794 replies to this topic

[jice]

Charlotte Pike runs parallel to West End/Broadway.. and I expect vehicular traffic to realize this road tends to be less utilized than West End, and take advantage.  If more lanes are needed, I would rather see Charlotte expanded.

Plus you have Church Street that also runs parallel until you get to 25th.

[jice]

timmay143, on 28 January 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

Anyone want to enlighten me on why a yearlong study on costs and ridership??  I thought this was covered in the last study?  Or is this one more specific and in more detail?

here's the press release:
http://www.nashville...ews/news549.pdf

also, apparently this is now called the 'East-West Connector'

[timmay143]

jice, on 29 January 2012 - 01:09 PM, said:

here's the press release:
http://www.nashville...ews/news549.pdf

also, apparently this is now called the 'East-West Connector'

Thanks.  Ok, so this next study is to comply with getting federal funding and yes it is a more detailed study about ridership and costs including impacts, engineering, and other items such as optimal station placement, etc.

[Volanova]

Interesting to see the numbers recently released by the RTA regarding the upswing in usage on the Music City Star.  Hopefully people are actually starting to use the service enough to make it feasible and enough to have an impact on traffic on I-40.  I noticed over the last couple of months someone was putting up unsourced information regarding a North-South Corridor line, and while I could find no mention of actual plans anywhere, it did get me to thinking that maybe something was in the works.  Anyone seen any news on this?

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that unless they get more equipment and a dual-track system set up, this won't really take off.  It's almost purely a commuter line right now, with the exception of special even trains and the 10:30 train on Saturday.  Without regular later service, or at least past 10:30 service on Weekends, it's not going to do a lot to get people downtown.  And with the limited population it serves right now, it won't do much.  When they get a train to Murfreesboro, and hopefully in the future to Clarksville, Dickson and Franklin, I really do hope this will change, and it will become more useful to people who don't work downtown.

Anyway, first post, woo!

[smeagolsfree]

Great to have you on board Volanova. Philadelphia is a really cool place. Only been there once. I take it that you may have gone to school at UT from your name. Welcome to the site.

[Volanova]

smeagolsfree, on 02 February 2012 - 12:55 PM, said:

Great to have you on board Volanova. Philadelphia is a really cool place. Only been there once. I take it that you may have gone to school at UT from your name. Welcome to the site.

I'm from the Nashville area, lived there all my life before college at UT and then grad school at Villanova.  Haven't left Philadelphia yet, even though I finished grad school a couple years ago.  Lots of ties to Middle TN though, still, as all my family still lives around there, and I'm back in town every couple of months.

Gotta say though, I'm disappointed to see that the Philly section of the boards are dead.  So much going on up here development and building wise, this city is changing for the better every week.  Some sections are entirely different and nearly unrecognizable from what they were when I first came up 5 years ago.

Looking forward to keeping up with what's going on in Nashville!

[timmay143]

Volanova, on 02 February 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

Interesting to see the numbers recently released by the RTA regarding the upswing in usage on the Music City Star.  Hopefully people are actually starting to use the service enough to make it feasible and enough to have an impact on traffic on I-40.  I noticed over the last couple of months someone was putting up unsourced information regarding a North-South Corridor line, and while I could find no mention of actual plans anywhere, it did get me to thinking that maybe something was in the works.  Anyone seen any news on this?

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that unless they get more equipment and a dual-track system set up, this won't really take off.  It's almost purely a commuter line right now, with the exception of special even trains and the 10:30 train on Saturday.  Without regular later service, or at least past 10:30 service on Weekends, it's not going to do a lot to get people downtown.  And with the limited population it serves right now, it won't do much.  When they get a train to Murfreesboro, and hopefully in the future to Clarksville, Dickson and Franklin, I really do hope this will change, and it will become more useful to people who don't work downtown.

Anyway, first post, woo!

I think for Nashville the Star will only be for commuter and special events due to the track share, i.e. low frequency/high ridership.  I think LRT/BRT could be implemented for higher frequency stops to the surrounding counties.  Hopefully, the E/W BRT connectow will start the ball rolling for a larger, more expansive mass transit system in Nashville.

