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38 minutes ago, shanky said:

I think the AMP could have succeeded but the flaw with it, (as far as I'm concerned) was that the route was designed to go where it wasn't wanted.  There are socio-economic factors to be considered when designing mass transit.  It should be in place where people are going to use it.  Had Dean taken a practical approach and proposed it for Charlotte as opposed to West End, there would have been much less resistence to the idea, and had it actually been built would have served a population that actually would have used it. 

The same could be said for MTA routes to Brentwood.  There's a reason people in Brentwood don't use transit;  their not poor enough.  And to be perfectly honest, there's a stigma attached to using transit in areas like Brentwood.  This isn't to say that it wouldn't succeed there eventually, but we need to start alleviating traffic in ways that are significant now, meaning taking it to those areas where people will use it.

There are obvious political obstacles in the way for mass transit here, but till we consider the socio-economic advantages, transit will struggle to get going.

Agreed. Make it happen for Nolensville Pike,  Charlotte Pike & Gallatin Pike (and maybe Murfreesboro Pike). Almost regardless of modality; whatever transit solution (hopefully) ultimately materializes for the pikes - it will be widely adopted and used (IMO).  And not just by a certain socio-economic demo. Picking West End to kick off mass transit for Nashville was folly - on many levels.  

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On 2/6/2015 at 7:05 PM, rookzie said:

 

I do agree in this day and age, since such appliances are not that new of a novelty.  The "It" city has a mountain of catching up to transform its infrastructure to contemporary, de facto practices elsewhere.  You might not have realized that the illuminated green-and-white street-name signs (for which it is acknowledged that they do require added funding), found in a number of intersections within downtown Nashv'l, had been abound in a number of larger and even much smaller cities much earlier than they had been showing up in DT Nashv'l.

 

In the case of parking meters, they are rather an amenity relating much more to convenience than to roadway navigability.  They do come with an initial high-cost infrastructure overhead, and my hope is that more attention will be directed to funding at least trial installations of these things in the CBD, as a measure of encouragement and assurance for the many of those who likely would use them.  An added benefit would be giving parking customers the ability to make an initial payment at the meter via credit card or coin and then to be able to extend their time by mobile payment, up to the maximum allowable time, and additionally to offer remote payment capabilities for extending parking "sessions", without parkers having to be physically present at the meter.  And as if that weren't enough, some systems can be set up as nodes to permit compatibility with either the vendors' mobile apps or those of third-party, to allow users to more easily locate vacated parking spaces, the vendors' apps having this real-time GPS mapping integrated with parking sensors. (of course, crowd-sourcing apps independently assist with seeking open spaces with mixed results)  Gleaves Street might be on the other side of the tracks, so to speak (and literally), but it is located right smack in the middle of some major diverse activity.  Parking patrons in that little zone would be high game for such an enhancement.

-==-

 

 

 

So now....  It appears that Metro finally is about to transition to a new parking-meter payment mode.  Of course, this is nothing at all new, since that's been the only way I pay, when visiting Takoma Park, Silver Spring, MD.  At least is IS a start.  Perhaps a new rabbit eventually will be pulled from the hat, with the remote payment options and telemetric status reporting on remaining time, as mentioned a year and a have ago.  Brace ourselves for the imminent price hikes.

 
5176568_G.jpg
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -

Parking meters and pay stations throughout Davidson County will soon be retrofitted with solar-powered technology.

Approximately 2,000 meters will be able to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards. Customers paying by card will face a 2.3 percent convenience fee per transaction.

The project will be completed in phases and will begin on Deaderick Street with digital pay stations.

Metro Public Works will be adjusting rates for on-street parking meters this summer. The new rates were approved by the Traffic and Parking Commission on July 11 and include:

  • Increase from $1.50 to $2 per hour in the central business district and $1 to $1.50 per hour in the non-central business district
  • Rates to reserve a parking meter increase from $30 a day to $42 a day

The rate increase will help offset the cost of the bags, lost revenue, labor for covering and uncovering meters and vehicle usage cost.

The new rates will take effect when the meters are installed with the new technology.

 

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There needs to be some enforcement of current parking regulations. Far too many parking spaces are taken up ALL day by people who aren't paying. I have often observed dozens of meters blinking "expired" and not a ticket in sight! Without enforcement it does not matter how modern the technology for payment! It is almost impossible to find a short term parking spot in the core of downtown because of abuses of the system already. Bring back the brutal meter maids!!!

