The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[Bark At The Sun]

On 2/23/2020 at 10:45 PM, Bos2Nash said:

Sorry for the crummy picture but the Commerce Street bike lane has been striped for new traffic flow. 

This is at the corner of 2nd and Commerce
 

It looks like this is still ongoing.  The last picture is a crossing at the Pedestrian Bridge and 3rd Ave.  

[markhollin]

Franklin looking to ban scooters throughout the city:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/franklin/2020/02/25/franklin-tn-scooter-ban-proposal/4857183002/

[markhollin]

Mayor Cooper seeks to regulate party vehicles downtown (one of the first things I find myself in agreement with him).

He's working with state legislators to change that. From a release by the mayor's office:

    SB2513, sponsored by Senator Steve Dickerson, adds transpotainment to the list of passenger transportation service vehicles for which municipalities are empowered to regulate, including:
    1. safety policies for both participants and residents;
    2. the presence of industry vehicles on local roads during peak commute times; and
    3. preventing local business disturbance by loud music during normal hours of operation.

More at The Nashville Post here:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/politics/metro-government/article/21118950/cooper-seeks-to-regulate-lower-broads-transpotainment

 

And at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2020/02/28/mayor-cooper-aims-to-increase-transpotainment.html?iana=hpmvp_nsh_news_headline

[smeagolsfree]

"Mayor Cooper seeks to regulate party vehicles downtown (one of the first things I find myself in agreement with him)"

My sentiment as well Mark!

[PaulChinetti]

Downtown is the one place I would allow them, haha.

Is this more talking about the tractors driving around?   "Industry vehicles"

[downtownresident]

40 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

Downtown is the one place I would allow them, haha.

Is this more talking about the tractors driving around?   "Industry vehicles"

This is response to the tractors, mobile hot tubs, repurposed fire trucks, and etc that feel as though they can blare music as loud as humanly possible(some of them are almost as bad as standing next to Kid Rock’s), and park anywhere they want to(they like to stop at the liquor store/DGX and block the garage entrances/traffic thru lanes on 3rd) because the city can’t regulate them. 

[PaulChinetti]

If they are blocking the road, can they not get a ticket like any other vehicle?

[Mr_Bond]

On 2/27/2020 at 3:07 PM, markhollin said:

Mayor Cooper seeks to regulate party vehicles downtown (one of the first things I find myself in agreement with him).

Nashville is "nearly bankrupt" and the mayor wants to spend time regulating private businesses who bring a lot of money to Nashville.  We should leave these businesses alone and focus on much more important areas of concern.  As I've stated before, these wagons are full of fun!  They bring a joy to Nashville that few other cities can match.  They are not riding around late at night (they pass right by my condo on Division) and they are not endangering the safety of their passengers.  Of the three concerns he mentions, only #2 might be legit.  The other two are bogus.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Mr_Bond

[markhollin]

[Nathan_in_DC]

So...has WeGo been subtly trying to re-brand the Music City Star to the WeGo Star? I've noticed in much of their marketing materials and in all of the post-tornado service updates they're referring to it as such.

Personally, I am not a fan. The WeGo re-branding as a whole chose a horrible name, and rebranding the train as the WeGo Star is just confusing. 

[markhollin]

Metro seeks input from Nashvillians on future of transit (yet again).  Transportation listening sessions find strong public support for transit funding, improvements.

More at The Scene there:

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/features/article/21119618/metro-seeks-input-from-nashvillians-for-the-future-of-transit

[donNdonelson2]

12 hours ago, Nathan_in_the_UK said:

So...has WeGo been subtly trying to re-brand the Music City Star to the WeGo Star? I've noticed in much of their marketing materials and in all of the post-tornado service updates they're referring to it as such.

Personally, I am not a fan. The WeGo re-branding as a whole chose a horrible name, and rebranding the train as the WeGo Star is just confusing. 

I think they are now calling it WeGo Music City Star. I agree The whole  “wego”  rebranding is a disaster. Sounds like two toddler friends who need to pee at the same time...wego pee, okay?

[bnacincy]

3 hours ago, donNdonelson2 said:

I think they are now calling it WeGo Music City Star. I agree The whole  “wego”  rebranding is a disaster. Sounds like two toddler friends who need to pee at the same time...wego pee, okay?

Absolutely embarrassing and ridiculous. Anyone know who came up with WeGo? An outside consultant or was this "creativity" an inhouse idea?