Also, welcome to the boards!!

[Nashvillain]

Good and bad news for Nashville in terms of sprawl and urban planning. The bad, the Nashville Metro area is the least dense, most sprawling metro in the nation. Its commuters log the most miles and longest commutes and if historical development patterns continue, the area will add some 365,000 acres of formerly rural land to its urban sprawl-scrape by 2035. However, The Nashville area Metropolitan Planning organization has come up with a plan to condense that development to a more reasonable area as well as a host of other smart, sustainable features as it plans for the future of the region.

Read about it in the short blog post via the Atlantic Cities
http://www.theatlant...ling-past/1241/

Also, add the Atlantic Cities and Kaid Benfield's blogto your reading list.

[timmay143]

March 9th is ride the bus for free day by MTA.

http://www.tennessea...all-day-March-9

[timmay143]

This is great news!!  Clarksville is considering joining RTA for commuting services!!!  If you haven't traveled the corridor lately, commuter traffic is an issue.  This should work well.  I have a friend who commutes daily (5 days a week usually) to Hopkinsville from southeast of Nashville (OHB exit right after HH and right before RuCo).  He was having trouble finding a job a few years back (even with an engineering degree) and ended up working for a firm there in Hopkinsville, KY right across the Clarksville, TN state line.  The service would be commuter buses (I guess like the big "greyhound" type commuter buses by RTA we see now).

Clarksville City Council considers RTA membership for Nashville commuters

http://www.theleafch...EWS01/302240015

An excerpt from the article:

Quote

“We applied for a congestion mitigation air quality fund to pay for this service and to pay for it for three years,” Smith said. “The RTA already has an existing fleet of road coaches that they can perform this service with, but we’ll partner with the RTA to provide the service under the contract.”

Smith said the dues to belong to the RTA are 10 cents per citizen of the city’s population, totaling to a little over $13,000. He said the fare for a day, one way, would more than likely be $4, similar to the bus fare from Franklin to Nashville.

“But the more rides you buy, the number comes down,” he said. “I think the monthly pass is, and don’t hold me to this, I think it’s around $70.”

Clarksville started out with a van pool, which Smith thinks total to 26 or 27, and are all full with waiting lists.

“Right now we’ve got about 10,000 people commuting to Nashville daily,” he said. “We think we’ll see benefits from reverse commutes as well, possibly employees at the HSC plant and other places.”

Mayor Kim McMillan said the RTA deals with things like the Music City Star, other rail lines, car-pooling and ridesharing. Smith said in order for things like rail lines to be considered, the other forms of transportation have to work in Clarksville first.

Edited by timmay143, 29 February 2012 - 10:30 AM.

[timmay143]

Sweet.

Mass transit requests top $2.9 million in Middle Tennessee

http://www.tennessea...pnews|text|News

Quote

Six mass transit projects with a heavy emphasis on technology are competing for $1.65 million in federal funds to be awarded in Middle Tennessee this spring.

The recently submitted proposals include a smartphone app for bus riders, a computer system to match riders with carpools, Park-n-Ride lot improvements in Gallatin and Springfield, a short commuter rail siding line to increase train trips to and from Lebanon, and new bus-ticket vending machines for the Music City Central station downtown.

The Nashville Metro Transit Authority and Regional Transit Authority submitted four of the six proposals.

The $2.9 million requested goes beyond the funds available. Winning projects will be announced in May.

The Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization announced the funding early this year and emphasized the creative use of existing funds for projects other than roadway construction.

Edited by timmay143, 12 March 2012 - 10:22 AM.

[Volanova]

Anyone have any usage stats on those Park-n-Ride lots anyway?  For some reason they've never seemed very appealing to me.  I suppose the main benefit is not having to pay for parking downtown, but in reality, it seems like you have the option of driving to the parking lot, waiting on a bus, then waiting in the same traffic you'd otherwise drive in (for maybe a little cheaper), or just driving the entire way, cutting out the time spent waiting on a bus that's probably going to be late anyway.

