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The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread


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Building the AMP won't change that time for probably 99% of county residents, either. Won't it even be shrinking the number of lanes where it is built, hence increasing congestion and the time it takes to get through that area ?

As for "nothing getting done", right now a large number of Americans would like that precisely from government. Stopping the rush to spending madness and control over every aspect of our lives. If anything, we need to roll it all back 100 years.

 

You're right, building the Amp doesn't change the current state of things for a large majority of residents. But it will make a difference when you consider future residents.

 

Nashville (the city, not the metro), is growing by 5-10,000 residents per year. Many of that number are choosing to live in urban neighborhoods. That trend does not show any signs of weakening. Something needs to be done to address that.

 

The larger view is public/mass transit in general...across the metro. What DOES affect a large number of residents in Nashville is interstate congestion. What is your solution to alleviate that?

 

 

Also, you may be surprised that I agree with you that government in general needs to control its spending. I do believe that is out of control. I would not go as far as saying 'scale it back 100 years', but I do believe in a balanced budget.

 

 

 

I would liken the need for mass transit in this region to a factory trying to expand its production. Nashville is a city that is growing. In order to continue to grow, or at least manage the traffic, Nashville needs infrastructure investment. A factory has to find ways to increase both production and efficiency. That usually means investment in machinery that will do the job more quickly, or more space to work with, or a change in logistical capabilities. Nashville has room to expand, but it only has so many forklifts to move its product. Perhaps it is time to adjust our way of thinking and move the product more efficiently so we don't have to build more warehouses.

I would say it might make more feasible fiscal sense to build the highway to Bumblefart than the AMP. At least we can tend to figure out how many people use one vs. only speculation on the latter.

 

Bumblefart is losing population. Nashville is increasing state revenues. Which one has more potential to pay itself back?

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The state portion of the AMP is about $35 million 

 

If Nashville residents truly want it it would take a one time payment of about $50 for every man woman and child to finance it instead of relying on the state portion.

 

Put it on the ballot do you think it would pass?

Nope. Because most would choose to spend that money on something else.

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You're right, building the Amp doesn't change the current state of things for a large majority of residents. But it will make a difference when you consider future residents.

 

Nashville (the city, not the metro), is growing by 5-10,000 residents per year. Many of that number are choosing to live in urban neighborhoods. That trend does not show any signs of weakening. Something needs to be done to address that.

 

The larger view is public/mass transit in general...across the metro. What DOES affect a large number of residents in Nashville is interstate congestion. What is your solution to alleviate that?

 

I would liken the need for mass transit in this region to a factory trying to expand its production. Nashville is a city that is growing. In order to continue to grow, or at least manage the traffic, Nashville needs infrastructure investment. A factory has to find ways to increase both production and efficiency. That usually means investment in machinery that will do the job more quickly, or more space to work with, or a change in logistical capabilities. Nashville has room to expand, but it only has so many forklifts to move its product. Perhaps it is time to adjust our way of thinking and move the product more efficiently so we don't have to build more warehouses.

You rather make my point. Building an expensive system that will only benefit a small number of people, won't much alleviate the traffic problem in that area (indeed, if lanes are closed, it will worsen it) and isn't fiscally sustainable.

My solution to the problem of interstate congestion is simple, expanding the number of lanes where possible. It may not be sexy, but it's the only thing that is practical and makes sense. Most people aren't going to see public transportation as a viable alternative for them, save for the inner core (and even there, most will still want to hop in their car or use a taxi).

Also, you may be surprised that I agree with you that government in general needs to control its spending. I do believe that is out of control. I would not go as far as saying 'scale it back 100 years', but I do believe in a balanced budget.

Well, I also believe in the abolition of the IRS, not as some typical right-wing fantasy, but because it is an out-of-control corrupt cesspool that endangers the freedom and civil rights of every American. So much madness at the federal level, but we're getting away from the subject here of transportation.

In any event, I do understand your side of the issue with respect to improving and addressing transit issues for Nashville. For me and for others, it's just a matter of cost and practicality.

Ultimately, it might prove better to privatize the issue.

According to polls, I'm not so sure that is accurate. But polls do show they would rather spend the money on the Amp than the baseball stadium.

