[PillowTalk4]

Nashvillians really need to get onboard with including a rail system in as part of their mass transit system. Busing is not going to be sufficient long term. The longer Nashville waits to establish a rail commuter system the more expensive it will be and it will get harder to get communities to buy into it as the density keeps growing and more and more people argue the "not in my neighborhood" mentality. And, opposite of that, "the stops aren't on my street" mentality.

I live in the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) metro area. While the Metro System here is poorly managed, I will say that without the Metro System, the area would be far worse than what it is in terms of traffic. This becomes apparent when just one of the Metro lines are down for either maintenance or some other reason. The trickle down impact to road traffic to include buses is felt all across the region. The DMV's Metro System is underutilized, but it is still a great benefit to the area. Pre-pandemic, the Metro System in the DMV averaged 626,000 riders per day. The Metro Bus System averaged 350,000 riders per day. That's just under a 1,000,000 riders using public transportation daily. Trust me when I say, if they did not, traffic in the DMV would be far worse than what it is and it is bad. Also, the Metro System has tie-ins with commuter "choo choo" trains that come into the DMV from distances as far away as Richmond, VA which is over 100 miles away and people who commute from parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania and West VA. There are also car-pool lots located near Metro Stations so car-poolers can drive to a Metro Station, park and use Metro to reduce the number of car poolers riding all the way into DC and other nearby areas like Alexandria, Arlington, Crystal City, Pentagon City, Bethesda, Silver Spring, etc.