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The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread


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I think some demographics can be car-lite in Nashville, I'm just unsure of how many. Anyone with kids has to have a car(s) at the ready, at home and at work. My former neighbor worked at Vandy and biked to work daily - except on rainy days, hot days and cold days. The family of 5 started out with one car and a bike but ended up with 2 cars after a while. 

I do think the new hybrid work model will be studied a lot regarding traffic. Folks who complain about 5 day a week congestion may not be so upset when its only 2-3 days a week and they have more control over the timing of their commutes. I've noticed a good number of my returning to the office coworkers are leaving earlier and plugging back in at home.

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Governor Lee has publicly stated he knows Tennessee and Nashville in general need to get their act together on mass transit.

Honestly, just pay CSX their price to move. CSX won't sell? Everyone has their price. Hopefully the state would help out in some capacity.

Utilizing their existing lines would appease StopAmp/NoTax4Tracks crowd who claimed Barry's plan didn't connect to the outer counties and the construction would cause too many issues. As long as the price tag isn't $9BN we could go from the worst to one of the better transit systems in the south. 

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Rookzie, your remarks about Green Hills immediately brought to mind Bandywood's crook and lack of connection with Hillsboro Rd. to form a normal intersection with  R. Jones Rd., which itself should have been connected before the 1990s with Green Hills Dr. to make a throughway from Lipscomb University (Belmont Blvd.) to Hillsboro Circle.   But everybody wants to live in a side street tucked away from "all the traffic"... at least until they can't get out of their own side street/cul de sac because the traffic is gridlocked.  Even now the long overdue (and extremely expensive now) alignment of Crestmoor with Glen Echo is a half-assed solution, as the real bottleneck is at Abbot Martin and H'boro.  I realize these things have more to do with Metro's lack of foresight and planning, but then there's TDOT. 

I won't rant again about TDOT's woeful inability (by law) to finance any project with debt, but I will gripe a bit about their excruciatingly long project timelines for too many projects that were promised to be "fast tracked" by the IMPROVE Act.  Here in Chattanooga, we're still awaiting the widening of East Brainerd Road to Ooltewah-Ringgold Rd., which was on the planning table twenty years ago.  And there is a 'connector' road around the VW plant that's been unfinished for nearly a decade now! Coincidentally, the funding for the East Brainerd expansion was reallocated to build the road to the VW plant.  The US27 project here has been the ETERNAL project so as to be a punchline in myriad conversations now.  And then there are the times of day TDOT decides to do repair work; at noon on a Friday as happened 10 miles east of Crossville a few weeks back and there were no detours! I sat with hundreds of my best friends for 2 hours!  Waze picked it up about five miles out (at the top of the Cumberland Plateau!) and TDOT did not have it listed on their website!  In other states they at least pave an access lane along the shoulder or even across the media with NJ Barriers to detour traffic.  No joke... two weeks ago I was driving back from Huntsville and  I-24 was literally closed at the Georgetown Road exit in East Ridge on a Saturday afternoon!!! Does TDOT do any work between midnight and dawn?  I won't rant about the fact that I-24 hasn't seen any upgrades since the 1960s with the exception of Monteagle and that was 30 years ago. 

Notwithstanding their slow movement and extremely inconvenient construction practices, I have a  legit question regarding TDOT:  What is their jurisdiction over mass transit in the state's largest cities?  If (what I assume ) is it's as governing entity only where the state's roads are affected, then I'm curious to hear thoughts here on whether all rail transit should fall under TDOT's purview. 

Edited by MLBrumby
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  • 3 weeks later...

Via a story in the NY Times, Lawnstarter's ranking of "2021’s Best Cities for Living Without a Car". Nashville does better than I expected, coming in at 49th out of the 150 biggest cities. They factor in things like climate and crime along with walkability and commute times: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-for-living-without-a-car/

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12 minutes ago, billgregg said:

Via a story in the NY Times, Lawnstarter's ranking of "2021’s Best Cities for Living Without a Car". Nashville does better than I expected, coming in at 49th out of the 150 biggest cities. They factor in things like climate and crime along with walkability and commute times: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-cities-for-living-without-a-car/

Surprisingly high! Only other cities in the "south" higher than Nashville are Lexington, Louisville, and Austin. In 2016, only 5.9% of Nashville households had no cars... wonder how that's changed in the last 5 years (https://www.governing.com/archive/car-ownership-numbers-of-vehicles-by-city-map.html)

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3 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Nashville ranked #2 in the nation behind Washington DC for walkability??  Uhhh.... what?!?

best-cities-to-live-without-a-car2x.png

Ha! Did They really need a top or bottom 5 for this category? Seems like they really want you to know Phoenix is freakin' hot and The Bay Area is not. Great list.

 

97DBD265-CAEB-4936-9A46-02ED01BD8547_1_105_c.thumb.jpeg.b0c6f74c9f242e368a7afea3511f188d.jpeg

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9 hours ago, PostRural said:

Ha! Did They really need a top or bottom 5 for this category? Seems like they really want you to know Phoenix is freakin' hot and The Bay Area is not. Great list.

I could see putting down Seattle and maybe San Francisco to represent the bay area since they're two different areas for the top list but the bottom list is ridiculous, they're all just metro Phoenix! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
4 hours ago, nashvylle said:

Amazing how large Radnor Yards is… the racetrack and soccer stadium compared to the tracks for comparison:

Surely this is something that can be moved out of the city, no? Is there a lot of unloading/loading cargo going on here? 

I can't find when it was built but I have to imagine when it was built, it wasn't nearly as "close" to the city then. 


Ok went down a rabbit hole, but some interesting facts. 

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/29-csx-transportation-preparing-to-re-open-hump-at-radnor-yard-in-nashville/

In 2016, Radnor was CSX’s third-busiest hump – behind only Waycross, Ga., and Selkirk, N.Y. — as it classified an average of 1,477 cars per day. 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/magazine/runaway-train/article_91f2c263-0594-5241-a7e3-1665a05e183b.html

At 517 acres, it is, not surprisingly, one of CSX’s largest rail yards.

Side note, while trying to find the year of construction, I saw a little note that said during the Cold War, it was on Soviet Union list of targets. 

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13 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

Surely this is something that can be moved out of the city, no? Is there a lot of unloading/loading cargo going on here? 

I can't find when it was built but I have to imagine when it was built, it wasn't nearly as "close" to the city then. 


Ok went down a rabbit hole, but some interesting facts. 

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/29-csx-transportation-preparing-to-re-open-hump-at-radnor-yard-in-nashville/

In 2016, Radnor was CSX’s third-busiest hump – behind only Waycross, Ga., and Selkirk, N.Y. — as it classified an average of 1,477 cars per day. 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/magazine/runaway-train/article_91f2c263-0594-5241-a7e3-1665a05e183b.html

At 517 acres, it is, not surprisingly, one of CSX’s largest rail yards.

Side note, while trying to find the year of construction, I saw a little note that said during the Cold War, it was on Soviet Union list of targets. 

So nice thought but the cost would be astronomical. Akin to whatever it will cost to eventually move PSC.

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