At least we could get some use out of the stadium, and it's already spurring growth in that area. Then again, it will add traffic, and we're back to the AMP issue again... ;-)

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What is the shortfall now that the state won't be funding their portion?  I know next to nothing about rapid transit, but I think a lot of it is common sense.  In this case, if the west Nashville community doesn't want the AMP, then put in in a loop around the core.  If the state won't pay for it, then find revenue from a local option and/or use the operating budget to fund capex.  How much of the hotel/motel tax is already dedicated to debt service?  Mind you, I have not (yet) advocated a tax hike, but if there is a referendum/and or consensus, then perhaps the ballot can be the real testing ground for the portion of the community who would theoretically benefit from such a transit loop.  Call it whatever... "transit zone"... it doesn't matter what it's called.  And regarding the reporting on the AMP opposition, the Tennessean (typically) has done a dismal job... it wasn't that long ago when reporters actually asked and pursued alternative possibilities through community leaders, instead of solely raking up muck.

Edited by MLBrumby
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It is a political argument. Almost everything is these days, even paper vs. plastic and lightbulbs. As I must remind, Canada and the UK is not the U.S. I also viscerally disagree that the automobile is a "fallacy of the American dream." It is indeed the very symbol of independence and individualism, two things that are the enemy of the left, which believes all rights flow from government rather than from God.

The kind of city you want is utopian, pie in the sky fantasy. How many times must Socialism be tried before it is finally declared the unequaled failure that it has proven itself to be ? I learned that as a child, one reason I left that silly ideology behind.

Look, I have no problem if you want to build the AMP, trains, trolleys, aerial tram cars, monorails, even Star Trek transporters if you want, so long as you folks are willing to pay for it (or find a way to make it financially sustainable). Until such time, cars will remain the premier transport model and where the majority of funds must be spent. I know you don't like that, but that's just how it is. Claiming the car will be gone in 30 years is also silly. How do you think people will get around ? Horse and buggy ? The new Communist Mayor of New York City got rid of that. 30 more years of that ideology in this country and we'll be Bartertown.

Anyway, you'll be happy to know that I favor 100% taxation on all of those of the liberal bent on incomes over $100,000. It's expensive to pay for big government and Socialists need to pay up, especially since they made it and that $17 trillion debt. :-) (No, I'm not joking)

And now we rejoin the AMP debate, already in progress...

Davy, just explain to me how you are going to get around in 30-40 years when you are in your late 60's and 70's? Have you not read study after study on how the automobile as we know it will be an outdated technology? Live in your Tea Party Antioch fantasy world all you want. As you sit here my friend waxing nostalgic about how evil liberals are and how bad taxes are, the world is passing you by. The amount of new cars purchased by people under 30 is now at an all time low. That is what Lee Beaman is worried about, not supposed gridlock from the AMP. 

You rather make my point. Building an expensive system that will only benefit a small number of people, won't much alleviate the traffic problem in that area (indeed, if lanes are closed, it will worsen it) and isn't fiscally sustainable.

My solution to the problem of interstate congestion is simple, expanding the number of lanes where possible. It may not be sexy, but it's the only thing that is practical and makes sense. Most people aren't going to see public transportation as a viable alternative for them, save for the inner core (and even there, most will still want to hop in their car or use a taxi).

Well, I also believe in the abolition of the IRS, not as some typical right-wing fantasy, but because it is an out-of-control corrupt cesspool that endangers the freedom and civil rights of every American. So much madness at the federal level, but we're getting away from the subject here of transportation.

In any event, I do understand your side of the issue with respect to improving and addressing transit issues for Nashville. For me and for others, it's just a matter of cost and practicality.

Ultimately, it might prove better to privatize the issue.

At least we could get some use out of the stadium, and it's already spurring growth in that area. Then again, it will add traffic, and we're back to the AMP issue again... ;-)

Privatizing the issue? That makes as much sense as the Comcast/Time Warner deal. Are monopolies your idea of good Capitalism? If so, I'll take the Socialist model. At least everyone benefits.

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"It is indeed the very symbol of independence and individualism, two things that are the enemy of the left, which believes all rights flow from government rather than from God."

