The public listening phase of the Nashville and Davidson County transportation plan has concluded. A total of 11 sessions were held throughout Davidson County between January 9 and February 27 to gather community input on Metro’s transportation planning priorities.
Residents who could not physically attend a listening session could provide their input on an online survey, which received 1,506 responses. Over the course of the past two months, a total of 759 residents representing neighborhoods spanning from Bordeaux to Bellevue attended the public listening sessions.
“The right transportation plan requires input from our entire community, and Nashvillians delivered,” said Mayor John Cooper. “I’m thrilled with the turnout at our public listening sessions and the in-depth participation from residents who took the time to voice their ideas, questions, and concerns about the everyday transportation challenges they’re facing in Nashville. Now it’s time to put these recommendations into action.”
The first half hour at each public listening session was dedicated to a resource-based survey in which participants are provided $20 in simulated cash to identify their own spending priorities by project category type. Categories include:
- Safety/Vision Zero
- Bikeways
- Signals/Traffic Operations
- Transit
- Greenways
- Working with TDOT on Interstates/State Routes & Freight Movement
- Sidewalks
- Traffic Calming
- State of Good Repair (Road/Bridge Maintenance)
The second half hour involved attendees: identifying specific locations of concern on Metro maps; answering questions about equitable transportation plan design, transit and bike system utilization; and free-form commenting.
“The first step in the planning process is determining our transportation priorities, which was the purpose of the public listening sessions,” said Faye DiMassimo, Mayor Cooper’s senior adviser for Transportation and Infrastructure. “The feedback we’ve received is encouraging, as we suspected that the biggest opportunities for improvement to commuter and pedestrian quality-of-life rests in these everyday challenges, like increased bus service, improved street surface maintenance, and the expansion of our city’s sidewalk network. While these are certainly not the only issues our transportation plan will address, the listening sessions have provided us a fantastic starting point to ensure we’re headed in the right direction and doing right by the Nashvillians we’ve talked with.”
The Mayor’s Office began listening sessions with members of Metro Council in November 2019. Transportation team members are also meeting with more than 20 community stakeholder organizations to solicit additional public feedback. These groups included: IMF, One Nashville, NOAH, and The Equity Alliance.
The Mayor’s Office will issue initial recommendations in late spring of 2020 and release a full transportation plan by the end of September 2020, in keeping with Mayor Cooper’s pledge to have a new plan by the end of his first year in office.
