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Nashville Bits and Pieces


smeagolsfree

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4 hours ago, jmtunafish said:

I think it's admirable that the state doesn't go into debt to build roads, but geez louise there are gigantic needs out there.  TDOT has not been kind to Chattanooga, that's for sure.  And for Tennessee's "main street" I-40 is woefully inadequate in many places, and not just through Nashville.  The section between Rockwood and the I-75 merger is one of the most aggravating sections of interstate in the country with all its hills, twists, and curves.  Heaven help you if you get stuck behind a truck in the left lane, and forget about trying to use your cruise control at all.  There are at least a dozen places along I-40 between Nashville and Knoxville that desperately need truck lanes, most notably the section between Buffalo Valley and Silver Point in the very western edge of Putnam County and, especially, the section between Cookeville and Monterey where truckers laugh at the signs telling them to stay in the right lane as they scoot over into the left lane doing about 0.0001 mph faster than the trucks they're passing in the right lane.

I'm sorry but this is really silly. Essentially, your whole issue here could be resolved by slowing down and chilling out and realizing that you're still traveling way faster than anyone in the history of humanity has ever travelled. I mean, you can't use cruise control for a several mile stretch of interstate?! Oh the humanity. 

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8 hours ago, Nashvillain said:

I'm sorry but this is really silly. Essentially, your whole issue here could be resolved by slowing down and chilling out and realizing that you're still traveling way faster than anyone in the history of humanity has ever travelled. I mean, you can't use cruise control for a several mile stretch of interstate?! Oh the humanity. 

It depends when you are traveling these stretches of interstate. I have traveled the state by car from end to end a number of times and the need for the four lane is there. Sometimes just due to sheer traffic volume, traffic has slowed to a crawl or because one driver has failed to chill caused an accident that has backed up the interstate for 20 miles and you are stuck for 2 or more hours. The problem is that many of these stretches of interstates have the speed limit set at 70 but the volume of traffic is just too much for that speed. The state has not kept up with the traffic needs of traffic coming into Nashville because of growth. The stretch from I65 from the KY state line to Nashville is scary sometimes due to volume as is the stretch of I24 between KY and Nashville.

Tennessee is not the only state with this issue as the stretch between Louisville and Indy is downright dangerous due to volume and speed and also due to the fact there are hardly any shoulders on that stretch of 65. 

I have driven in recent years from here to Boston, Denver and beyond, Phoenix, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Florida (OMG) , Texas and the list goes on. I drive a lot and have seen a lot of roads. Tennessee is not as bad as other states but worse than others, especially when you get into the crowded NE.

I do think that I either read or heard that the state would four lane all of the interstates from state line to state line is in the plans but they are way out there.

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56 minutes ago, smeagolsfree said:

It depends when you are traveling these stretches of interstate. I have traveled the state by car from end to end a number of times and the need for the four lane is there. Sometimes just due to sheer traffic volume, traffic has slowed to a crawl or because one driver has failed to chill caused an accident that has backed up the interstate for 20 miles and you are stuck for 2 or more hours. The problem is that many of these stretches of interstates have the speed limit set at 70 but the volume of traffic is just too much for that speed. The state has not kept up with the traffic needs of traffic coming into Nashville because of growth. The stretch from I65 from the KY state line to Nashville is scary sometimes due to volume as is the stretch of I24 between KY and Nashville.

Tennessee is not the only state with this issue as the stretch between Louisville and Indy is downright dangerous due to volume and speed and also due to the fact there are hardly any shoulders on that stretch of 65. 

I have driven in recent years from here to Boston, Denver and beyond, Phoenix, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Florida (OMG) , Texas and the list goes on. I drive a lot and have seen a lot of roads. Tennessee is not as bad as other states but worse than others, especially when you get into the crowded NE.

I do think that I either read or heard that the state would four lane all of the interstates from state line to state line is in the plans but they are way out there.

