The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[Pdt2f]

Didn’t Uber have an embarrassing snafu recently where their new self-driving cars kept trying to kill their occupants or something? I remember a bunch of journalists were terrified because the guy in the front seat kept having to keep them from getting in wrecks. 

[Neigeville2]

5 hours ago, Hey_Hey said:

...Do autonomous cars not yield to these cars because by the written letter of the law that car isn't supposed to do what they are doing?

It would be hilarious if autonomous cars started trying to punish drivers for violating rules.  Or if the members of one fleet of vehicles started driving competitors off the road.

[titanhog]

21 minutes ago, Neigeville2 said:

It would be hilarious if autonomous cars started trying to punish drivers for violating rules.  Or if the members of one fleet of vehicles started driving competitors off the road.

The word "hilarious" doesn't come to mind. 

[markhollin]

TDOT chief says cars will soon be out-of-date:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/10/tdot-chief-on-why-your-cars-will-soon-be-like.html

[Flatrock]

Citylab article on the Nashville Transit plan yesterday from Flipboard's #Urbanism magazine. 

"The final question rests with Nashville voters: What kind of city do they want to build? Nashville is proposing a transit plan that is much, much more ambitious than the underperforming streetcars that many comparably sized cities have contented themselves to build. The results of the May referendum will guide the city’s development far beyond 2032, the year that Nashville’s transit expansion will be finished."

There's also an embedded video interview between a Citylab reporter and Erin Hafkenschiel, director of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Sustainability in Nashville.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/11/can-nashville-pull-off-a-52-billion-transit-makeover/544301/

 

Edited November 11, 2017 by Flatrock

[rookzie]

On 11/11/2017 at 3:03 AM, Flatrock said:

Citylab article on the Nashville Transit plan yesterday from Flipboard's #Urbanism magazine. 

"The final question rests with Nashville voters: What kind of city do they want to build? Nashville is proposing a transit plan that is much, much more ambitious than the underperforming streetcars that many comparably sized cities have contented themselves to build. The results of the May referendum will guide the city’s development far beyond 2032, the year that Nashville’s transit expansion will be finished."

There's also an embedded video interview between a Citylab reporter and Erin Hafkenschiel, director of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Sustainability in Nashville.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/11/can-nashville-pull-off-a-52-billion-transit-makeover/544301/

 

In conjunction with the LRT / Rapid Bus / Commuter Rail/ Augmented surface transit plan  which has become foremost in focus, I don't foresee that during ongoing long-range planning and civic "tank-thinking" that one or more streetcar circulator projects would not be reconsidered as ancillary if not constituent to the core plan.

Newer streetcar segments typically run a short distance — a few miles at most — in mixed traffic, and they aren’t well-integrated into existing transit networks.  The primary benefits of streetcar projects usually always are intended to be related to development.  About three-quarters of cost-benefit analyses that submitted to the FTA (Federal Transit Administration) commonly tend to reveal that benefits are derived from economic development, not transportation-related improvements.

As an example of local application, Jefferson Street ─ in particular, upper Jefferson ─ comes to mind as a sketch incorporating Rosa Parks Blvd (Eight Ave. N.) - Metro Center and Ed Temple Blvd as a possible two-way loop, in the manner as Portland-OR's A/B Loop lines, which circumscribe a large core area basically along the same path but in opposite directions.

Streetcars should be recognized for what they are ─ economic development projects, not solutions to transit and transportation problems.

Edited November 15, 2017 by rookzie

[titanhog]

Let me ask you guys this:  Since I truly am a novice when it comes to mass-transit and really don't know what I'm talking about half the time...if money were no issue, what is the one single mode of mass-transit that would make the biggest impact upon Nashville if we could implement it?

[bnacincy]

9 minutes ago, titanhog said:

Let me ask you guys this:  Since I truly am a novice when it comes to mass-transit and really don't know what I'm talking about half the time...if money were no issue, what is the one single mode of mass-transit that would make the biggest impact upon Nashville if we could implement it?

Commuter Rail.....if CSX was no issue.

[titanhog]

3 minutes ago, bnacincy said:

Commuter Rail.....if CSX was no issue.

Would a subway system be even better?  I'm talking tunnels in spokes heading from downtown all the way to MBoro, Franklin, Dickson, Clarksville, Gallatin and Lebanon.  (yes...I realize that's probably a 100 Trillion $$ cost.  But still...)...and connectors up and down the main arteries / neighborhoods?  I'm talking like a 100-year build out, starting downtown.

[Pdt2f]

What I would like is an extensive Davidson county transit system that is not dependent on traffic (ie above or below ground), with regional mass transit using csx lines to connect all the major surrounding cities and counties to a central hub. I’d like a unified payment system using reloadable or monthly cards without transfer fees, 24 hour, frequent (15 minutes between services max) service, and I would like the entire thing to be run by a non-governmental entity to ensure effective accountable service. Please. 

[Hey_Hey]

3 hours ago, titanhog said:

Let me ask you guys this:  Since I truly am a novice when it comes to mass-transit and really don't know what I'm talking about half the time...if money were no issue, what is the one single mode of mass-transit that would make the biggest impact upon Nashville if we could implement it?

