Nashville Planners Release ‘Connect Downtown’ Plan

The city of Nashville’s Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) is releasing a mobility plan dubbed Connect Downtown that aims to smooth out the “mess of Ubers, scooters, one-way streets and jaywalking, without clear arteries connecting east to west or north to south” that characterizes downtown Nashville. 

As Eli Motycka reports for Nashville Scene, the city is playing “a clunky game of catchup” to adapt infrastructure to new mobility modes and needs. “A damning report from Forbes last month put even more heat on city leaders to figure out the city’s transportation growing pains. The national business magazine ranked Nashville as the country’s hardest commute, estimating that residents lost 41 hours over 2022 to traffic and congestion obstacles.”

Planners are working on long-term projects including a pedestrian-only zone and an “aspirational” bus rapid transit (BRT) line to the airport, as well as shorter-term improvements such as bike lanes. “If it seems like bike lanes are suddenly popping up everywhere, it’s because they’re riding a combination of modern urban design principles and a planning department trying desperately to help Nashville catch up,” Motycka explains.