A way of life

Earlier this week I attended the Nashville MTA's public meeting on their upcoming master plan and heard a regular mass transit rider comment about the differences he has seen in transit in all the places he has been. "Why is public transportation seen as a negative status symbol in Nashville? It's seen as a way of life in other large cities such as Chicago, Washington D.C and even Ireland (I had to throw that out there because the link is so cool)."

Why can't public transportation be seen as the cool place to be located next to? Why can't economic developers focus their attention along mass transit corridors and sell the hip advantages of getting work done on your commute. It's still legal to text message on buses and trains. If your commute is long enough, you may even be able to open up your laptop and get that report finished before that morning deadline.

The MTA will be opening up their first bus rapid transit (BRT) line in a couple of months along their highly travelled Gallatin Pike route. They are promising 15 minute headways with distinct stops with shelters and lighting. They purchased new hybrid buses specifically for this route that will have GPS sensors that communicate with traffic signals further ensuring the quick headways. The current buses on route 26 have 30 minute headways and they will continue service. At times, a passenger may only have to wait 7 minutes for a bus along this corridor. However, you need to be at the BRT stops because those locations are the only spots where they will stop and they will be spread out at a minimum of 3/4 of mile apart.

I'm so excited about this, I might make a t-shirt of my routes (26, 34x, BRT).

Frequency is increasing, the buses are new and just maybe we can change the image of mass transportation in Nashville.

~ Dave Keiser