Edited March 6, 2020 by bnacincy
Content

[LA_TN]

19 hours ago, Nathan_in_the_UK said:

So...has WeGo been subtly trying to re-brand the Music City Star to the WeGo Star? I've noticed in much of their marketing materials and in all of the post-tornado service updates they're referring to it as such.

Personally, I am not a fan. The WeGo re-branding as a whole chose a horrible name, and rebranding the train as the WeGo Star is just confusing. 

Yes, it was rebranded to WeGo Star when MTA was rebranded to WeGo potty 

[BnaBreaker]

4 hours ago, bnacincy said:

Absolutely embarrassing and ridiculous. Anyone know who came up with WeGo? An outside consultant or was this "creativity" an inhouse idea?

Agreed... I hate everything about it.  I really do.  It sounds like some private bus company in a small Midwestern town without any public transit that primarily just shuttles senior citizens to and from the nursing home.   It's really, really awful... not to mention it's probably confusing as hell to any out-of-towners.  

Edited March 7, 2020 by BnaBreaker

[grilled_cheese]

I was looking at the Tennessean's March 2000 photo album and one of the pictures was of a woman on the 'East Nashville trolley'.  After searching I found this article from March 2000.  I had never heard of an East Nashville trolley from that era, does anyone have more details?

[markhollin]

Franklin city leadership vote "no" on scooters:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/2020/03/11/e-scooters-not-allowed-franklin-tennessee-after-board-considers-program-public-backlash/4999917002/

[japan]

16 hours ago, markhollin said:

Franklin city leadership vote "no" on scooters:

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/williamson/2020/03/11/e-scooters-not-allowed-franklin-tennessee-after-board-considers-program-public-backlash/4999917002/

I don’t pretend to know the Franklin tourism breakdowns, but I would assume the tourists are more of an older group? 

[bigeasy]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2020 at 5:18 PM, bnacincy said:

Absolutely embarrassing and ridiculous. Anyone know who came up with WeGo? An outside consultant or was this "creativity" an inhouse idea?

I don't know the name, but I am 90% sure I remember my wife saying she knew of the local marketing firm that came up with the idea.

[henburg]

https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_name_and_logo_for_wego_public_transit.php

It was done by Bohan, the local advertising agency. As somebody entering this field, I try to give new brands the benefit of the doubt before disliking them, but this was just a horribly misguided direction for the MTA to take. The name is awkward, the colors have no local connection, and the branding itself makes up for none of the other shortcomings. 

[dxfret]

I think the transformation to the WeGo brand is quite good.  The new name, logo and livery work well together.
I only wish the new branding had somewhere included “Nashville” or “Music City”.   I liked the old tag line “Your ticket to Music City”.

The previous Nashville MTA logo and colors were extremely dated.   Unfortunately many of the newer bus shelters still have the old MTA design incorporated into the bus shelter which will be expensive to update. 

[MLBrumby]

Agreed! Nashville's downtown is full of tourists. How would an out-of-towner be able to easily distinguish a "Wego" from the rest of the other sightseeing buses that roam around town?  Some might say they were too clever by half... I just say bizarrely stupid... or stupidly bizarre. 

[21jump]

20 hours ago, japan said:

I don’t pretend to know the Franklin tourism breakdowns, but I would assume the tourists are more of an older group? 

Franklin is a little too spread out for scooters IMHO. Cool Springs is not pedestrian/scooter friendly and downtown is compact enough where scooters aren't really necessary. Even if they had voted yes I don't see scooters being viable or successful anywhere in Williamson County. I can see scooters working in Murfreesboro between downtown and MTSU.

[Nashvillain]

10 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

Agreed! Nashville's downtown is full of tourists. How would an out-of-towner be able to easily distinguish a "Wego" from the rest of the other sightseeing buses that roam around town?  Some might say they were too clever by half... I just say bizarrely stupid... or stupidly bizarre. 

Really? The WeGo buses load and unload passengers next to a bus stop sign. If tourists can't figure that out...

[MLBrumby]

LOL... tourists are pretty stupid... especially after a night on a binge. I recall being in Dublin with our kids a few years back... we decided to do one of those hop-on-hop-off bus tours... and ALL the buses stopped at designated stops. For a city that size, I didn't expect there to be TWO of the hop-on services, in addition to two other municipal bus systems. Suffice it to say, we were the stupid tourists. We tried to get on the wrong bus at least three times.