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Drove down Gallatin Rd this evening including along the section they are resurfacing. They have stripped away the existing layers of pavement so deep that you can now see the old streetcar rails (or what I assume) that were originally paved over.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I thought it was interesting in the plans for the new $1.2 billion remodel/expansion plans for the airport that the elevated train line system running into/out of the Multi-Modal Transit Center turns to the south when outside of the terminal area, instead of to the north.  If heading to the north, conventional thinking would have it then intersect with the I-40 corridor and then head west towards downtown.  By heading south, it must mean the planners are thinking it would intersect with the Murfreesboro Rd. corridor and then head northwestward into downtown from there.  Would love to see more expanded views of their concepts for this system and how everything might interconnect, including a terminal downtown.

 

BNA Transit line render, July, 2016.png

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On 8/1/2016 at 9:52 AM, markhollin said:

I thought it was interesting in the plans for the new $1.2 billion remodel/expansion plans for the airport that the elevated train line system running into/out of the Multi-Modal Transit Center turns to the south when outside of the terminal area, instead of to the north.  If heading to the north, conventional thinking would have it then intersect with the I-40 corridor and then head west towards downtown.  By heading south, it must mean the planners are thinking it would intersect with the Murfreesboro Rd. corridor and then head northwestward into downtown from there.  Would love to see more expanded views of their concepts for this system and how everything might interconnect, including a terminal downtown.
 

I'm really thinking that this rail thing is tailored more as an airport people-mover, more than as rapid transit per se, even though the article release mentions "multimodal".  So far, I don't see this as a proposal to tie in with an airport connector from a municipal or regional transit network, but rather as local only for parking and terminal shuttle.  Then too this is just a concept, and it likely is not necessarily the latest (or even a recent) rendering.

EDIT - Additionally, with that being a rendering in concept, that aerial tramway appears too skimpy and not beefy enough, even for a light-rail branch into the terminal, let alone for any RR-type vehicular capacity.  Again, it's just a generic illustration, likely not detailed with transportation engineering in mind (or even by those who would be versed in that field).  But then, that's just my assessment.

Edited by rookzie
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The short video about the BNA expansion, narrated by Mike Keith (video is linked in the NBJ article), describes the multimodal transit line as linking the airport with downtown.  I'd agree that at this stage it's purely conceptual with no actual plan, route or funding for a transit line in place.       

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2016/08/01/taking-flight-nashville-international-airport.html

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/15/2015 at 5:31 PM, rookzie said:

 

We're not necessarily speaking of the degree of work required, but rather the concept and the intended purpose of the initiative.  I'm basing my focus on what UTgrad09 has conceived, and the fact that he has perceived that the north cap arguably would be value-added, for the sake of undoing some of the damage created in the past.  The north cap in that part of the inner city can help to restore connectivity.

If you look, you definitely can see a swath of region between Jefferson and the point near Jackson and Ireland Streets definitely is below grade sufficiently to cap off ─ that is a sufficient amount of span-able surface area to re-establish an appreciable level of continuity in that neighborhood.  That's a goal and intent of the capping project as UTgrad09 has presented, not merely to allow more recreational, green-space, and commercialism within the area south of Broadway.  This a concept with multiple ramifications for a more comprehensive, far-reaching spectrum of purposes, rather than just connect the south side.  On the north side, the roadways of Meharry, Phillips, Jackson, and Ireland were literally chopped off, which in turn has all but severed the Fisk area from Hope Gardens.  I feel that each of those streets needs to be reconnected as they had been during pre-1968 days, and there potentially exists a chance for a vast level of economic impact for that area, far more dramatic from what it has been rendered in its state of blight.  It's been bad enough, not just for that part of the city, but also East, South, West, and in the areas affected by Ellington and Briley Pkwys on the northeast, all having far too few bridges and underpasses, and creating more harm than good for the urban areas.

The land-hungry interchange of I-40 and I-65, just north of Jefferson, along with the freeway split in three ways from that point, is additional testimony to the adverse affects of the compound state of physical divisions within that region extremely slow (if unresponsive) to redevelopment.  But it also has affected accessibility, not only with the severance of those 4 streets (not to mention what it did to Scovel Street just north of Jefferson), but also the with the compound effect of forcing all mobility along other surface roadways to serve as well (the effect known as "You can't get there from here").  MLBrumby has just given testimony in the First Tenn. Ballpark thread, of just how bad Jefferson Street constantly gets backed up west of 8th Ave, and much of the problem is due to having too few east-west connections exist in that area across the interstate, along with the fact that Jefferson is only 2 lanes wide with a center-turn lane.   Add to that, the feeding to that frenzy from 26th and 28th Avenues at the part of Jefferson west of the gulch area.  In the distant future, a cap might even benefit the area between 14th and 18th Avenues.  The long-term effects of providing with at least a cap on that smaller portion of the interstate north of CSX (actually north of Herman St.) may not necessarily measured, but they can be extrapolated.

