Royal Commuter

"Train commuters in London got a shock when they realised that the well dressed lady walking along the platform was actually the Queen."

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Everyone, everywhere, at some point in their lives, has a need to use transit -- apparently even society's most elite: the Royals of earth.

I'm reminded of a recent trip to New York City, when, after dinner I took the subway from the restaurant, five stops or so down to Lincoln Center. A tourist in town to do the whole "Christmas in New York" thing, I booked myself a ticket to The Nutcracker. The cost of the ticket, combined with my having already invested in a 7-day unlimited ride MetroCard, meant cab fare was just out of the question -- despite snow, time constraints, falling temperatures, a full belly, and generally feeling a little bit lost on using transit as a tourist, or orienting myself to find and enter the correct theatre once I came up from underground.

Luckily for me, there were swaths of other ballet-goers in full evening regalia on the train with me -- holding on to the poles, anticipating the lovely performance we all were collectively about to experience together.

I wonder-- could a culture like this --transit use as a way of life, even for the fanciest affairs-- ever arrive in Nashville? Where locals & tourists alike pack a high-speed train together, in this dense urban environment, to go out into the world for consumption of things like the ballet -- the sort of things that make a great city great?

We spot our Mayor riding the bus the same way Londoners recently spied the Queen hopping a train. Is this having an impact on locals' perceptions of mass transit? Have you ever seen any of your fellow Nashvillians out in evening regalia, en route to TPAC or the Schermerhorn on the MTA? If so, tell us about it here! If not, tell us about your dreams for Nashville's transit-oriented future, based on experiences you've had in other big cities, where transit is just a way --or the way-- of life.