 

No Davy, it's a dependence on foreign oil, not God. The same people we buy oil from, took down the World Trade Center Towers my family helped build. Keep up your love for the automobile and the America hating oil that fuels it.

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"It is indeed the very symbol of independence and individualism, two things that are the enemy of the left, which believes all rights flow from government rather than from God."

 

No Davy, it's a dependence on foreign oil, not God. The same people we buy oil from, took down the World Trade Center Towers my family helped build. Keep up your love for the automobile and the America hating oil that fuels it.

 

The U.S. only gets about 13% of its oil from the middle east these days. The vast majority about 75% comes from North America (US/Canada/Latin America). Jobs in the U.S. oil industry are good paying jobs that require a lot of support industries and associated jobs. Let's not go demonizing our friends in the domestic Oil and Gas business at a time where Oil and Gas is one of the few things that we are actually still producing right here in the USA. 

Edited by RandomHero
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Davy, just explain to me how you are going to get around in 30-40 years when you are in your late 60's and 70's? Have you not read study after study on how the automobile as we know it will be an outdated technology? Live in your Tea Party Antioch fantasy world all you want. As you sit here my friend waxing nostalgic about how evil liberals are and how bad taxes are, the world is passing you by. The amount of new cars purchased by people under 30 is now at an all time low. That is what Lee Beaman is worried about, not supposed gridlock from the AMP. 

Privatizing the issue? That makes as much sense as the Comcast/Time Warner deal. Are monopolies your idea of good Capitalism? If so, I'll take the Socialist model. At least everyone benefits.

C'mon, John. You're taking a turn into Sillyville with some of this stuff. My concern is the $17 trillion debt, growing every single day and the fact that young people under the current DC regime are having more and more opportunities and jobs vanish into the ether. BTW, under a Socialist model, everyone doesn't benefit, but almost everyone suffers (except for those managing said model, as we see in DC & suburbs today, spending as if there will never be a day of reckoning). This is a lot more serious than a fancy and expensive bus running down Broadway.

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To me, the car is not a symbol of independence, but the very symbol of dependence: on finance companies, insurance companies, oil companies, unreliable mechanics, a variety of little flea-bite fees and fines, in fact using a car enmeshes you in a web of dependency from which you cannot escape.

So then you'd rather put all your faith and trust in another government-run monopoly instead to get you where you need to go, on THEIR time ? This demonstrates perfectly the ideological disconnect. Even with all those supposed "impediments", you're still freer under that system than you are under any other.

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So then you'd rather put all your faith and trust in another government-run monopoly instead to get you where you need to go, on THEIR time ? This demonstrates perfectly the ideological disconnect. Even with all those supposed "impediments", you're still freer under that system than you are under any other.

 

Yes I would.  I've used public transportation (in Chicago) for all my needs and I found it quite as dependable as a car in terms of time, in fact more dependable since if the bus breaks down you just get off and they send another bus, you don't end up fixing a flat tire on the side of the highway.  And high traffic doesn't slow down the train schedules, in fact the trains are more frequent at high traffic times.  Even in your car you're still dependent on roads and traffic lights built and maintained by the government, I don't see where drivers are less beholden to the government than mass transit users.  In fact you are far more interfered with by the police in a car than on a bus or train.

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To me, the car is not a symbol of independence, but the very symbol of dependence: on finance companies, insurance companies, oil companies, unreliable mechanics, a variety of little flea-bite fees and fines, in fact using a car enmeshes you in a web of dependency from which you cannot escape. 

Absolutely agree! I despise the automobile! Cars are simply money pits. 

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So then you'd rather put all your faith and trust in another government-run monopoly instead to get you where you need to go, on THEIR time ? This demonstrates perfectly the ideological disconnect. Even with all those supposed "impediments", you're still freer under that system than you are under any other.

And most Americans do not get anywhere anytime faster. They take their life in their hands with rude unsavory drivers who are so self-centered they won't even let one merge onto the interstate. The car did not give anyone freedom! It took it away, and gave mankind a license to kill and simply helped man achieve an disposition of arrogance and selfishness to think that where they have to go is anymore important than anyone else.

 

If cars were deemed illegal, it would be no bother to me. I have never seen a bus comes to the office park where I work, but in NYC, Chicago, I could live a lifetime without owning a car.