How many lanes is I-24 from Murfreesboro to Nashville? How's traffic and volume on I-24? Adding lanes is clearly not an adequate solution

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So much of the volume between Nash and Mboro is from local traffic.  The AMZN trucks are going long distance. The TFP article said Sen. Todd Gardenhire estimates that 70% of Interstate traffic goes through Tennessee. Not sure where he got that, but maybe long distance trucking travel is close to that number. And that's the crux of the problem in Tennessee. Due to its location, our state has become a distribution hub. Cannot tell you how many times I've driven to Nashville at low volume times of a weekday (6-8 am) when much of truck traffic hasn't yet hit peak for the day, and yet it's like I'm Smokey and the Bandit (driving my Toyota) between rigs. 

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2 hours ago, nashvylle said:

I agree, but there are certain areas that are truly logistical hubs, and trucks aren't going to use mass transit as an alternative option. 

Be nice if Memphis got some more of this logistics biz, I'd like to see West Tennessee start growing again instead of losing population like it has for awhile now.

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50 minutes ago, satalac said:

So are you saying that 24 on that stretch would operate the same with 2 lanes? 

I'm saying that expanding interstates represents a lost opportunity to do something different. I'm saying that the proportion of federal transportation funds is weighted way too heavily in favor of roads and against transit. The federal gas tax is too low. I've linked to studies about the inefficacy of expanding highways so I'm not going to do that again. When you add capacity to a roadway, more people use the roadway until it reaches capacity yet again and you're back where you started. Instead of expanding I-24, policy makers in the region could have added transit, could have changed zoning to prevent a sprawling mess that is only served by I-24, could have instituted mandates or incentives for employers to offset their schedules to reduce traffic at rush hour or to offer employees cash value of their parking spot if they agree to take transit or carpool. Or any number of things

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I-24 needs to be 3 lanes, at minimum, on its entire stretch because of the amount of truck traffic. In particular between Nashville & Chattanooga with a lot continuing onward to I-75 for Atlanta and southward. Obviously the biggest obstacle would be Monteagle Mountain, but otherwise, it regularly becomes heavy with traffic long before Chattanooga all the time.

And we've had plenty of discussions on Nashville to the KY state line because of Clarksville/Ft. Campbell. 

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2 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

Kentucky’s interstate system is pretty insane. 3 lanes each way even in the middle of nowhere. 

The big exception has been 24 from near the state line to near Kuttawa where the concrete deck literally was failing, and wasn't even 5-6 years old. They actually had to close lanes in parts because it had completely fallen to pieces. They've been repairing it this year, at least before I left for deployment. 

Edited by NashRugger
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5 hours ago, PaulChinetti said:

It always just seems so excessive for the amount of traffic on it. Especially between Lexington and Knoxville.

It is nice though, I don't dispute that. Just seems like it's interstates to nowhere. 

Yea, that stretch is a little slow, but it is Eastern KY. Not a lot of people in that end of the state. You would think I 75 has a lot more traffic than I 65 coming straight out of Florida to Detroit.

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The Growth of Nashville: Decade of Change event (hosted virtually by NBJ) featured Amazon Head of Worldwide Economic Development Holly Sullivan,  Tony Giarrantana, Hines Senior Managing Director Vikram Mehra and Ryman Hospitality Properties Chairman and CEO Colin Reed.   

They spoke of the impact of Amazon's huge investment in Nashville, and how it will effect development around the city, especially downtown. Sullivan feels that other tech companies will be following Amazon's lead into Nashville.

More at NBJ here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2020/10/23/growth-of-nashville-decade-of-change.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_34&cx_artPos=1

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3 hours ago, nashvylle said:

Come on Oracle... ^^^^

Does anyone know what this story from the Nashville Business Journal and Adam Sichko's tweet is about?

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2020/10/22/oracle-nashville-tech-hub-recruitment-update-jobs.html?ana=twt 

EDIT: Didn't see the post in the Oracle thread. I thought that was just a bash Mayor Cooper thread. Skipped over it.

 

 

 

 

Edited by PHofKS
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