If cost weren't an issue then I would say commuter rail from the suburbs which converts to a subway system downtown. There's no need to have the trains underground outside the urban core, but it would be a big benefit in the core (again, if cost weren't an issue). 

Since cost is an issue, I would love to see a full scale proposal for a network of rapid aerial trams/gondolas linking the urban core and inner suburban neighborhoods (Green Hills, 12South, The Nations, Eastwood, etc).  I think the numbers would show a significantly more affordable and comprehensive system with slightly longer transit times.

[AronG]

11 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

What I would like is an extensive Davidson county transit system that is not dependent on traffic (ie above or below ground), with regional mass transit using csx lines to connect all the major surrounding cities and counties to a central hub. I’d like a unified payment system using reloadable or monthly cards without transfer fees, 24 hour, frequent (15 minutes between services max) service, and I would like the entire thing to be run by a non-governmental entity to ensure effective accountable service. Please. 

I like the way you phrase that. "Not dependent on traffic" is the key factor, whether it's dedicated lanes or above/below ground. Only thing I'd add is that private operation is no guarantee of effective service. Comcast's corporate mission is to serve as a shining example that there are good and bad companies just like there are effective and ineffective government agencies. 

[markhollin]

The Regional Transit Authority’s ongoing battle to receive local buy-in from Mt. Juliet after the city neglected to pay for its portion of the region's only commuter rail, the Music City Star, could be over.

On Monday, city leaders passed a resolution to amend the fiscal year budget to allow for a $30,000 contribution to the RTA, which oversees the Star.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/16/mt-juliet-looks-to-end-transit-war.html

[markhollin]

Mayor Barry on why skeptics are wrong about mass transit:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/20/mayor-barry-on-why-the-skeptics-are-wrong-about.html

[markhollin]

After attracting criticism from West Nashvillians, some Metro Council members and transit advocates, Mayor Megan Barry announced Wednesday that the Charlotte Avenue Light Rail Corridor will, if built, extend beyond its proposed endpoint at I-440 an additional approximately two miles to White Bridge Road.

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/transportation/article/20983763/charlotte-rail-line-would-extend-to-white-bridge

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/22/mayor-barry-announces-plan-to-extend-criticized.html

[Pdt2f]

1 hour ago, markhollin said:

After attracting criticism from West Nashvillians, some Metro Council members and transit advocates, Mayor Megan Barry announced Wednesday that the Charlotte Avenue Light Rail Corridor will, if built, extend beyond its proposed endpoint at I-440 an additional approximately two miles to White Bridge Road.

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/transportation/article/20983763/charlotte-rail-line-would-extend-to-white-bridge

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/22/mayor-barry-announces-plan-to-extend-criticized.html

Some shots of the mayor figuring out the finances to all of this: 

[MidTenn1]

The financing has been figured out and will be subject to a referendum in May. If people don't like it, they can vote it down.

[markhollin]

How the additional 2.7 miles of the Charlotte Pike light rail corridor extending out to White Bridge Rd. will be paid for:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/27/how-mayor-barry-expects-to-pay-for-a-240-million.html

 

[Pdt2f]

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/28/councilwoman-to-madison-learn-from-charlotte-aveto.html

This is behind the paywall. Can anyone share what it says?

[AronG]

15 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2017/11/28/councilwoman-to-madison-learn-from-charlotte-aveto.html

This is behind the paywall. Can anyone share what it says?

She seems to be trying to use the extension of the Charlotte Pike line to try to motivate more development in her district? She's telling her residents and developers that if they want to extend the Gallatin line 2 miles further to Old Hickory instead of ending at Briley they have to "make investments into the corridor so that it will have the necessary density to sustain a system." The example she cites is turning the old kmart in madison into a transit-oriented development.

[markhollin]

Murfreesboro adopts a transportation plan. Nothing in it seems to have connectivity to the Nashville plan at this point.  Seems more directed at local car traffic issues (extending and widening roads, bridges, etc.):

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/transportation/article/20984496/murfreesboro-adopts-transportation-plan
 

More details at City of Murfreesboro website:

 http://www.murfreesborotn.gov/1398/2040-Major-Transportation-Plan

[BnaBreaker]

47 minutes ago, markhollin said:

Murfreesboro adopts a transportation plan. Nothing in it seems to have connectivity to the Nashville plan at this point.  Seems more directed at local car traffic issues (extending and widening roads, bridges, etc.):
 

 

How very Murfreesboro of them.   

[titanhog]

51 minutes ago, BnaBreaker said:

 

How very Murfreesboro of them.   

How could any suburban city have a connection with the Nashville plan?  Until Nashville gets itself together, there's no need for the suburbs to come up with some plan that would basically be a "bridge to nowhere."

[BnaBreaker]

1 hour ago, titanhog said:

How could any suburban city have a connection with the Nashville plan?  Until Nashville gets itself together, there's no need for the suburbs to come up with some plan that would basically be a "bridge to nowhere."

I was referring more to the fact that their big "transportation" plan is basically just to widen all the roads.  

Edited December 2, 2017 by BnaBreaker

[Pdt2f]

Murfreesboro needs this. That city is a traffic nightmare. They keep adding residents and not adapting their infrastructure, this is well overdue. Even when I was finishing college at MTSU in the early 2010s it was awful, I can only guess at how terrible it is now.