Mayor's Office of Transportation

Transportation Planning

The right transportation system is critical for our community. It will get you to school, to work, to your doctor’s office, and back home. With Nashville’s recent growth, we’re facing new transportation challenges that we must address with intention, transparency, and full participation from residents throughout Davidson County. From covered bus stops and timely traffic signals to safer intersections and more sidewalks, creating an effective transportation plan begins with the opportunity for everyone who touches our transportation system to provide valuable input.

The first step in the planning process is determining our transportation priorities. We will start by focusing on everyday transportation issues such as managing traffic and improving our bus system. Safety and efficiency improvements will allow residents to get around the city faster and more reliably. After identifying our most critical needs, the planning process will turn to larger and more ambitious public transportation and mass transit projects.

The Mayor’s Office of Transportation is setting a new course to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the growth in Nashville and the region. Together, we will create a transportation plan that helps make Nashville a city that works for everyone.

Public Listening Sessions

Making this plan work for you requires your voice. The Mayor’s Office of Transportation will hold 11 public listening sessions in January and February of 2020. The listening sessions are your opportunity to voice ideas, priorities and concerns regarding transit and transportation in Nashville.

Take the Transportation Listening Sessions Survey.

Consult the listening session schedule below and attend as many events as you wish.

More Information about the Listening Sessions and the Transportation Plan

What will take place at the community listening sessions?

The first half hour will be dedicated to a resource-based survey in which participants are asked to identify spending priorities by project category type. The second half hour will involve attendees:

1. identifying specific locations of concern on Metro maps
2. answering questions about equitable transportation plan design, transit and bike system utilization
3. free-form commenting

There will also be time dedicated to one-on-one or small group question and answer sessions with transportation department staff.

Weren’t sessions like this held before for past transit plans? How is this different?

We are shaping this process based on lessons learned from previous transportation planning efforts. We will engage members of every neighborhood to hear their questions and concerns. A successful transportation plan must be accountable to the community and requires an open process for gathering residents’ input. These listening sessions are a crucial step in the process.

How will Mayor Cooper’s transportation plan be funded?

Funding sources will be discussed and determined after listening to the community, Metro Council Members, and other stakeholder groups to identify the most critical transportation needs facing Nashvillians – those everyday issues that keep us from safely and reliably getting to our destinations on time. Without determining the size of the challenges we must address, funding cannot be adequately determined.

How will you make sure this transportation plan works for everyone?

Making the plan work for everyone is the major priority in the planning stages of the Mayor’s transportation plan. Faye DiMassimo, Fabian Bedne, Eric Brown and Mary Beth Ikard have engaged Metro Council members from every district to understand the needs of each neighborhood. The team has also inquired about the priorities of other community partners, including religious institutions and community centers, who may have valuable input about transportation barriers, including those surrounding language, culture, and location.

Will the transportation plan focus on regional connectivity at all?

The plan is coordinated with the regional efforts, our adjoining jurisdictions’ work, as well as with TDOT. Considering how we fit with the overall region in solving transportation issues is key to our own transportation plan.

What’s the timeline for this transportation plan?

Council Member listening sessions began in November 2019. Public listening sessions will take place in January and February 2020. We will issue initial recommendations in late spring of 2020 and release a full transportation plan by the end of September 2020.