Quote:
Originally Posted by Baronakim
Hi y'all. Having been born in Nashville in 1947, I have seen a lot of change here. Generally it has been a good place to live. Nashville 50 years ago was nasty, dirty and pretty much of a big hicktown. Now I find it vibrant, sophisticated and definitely NOT boring. I am also a lifelong Democrat who was not for the dearly departed transit plan. Nashville needs mass transit, but putting rail down the middle of existing major streets was an idea right out of the 1890 trolley lines. Mixing frequent bus stops with rail stops and traffic is a bad idea. Improve bus service, yes, but rail need to serve point to point concentrations of residential core with the central downtown. for instance rail should have no more than 3 nodes between (for instance) downtown and Hendersonville - perhaps Inglewood, Old Hickory & Rivergate.
Separate the commuters from the small businesses already on the streetscape. That's what buses and cars are for. Put terminals for rail in central loctions (not park & ride either) where pedestrians and cyclists can conveniently and safely access - not on the already congested automotive arterials. If CSX freight rails cannot support an added load, use emminent domain to chop a path for commuter rail alongside existing tracks. Once clear of downtown, this land looks to be the least developed path. It may take time to figure out the best route, but it would likely be much less disruptive in the long term. As a design professional, I think this approach should be investigated.
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Like the poster above, it seems you're suggesting a commuter rail system. If instead what you meant was a completely grade separated metro-style heavy rail system, get ready to raise twice as much money to build out about half as many route miles.
The Transit plan was a good one. The center running light rail is pretty much a global standard and would have worked well for a city Nashville's size and density. It would have steered and guided high-density development to corridors with the transport to serve it. The negative vote to me seems like a victory of transparent disinformation from the fossil fuel everything-is-merry-crowd and ignorance than an actual informed dissent about its particular form and merits.
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