 

This need for American Individualism has lead to Situationism. Creating chaos just to create chaos because one can. Committing behavior due to outside sources. I guess I'll drive like a maniac because society says I am entitled to.

 

It's a joke.

Yes I would.  I've used public transportation (in Chicago) for all my needs and I found it quite as dependable as a car in terms of time, in fact more dependable since if the bus breaks down you just get off and they send another bus, you don't end up fixing a flat tire on the side of the highway.  And high traffic doesn't slow down the train schedules, in fact the trains are more frequent at high traffic times.  Even in your car you're still dependent on roads and traffic lights built and maintained by the government, I don't see where drivers are less beholden to the government than mass transit users.  In fact you are far more interfered with by the police in a car than on a bus or train.

Never seen a cop pull over a train!

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It's a joke.

Never seen a cop pull over a train!

 

Just a humorous digression for a quick moment.

 

When I worked in the 1980s for Norfolk Southern Corp. in Chesapeake, Va., one midnight I paced on foot the length of a stalled freight train and crawled under the damn thing (somewhere in the middle), with a flashlight, hard hat, and a 2-way radio, for communicating with the engineer and the freight conductor (while examining a suspected failed air-brake valve).  I saw a flashing beacon appearing through the weeds up ahead toward the locomotives, about a mile or so away.  The engineer communicated to me and to the yardmaster in the nearby tower that the Chesapeake cop had just written a ticket and had given it to him (the engineer), for blocking the crossing.  I reality, though, the railroads do have agreements with some authorities that the company can be fined for excessive time of blocked crossings, although it generally has been of little consequence unless the train has failed mechanically (as it had on me that night).

 

 

(now we can resume the drama...)

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I'll start out by saying that I'm a mass transit supporter and a huge walkable/bikeable city supporter.  I take mass transit (ride the empty Green Circuit several times a week) when its within reason and also do a lot of biking and walking.  I use my car less than anyone I know.  We also choose to be a one car family.

 

That being said, I will never understand why people think they have liberated themselves by getting rid of their car.  If the place I'm going to isn't directly on the green circuit or within reasonable walking distance, taking the car is much much easier. If you think it would be better to ride a bus to go grocery shopping you're not being honest with yourself.  I'm a big backpacker, I like to play golf, go caving, go kayaking etc, all the things I like to do would be really difficult to do without a car.  My job would be next to impossible.  Its also much easier to hop in the warm car with my 2 month old and drive directly to where we are going rather than standing in the cold/rain/heat/snow waiting on a bus.  We do take her on the bus, when we have time and the trip is reasonable.  

 

I guess I could see how it could be a burden if you don't have $80 a month for insurance and $100 for gas money but even my little brother who makes $200 a week doesn't have trouble coming up with that.  Also I've had one blow out in 15 years, you guys are acting like your out changing tires once a week or something.  You guys out there riding on Walmart Uniroyals?  Breaking down all the time?  What kind of cars are you driving?  Before we bought our new car we had a $2,000 Toyota and I don't remember it ever breaking down.  Also I value my freedom of time much more than I do saving a couple hundred dollars a month by not having a car.  I would challenge even the most advanced Nashville transit rider to go everywhere I go in one month and see how much more time they spend trying to get there.  I'm no stranger to Nashville transit so I'm willing to bet they would be in some form of transit 10 or 20 times longer than me.  And speaking of pollution, the Green Circuit passes by my place completely empty over and over again every day.  If that thing was full for the next 5 years every time it stopped it wouldn't cancel out the amount of pollution it has caused.  Side note, it's also destroyed the 100 yards of asphalt on Pine Street where it stops at.

 

Again I'm a big transit supporter and hope that we are able to have more efficient mass transit in the near future.  If the AMP is built, I will definitely use it.  If I want to go backpacking at Savage Gulf, I will happily hop in the Camaro.  

Edited by TMcKay9
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Yeah, I remember when one could go anywhere in Nashville in 15 min. Mass transit is to avoid more gridlock so the folk's in their Camaro's can make it to the Savage Gulf before sundown.

