart before the horse. Without obvious ways to get to transit (safe, well designed sidewalks so you could walk to your destination) it did not seem clear how this was all going to work.
Frankly, our track record on transit and sidewalks are not good. We still have sidewalks missing from 75% of our roads. Our bus stops are not inviting or safe.
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| The bus stop at Golf Club and Hillsboro - a weedy ditch strewn with trash. This is NOT is some out of the way place but rather in between Vanderbilt and Greenhills, 2 thriving parts of Nashville. No sidewalk = no way to safely get to or from bus stop! |
Examples of bus stops in Nashville
Pedestrians, in any concentration that matters, can only be found in a few areas such as the Gulch, 12th S, Downtown. The vast majority of Nashville lacks decent walking infrastructure and therefore only the brave or those who have to walk. Herein lies the root of the transit argument. If stepping off the bus leaves you literally in no-man's zone, how do you argue that more buses or different kinds of buses are needed?
We need to have a SIDEWALK PLAN that makes real progress fast and has a completion date set. Citizens need to have walking as an safe option and then transit will naturally be a logical next step.
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