-==-

I dredged this somewhat "silt-buried" sub-topic, after stumbling upon an article released this week, concerning our periodically revisited dialogs on partial capping of the necessary evil known as our urban freeways ─ specifically Interstate-40 in the core, at the zone of arguably one of the most destructively disruptive and constraining segments of the local freeway.

USDOT explores urban design ideas for Nashville highway and neighborhood

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of the Ladders of Opportunity Every Place Counts Design Challenge, a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) with design assistance from CNU. Learn more at cnu.org/everyplacecounts.
ROBERT STEUTEVILLE    AUG. 8, 2016

 

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5 minutes ago, rookzie said:

I dredge this somewhat "silt-buried" sub-topic, after stumbling upon an article released this week, concerning our periodically revisited dialogs on partial capping of the necessary evil known as our urban freeways ─ specifically Interstate-40 in the core, at the zone of arguably one of the most destructively disruptive and constraining segments of the local freeway.

USDOT explores urban design ideas for Nashville highway and neighborhood

This article is part of our ongoing coverage of the Ladders of Opportunity Every Place Counts Design Challenge, a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) with design assistance from CNU. Learn more at cnu.org/everyplacecounts.
ROBERT STEUTEVILLE    AUG. 8, 2016

 

This plan is fantastic!  I hope the locals are receptive to it.

1 minute ago, jmtunafish said:

I hope this doesn't result in a dramatic increase in sprawl along it's 77 mile span. 

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12 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

Now, if they could only designate Briley Parkway as Interstate 265. They could install signage to take people away from downtown and off the Trinity Lane interchange section of I-65.

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On 8/12/2016 at 9:53 PM, BnaBreaker said:

I hope this doesn't result in a dramatic increase in sprawl along it's 77 mile span. 

Unfortunately, it's going to continue until the county governments decide to say no to low-hanging fruit. The Wilson County exits at State Route 109, Stewarts Ferry Pike, and Couchville Pike already resemble miniature industrial parks.

On 8/13/2016 at 10:42 AM, PHofKS said:

Now, if they could only designate Briley Parkway as Interstate 265. They could install signage to take people away from downtown and off the Trinity Lane interchange section of I-65.

On 8/13/2016 at 11:18 AM, donNdonelson2 said:

Briley Parkway needs to be completed as a limited access roadway from I-40 to I-24 southeast of downtown! It could eventually be designated as I-24 to take all that through traffic away from downtown. I believe that was part of one of the long range ideas to eventually eliminate much of the downtown interstate tangle.

As it is, the Feds would probably prefer either I-240 or I-640, or any of the spur numbers for Interstate 65 (e.g., I-165, I-365, etc.) as Briley only connects to Interstate 65 once. Probably the latter as I imagine TDOT does not want two 240s or 640s in the state.

But if the section from Interstate 40 to Interstate 24 southeast of downtown were reconfigured to Interstate standards it would make a good I-224 (or I-424, etc.). There is a lot of through truck traffic not only on Interstate 24 but also interchanging with Interstate 65, so much so that TDOT has been trying to push State Route 109 as a bypass for this movement.

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Hillsboro Rd is insane. It gets so locked up in it's current state, and with all these people moving to Nashville in the next couple of decades i'm afraid it's going to become a joke. Also, with height beginning to show it's face in Green Hills development, that will only add to the pressure.

It's about time some serious transit investment is made for this corridor before it's completely too late

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5 hours ago, PruneTracy said:

Unfortunately, it's going to continue until the county governments decide to say no to low-hanging fruit. The Wilson County exits at State Route 109, Stewarts Ferry Pike, and Couchville Pike already resemble miniature industrial parks.

As it is, the Feds would probably prefer either I-240 or I-640, or any of the spur numbers for Interstate 65 (e.g., I-165, I-365, etc.) as Briley only connects to Interstate 65 once. Probably the latter as I imagine TDOT does not want two 240s or 640s in the state.

But if the section from Interstate 40 to Interstate 24 southeast of downtown were reconfigured to Interstate standards it would make a good I-224 (or I-424, etc.). There is a lot of through truck traffic not only on Interstate 24 but also interchanging with Interstate 65, so much so that TDOT has been trying to push State Route 109 as a bypass for this movement.