 

Wow, had no idea that you were older than I, if you can recall that.  That must've been back before private NTC (Nashville Transit Co. - which still used tokens) became publicly owned MTA ─ that is, back between the GM old look model "TDH" series and the new-look "fish-bowl" (also type "TDH") GM TransitLiner days.

 

 

 

In the spring of 1960, the new-look coach on the right

sensationalized urban transit in Nashville with the introduction

of mechanical air-conditioning, promoting the new

concept by advertizing the phrase

  "Air-conditioned" or "ArcticCooler"

[oooh!]

 

 

I'll start out by saying that I'm a mass transit supporter and a huge walkable/bikeable city supporter.  I take mass transit (ride the empty Green Circuit several times a week) when its within reason and also do a lot of biking and walking.  I use my car less than anyone I know.  We also choose to be a one car family.

 

That being said, I will never understand why people think they have liberated themselves by getting rid of their car.  If the place I'm going to isn't directly on the green circuit or within reasonable walking distance, taking the car is much much easier. If you think it would be better to ride a bus to go grocery shopping you're not being honest with yourself.  I'm a big backpacker, I like to play golf, go caving, go kayaking etc, all the things I like to do would be really difficult to do without a car.  My job would be next to impossible.  Its also much easier to hop in the warm car with my 2 month old and drive directly to where we are going rather than standing in the cold/rain/heat/snow waiting on a bus.  We do take her on the bus, when we have time and the trip is reasonable.  

 

I guess I could see how it could be a burden if you don't have $80 a month for insurance and $100 for gas money but even my little brother who makes $200 a week doesn't have trouble coming up with that.  Also I've had one blow out in 15 years, you guys are acting like your out changing tires once a week or something.  You guys out there riding on Walmart Uniroyals?  Breaking down all the time?  What kind of cars are you driving?  Before we bought our new car we had a $2,000 Toyota and I don't remember it ever breaking down.  Also I value my freedom of time much more than I do saving a couple hundred dollars a month by not having a car.  I would challenge even the most advanced Nashville transit rider to go everywhere I go in one month and see how much more time they spend trying to get there.  I'm no stranger to Nashville transit so I'm willing to bet they would be in some form of transit 10 or 20 times longer than me.  And speaking of pollution, the Green Circuit passes by my place completely empty over and over again every day.  If that thing was full for the next 5 years every time it stopped it wouldn't cancel out the amount of pollution it has caused.  Side note, it's also destroyed the 100 yards of asphalt on Pine Street where it stops at.

 

Again I'm a big transit supporter and hope that we are able to have more efficient mass transit in the near future.  If the AMP is built, I will definitely use it.  If I want to go backpacking at Savage Gulf, I will happily hop in the Camaro.

 

The Circuits buses are a joke.  I occasionally have ridden the Blue Circuit Nº61 when catching the MCS tain and transferring at Riverfront to the Andrew/Rachel Jax state office bldgs.   I've been far luckier than most with a "front-door" drop-off as convenient at that.  I occasionally have taken the Blue Circuit as a "lunch asylum coach", by boarding it with a shallow corrugated cardboard box to carry my lunch on board.  I go to the back of the bus and eat my lunch in peace (for a change), away from the hell-hole at the office.  I just inform whomever the driver is for that run that I intend to ride around for a two-loop trip ─ providing her or him the courtesy so that I don't appear to be a mid-day vagrant or itinerant.

 

Never in the 3 or 4 years that those things have been running have I ever witnessed one (from any of the route colors) even a third full (if that many), except for the early morning runs intended to provide articulated units to accommodate riders flooding from the MCS train.  From the very start. I always have felt that to be a total waste, and for decades now I had hoped that the city would follow the practice of Portland and Seattle in creating a free-zone in the CBD, to permit a rider who boards or deboards any bus within the zone to not pay a fare.  Any passenger boarding within the free-zone boards without a fare and only pays a fare if riding to a point beyond the free-zone boundary.  Conversely, riders pay fare to board any bus outside that free-zone boundary.  In that manner, all buses can collect revenue from paying passengers upon boarding inbound and deboarding outbound outside the boundary of the free-zone.  This eliminates any need to operate "free" buses, which cost a smart amount to operate on that basis.  It also affords a much greater degree of latitude for travel paths for free-zone travelers by allowing far more routes available than what the "circuit" buses alone could provide ─ all buses which travel into the downtown area, not just the circulators, the routes of which are rather limited.  That is a primary reason that these bus-to-nowhere circuits simply do not attract riders and provide the courtesy transit for which they were intended.  That's is yet one additional peeve I have held in conviction that against the MTA in what I perceive as a need of major overhaul of how it operates and how it delegates management and support.

