Mayor Megan Barry has charted a near-term path for delivering on her administration’s transportation goals with the release of an ambitious Action Agenda, ‘Moving the Music City.’ The Agenda lays out a mayoral vision, with specific projects and programs, for transforming Nashville’s streets into people-friendly public spaces—targeting improvements for transit mobility, safety, walking and bicycling, smart-city technology, maintenance, and organizational capacity.
\The document builds on the mayor’s first- and second-year transportation investments by providing Metro departments and agencies, partners, and citizens with a detailed blueprint to improve travel in a growing city to ensure Nashville is a safer, more livable and prosperous place in the years to come.
\“Nashvillians are ready for the great visioning work we’ve done (through countywide planning efforts such as NashvilleNext, nMotion, and WalkNBike) to spring to life. Because of the growth we’re seeing, they’re ready for the city’s streets to begin physically changing for the better, faster,” said Mayor Barry. “This Action Agenda will serve as an important guide for Metro’s hard-working transportation professionals. These are folks who are committed to completing our streets and ensuring Nashville’s transportation system is efficient, humane, and supportive of our larger goals for improving health and air quality, creating jobs, and preserving our strong and diverse neighborhoods.”
\Metro’s Transportation Action Agenda sets the course for ambitious, immediate next-steps to be pursued by Nashville MTA and a new Division of Transportation established within the Metro-Nashville Department of Public Works. Tactics fall under umbrella policy strategies of importance to the mayor and her administration, and the public at-large.
“nMotion charts a detailed path for making transit in Nashville a more convenient and viable option,” said Steve Bland, CEO of Nashville MTA. “We’re excited and committed to delivering on specific goals derived from nMotion as outlined in the Mayor’s Action Agenda, such as increasing Nashvillians’ access to frequent bus service and making transit more visible and legible, while building a bridge to longer-term projects such as light-rail service on four of Nashville’s historic pikes.”
‘Moving the Music City’ follows this spring’s release of draft recommendations around sustainability from Mayor Barry’s Livable Nashville Committee, where transportation goals played a key role. Greater-Nashville is currently growing by approximately 82 new residents a day, increasing demands placed on streets and urgency around the need to shift trips from Single Occupant Vehicle to mass transit, walking and bicycling. With more than 5,880 lane-miles of roadway spread across Davidson County’s 532 square-miles, Metro’s transportation network comprises the city’s largest, most significant public space and offers countless opportunities to move people and improve quality of life and place.
\“This Agenda gets the ball rolling on adding to our choices for getting around congestion, while squarely addressing significant challenges around safety and efficiency,” said Mark Sturtevant, interim director of Metro Public Works. “A unified, more people-friendly approach to mobility can make a dramatic contribution to sustainably and equitably accommodating growth. Public Works is proud to assist Mayor Barry and the citizens of Nashville with charting new directions for our city’s transportation system.”