What all would it take to upgrade Briley to interstate standards between I-40 and I-24 near the airport?  I mean, obviously we know what it would take, but is it even feasible?  I imagine it would cost a fortune and take forever, but on the other hand it would cost a lot less and be less of a headache than adding another lane to 24 through downtown.  Is this an idea the state has ever considered?  I was on 24 yesterday, a Saturday, coming into town from Hickory Hollow and holy cow the traffic was awful.  Everything came to a grinding halt before the 24/40 split and crawled all the way into downtown.  In the absence of dense public transportation (which wouldn't lighten thru traffic anyway) it seems routing 24 traffic--especially truck traffic--onto Briley would make a heck of a lot of sense.

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If the Feds aren't willing to change Briley Pkwy to an interstate, TDOT should take it upon themselves to put in place new signage that designates SR155 as a bypass in an effort to redirect pass through traffic away from the core and even I-440.  Automated signage would be ideal to alert drivers to the alternate rate in terms of saving time.  In Maryland along i-95 South just outside of Washington, DC there is an alert sign that tells travelers the approximate amount of time it will take using two alternate routes if you're traveling through the area trying to get to I-95 on the southwest side of the DC Metro area.  This can be pretty helpful for drivers because you have to decide which way to go on the beltway.  Choose the wrong way and you can suffer tremendously.  Although depending on the time of day, you're going to suffer regardless.

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Received this e-mail a few minutes ago:

Learn About MTA/RTA’s Recommended Plan

Join us on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 10 to 11 a.m. as MTA/RTA CEO Steve Bland shares the recommended plan for Middle Tennessee’s transit future. We’ve gathered your feedback, and we are excited to share our findings with you.

Didn’t have an opportunity to share your input in the planning process? No worries. The plan will be open for public comment for a month, and this public meeting is only the first in a series of meetings, so there’s still plenty of time to share your feedback.

Join Us:
Wednesday, Aug. 17
10 to 11 a.m.
Nashville Downtown Library
615 Church Street

Can’t make it in person? Following Wednesday's meeting, you will be able to share your feedback at nmotion2016.org. And visit our website for a full list of meetings across Middle Tennessee this month.

 

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20 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

What all would it take to upgrade Briley to interstate standards between I-40 and I-24 near the airport?  I mean, obviously we know what it would take, but is it even feasible?  I imagine it would cost a fortune and take forever, but on the other hand it would cost a lot less and be less of a headache than adding another lane to 24 through downtown.  Is this an idea the state has ever considered?

  • Reconfigure the Interstate 24 interchange to a system interchange (all free-flow movements) and eliminate Averitt's direct access to Briley Parkway (would have to be replaced with surface road access, probably to Thompson Lane via Glencliff Road).
  • Remove direct roadway connections at Venus Drive, Vultee Boulevard, Kermit Drive, International Plaza, Kenton Place, Corporate Drive, Glastonbury Road, and Knights of Columbus Boulevard. Of these, only Vultee Boulevard really needs an overpass/underpass. There would also be a need for ancillary access improvements, like the (re)extension of BNA Drive to Airways Boulevard and some sort of access from either Glastonbury Drive or Massman Drive to the Mission Briley Parkway apartments.
  • There are fourteen residences with direct access to Briley Parkway that would have to be acquired (not counting any needed for reconstruction). There are additionally ten commercial developments that have access to other roads but would functionally tank without access to Briley, including the Hotel Preston and Hamilton Inn, and all of these are going to push for acquisition or other recompensation.
  • Reconstruct the segment from Murfreesboro Road to Interstate 40 to include (at a minimum) four travel lanes and a center median barrier. The existing grassed median north of Airways Boulevard isn't wide enough for Interstate standards.

As you can see, it's a tall order, easily in the low-nine figures. I doubt TDOT or the MPO has not considered it, but it does not appear in the I-24 Corridor Study or any other long-range plan, probably because of the residential/commercial impacts.

7 hours ago, PillowTalk4 said:

Automated signage would be ideal to alert drivers to the alternate rate in terms of saving time.

TDOT placed DMS on Interstate 40 near the State Route 840 termini a couple of years back primarily for this purpose. But the biggest hurdle in rolling this out is the state's radar detection coverage, which is how they measure travel speed (and, by extension, travel time). Right now TDOT does not have RDS coverage on Interstate 40 west of Bellevue, and State Route 840 is only covered in the immediate vicinity of the Interstate interchanges. The alternative is procuring data from INRIX or another vendor, but that has its own challenges.

In any case TDOT can use their existing DMS network to reroute traffic onto Briley Parkway et al., but no matter what the dynamic or static signs say, the only thing that matters to unfamiliar drivers is that pretty blue-and-red Interstate shield.

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