 

They'd have been much better off running a vintage electric streetcar fleet, setup as a loop and as a branch, as done with MATA of Memphis or Old Pueblo of Tuscon, both started in 1993 as downtown circulators.  But having a free-zone is far more efficient than the current circulators as I have witnessed.

 

Like you, Tim, I am a choice rider, because I do have an operable car, while also having (and being blessed with) the privilege of riding between home and the job without having to transfer.  As a bonus on top of a bonus, I am fortunate than most to be able to ride any one of four designated bus routes (without too much walking), something of a rarity, I must admit.  It only turned into fortuity, though, upon landing a job downtown, because with my previous job site, no such convenience had existed (until MTA instituted the Nº21 crosstown during Sept. 2012).  After my 40-year-old car finally gave out in summer 2011 (yes, I had owned taht thing that long), I acquired another, but new car.   At my age, I very likely now own the very last car that I ever will have owned, before I no longer can drive (deteriorating eye-sight).  During the July-to-March period that I had winged it without a car, grocery shopping had been a challenge, but I managed a decent load by carrying two large canvas shoulder flat-bottom tote bags for the one-way 1.5 mile foot trek ─ not too bad, as long as it wasn't raining.  Due to my turned-reclusive lifestyle and the privilege of working downtown for a mere 35 minute bus-and-walk trip each way, I still have only some 7000 miles on this car now owned for 24 months (even with a couple of trips to Chattanooga and Knoxv'l).

 

This is another point in concurrence with your statement of the overwhelming advantage (if not a need) in owning a car and accessing it on demand.  I never would have been able to attend week-long training courses sponsored by UTK (administered at special facilities in Chatta, and at K'ville) without having used my own car.  I also would never be able to depend on rides from a friend or a neighbor, in the event of an emergency involving an aging parent some 2 miles away (unless the emergency concerns life-threatening issues best handled by a phone call). 

 

No, this is not Boston, SF, NY, Chi, Philly, or DC, but there exists the potential here for a consensus of transit system coverage needs, even if the funding costs are far beyond reasonable reach.  Even when I lived in Boston during the late '60s and early-mid  '70s I preferred to fire up my car, to get that cross-town cheese-steak hoagie, at 1:30 in the night, or to head out to the house party at another school campus.  But when I worked at the General Electric plant in nearby Lynn, Ma., I could take either the MBTA bus system or the Boston & Maine RR commuter trains, which would dump me off right at one of the gates.

 

The fact is, as with any transit facility, there always exist varying proportions and volumes of transit-dependent patrons and choice riders, with some routes notably conveying much more of one than the other.  I do feel, though, that the only way for a new-start initiative to be "jump-started" with promising results is for the first major attempt as an up-start to be something more of a "can't miss", as stated by RandomHero, however that may be defined.  Why?  To be able to attract choice riders in droves and packs, by making the facility conducive to be use as an alternative.  It doesn't even have to be in the form of this proposed AMP or even a train.  There exists a lot of major changes and a bushel of little amenities which could be undertaken to "suck" in significantly more choicers, than what can be accomplished by the way the MTA is operated currently.  I likely would (an will) ride the AMP, if it ever materializes, but probably primarily because my primary care physician is stationed at St. Thos.  Currently I ride local from my job downtown to the doctor about every 4-6 months, but I likely would be only a one-way AMP patron (with arrangements made for private pickup to home).

 

I can envision the AMP serving only limited volume of each proportion of choice and transit-dependent riders whose trips end somewhere along that path and whose start points are not inconveniently far from the path (along or beyond), either by car or by transfer.  I cannot see choice riders being attracted from the likes of Kingston Springs, or from North Madison, even though their trip ends might coincide with the AMP route.  Those choicers whose approach would not be tangential to the route, have nothing to really gain, except for travel needs along the route with planned intermediate stop-overs along the same, provided that an AMP parking garage can be readily accessible.  I take it that most motorists along Harding - West End are through commuters or travelers whose trips start at a distance much, much farther than what any advantage of tradeoff in convenience and travel time might be realized by incorporating the AMP into their travel or commute routine.