And here's to hoping those sidings get built so that there are more than a half dozen trips each way on the train.

[dmillsphoto]

Volanova, on 12 March 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

Anyone have any usage stats on those Park-n-Ride lots anyway?  For some reason they've never seemed very appealing to me.  I suppose the main benefit is not having to pay for parking downtown, but in reality, it seems like you have the option of driving to the parking lot, waiting on a bus, then waiting in the same traffic you'd otherwise drive in (for maybe a little cheaper), or just driving the entire way, cutting out the time spent waiting on a bus that's probably going to be late anyway.

And here's to hoping those sidings get built so that there are more than a half dozen trips each way on the train.

I use the lots for Preds games and just walk the 1/2 mile. It's good for the legs...

[Volanova]

dmillsphoto, on 12 March 2012 - 01:12 PM, said:

I use the lots for Preds games and just walk the 1/2 mile. It's good for the legs...

See, I think if they were presented more as suburban bus stations instead of just parking lots, then they'd get better usage.  Put some amenities for people waiting, like heated areas, maybe a cafe, and you've got something that can work.

[timmay143]

I agree.  Something needs to be done to promote transit.  Some kind of spin to encourage people to utilize the components.

[Volanova]

Exactly.  The problem with the Nashville MTA, the RTA and other services isn't that they have a bad reputation, it's that they have a nonexistent reputation.  They're just kind of there it seems.

[timmay143]

Study?  Just look at what is in the article.  They pretty much lay it out.  Better, walkable communities with access to various transit options!!  There's your freaking study!  Seriously though, BRT lines and commuter rail would help a lot in this corridor.

Attempts to ease I-24 traffic woes creep along
Studies, much like congestion, are piling up, but changes may be on the way

http://www.tennessea...|text|FRONTPAGE

[PHofKS]

There was a internal study done by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to recommend an Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) plan which would allow operation of I-24 in conjunction with the parallel US 41/70. The US highway would have message signs and traffic signals actually controlled from a Traffic Operations Center in Murfreesboro so traffic could be routed to thoroughfares with the most capacity and least delay.

ICM is a relatively new concept for coordinating all modes of transportation within one corridor. Only five such projects were approved by the FHWA (the Federal Government's most slow moving agency).

The TDOT proposal was described at public meetings, but never was advanced any further. Too bad.

[nashvillwill]

timmay143, on 17 March 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

Study?  Just look at what is in the article.  They pretty much lay it out.  Better, walkable communities with access to various transit options!!  There's your freaking study!  Seriously though, BRT lines and commuter rail would help a lot in this corridor.

Attempts to ease I-24 traffic woes creep along
Studies, much like congestion, are piling up, but changes may be on the way

http://www.tennessea...|text|FRONTPAGE

I'm glad to see that a few agencies are finally thinking about this.

I was born and raised in Antioch and spent a few years of my adult life there commuting to MTSU and Nashville. I used the bus route (96X) quite often, but was always very frustrated with it. I can't understand why it goes down M'boro road only. There desperately needs to be a I-24 express bus. Also, local bus service in Hickory Hollow is awful. Much of it is due to the road/residential design, but this can be improved over time.

I think a leg of the Music City Star would be great, but an express bus could be just as effective (and much more likely) if implimented well.

Something i didn't see mentioned in the article was the lack of enforcement of the HOV lane law. I always saw single passenger cars in the lane (probably as high as 80%), and never saw anyone get pulled over for this. It's almost like the law enforcement doesn't even acknolwedge the rule. If enforced with a higher penalty, people would complain at first, but it would make the lane much more effective and encourage people to actually carpool and use transit such as buses and motorcycles.

[nashvylle]

these "studies", "committees", etc. are not solving the problem. Build a freaking train. It's the only way we will reduce congestion. Public transportation in Nashville is just plain terrible. I blame our leadership. Karl Dean is doing the right thing, but I wish it was more aggressive. Something needs to happen and happen now. It is embarrassing how poor public transportation is in Nashville and how car dependent the city is