 

In summary, choicers have to be presented with an alternative to their self-injury (existing gridlock and snail crawls), and not be forced to incur injury as a result of that alternative.  Whatever does come concerning the current state of "solvency" of the AMP connector project, there needs to be constitutional a revision in the M.O. of the current MTA/RTA to attract ridership.  That does not necessarily need to start with a single massive construction project.  We could compose an encyclopedic volume on things done in other venues which could and would go far to improve the concept of mass transit here, but without mass construction, which eventually will be needed in some form or fashion in time (subject to funding dynamics).

 

-=ricky-roox=-

Edited by rookzie
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Sidebar.... for those wondering why some West Nashville residents may be wary of having BRT stops at their front door....


 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio (CBS Cleveland) - Cleveland authorities have made several arrests following the mob beating of a disabled Army veteran by a group of teenagers.

Last Friday, the victim, Matthew Robinson, was surrounded by between six and eight teenagers while riding the RTA Healthline. Robinson told WOIO that he was attacked by the teens, then robbed of his possessions.

During the attack, the teens made several derogatory remarks about Robinson.

“What they were saying was, ‘Knock that boy out!’ ‘White boy.’ ‘Cracker,’” he was quoted as saying about the incident. “They were saying, ‘Knock that white boy out.’”

This week, three suspects – Kenneth Matthews, Ronald Reid Williams and an unnamed 16-year-old girl – were arrested by Cleveland and RTA police. The latter filmed the attack with her cell phone, and was said to still have the video at the time of her apprehension


http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2014/02/14/knock-that-white-boy-out-arrests-made-after-mob-of-teens-attack-disabled-vet/

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Sidebar.... for those wondering why some West Nashville residents may be wary of having BRT stops at their front door....

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2014/02/14/knock-that-white-boy-out-arrests-made-after-mob-of-teens-attack-disabled-vet/

 

Wouldn't be of any surprise to me that our local Madame "Those People" might catch wind of that incident.  It would be a matter of damage control, no doubt for proponents of any transit initiative start-up or extension.  The fact that it occurred on the HealthLine and that the perpetrators all appear to have been caught, shows that open-air BRT set-ups are not necessarily less secure than their rail-bound big brothers (as with the RedLine HRT subway parallel with the HealthLine BRT).  But this could not have occurred at a worse point in time ongoing debate here in Nashville.  In truth, though, I don't believe that this incident will hold any testimony against construction of the AMP ─ none whatsoever (possibly a moot matter at this point in time).

 

The risk of this happening anywhere anytime is no less than the chance with the Cleveland RTA (GCRTA), and it crosses my mind rather frequently these days.  A lesson to be gained from this is that the Nashv'l MTA had best get it into gear and focus in part on increasing its ability to work in concert with the MNPD by funding much, much better surveillance than what it has in place at present.  One of my morning bus drivers, a well-seasoned "veteran" of soem 30 years, says that she refuses to take on the MTA run that serves Trimble Bottom and the Cameron-Claiborne-Lewis Street pocket, because the MTA has done little if any to address observed trouble experienced by the transit drivers there (beyond what may have been merely perceived).  You can protect a bus only so much, but the MTA doesn't even come close to doing that halfway, while some may beg to differ.

 

After what happened lately on a Seattle Bus in December 2013 and in Philly back in 2011, where gunmen shot into a city bus from roadside, I try to avoid feeling as if I'm a sitting duck, with my head seen from outside in the darkness and stuck up in a window of an otherwise empty bus traveling through Melrose.  Life would be miserable enough without dwelling on such thoughts of what "could" happen.  I also realize that there is nothing to stop a Jesse James robbery attack on an Amtrak train in Memphis (when the train has pulled clear of the precinct attached to the depot) or even a crowded city bus, although with the mindset of people these days, a would-be perpetrator had better be armed with the likes of an FN FAL or an AR-15 or stand a good chance of being taken down.

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