Nashville Asking For Sales Tax Increase To Help Fund $3.1B Transit Plan
Image: Nashville’s Choose How You Move proposal is estimated to cost $3.1 billion. Image Credit: Metro Nashville
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Nashville will look to add an additional 0.50% sales tax to help fund $3.1 billion in transit work through a Nov. 5 referendum.
If the transit proposal passes, the tax will begin on Feb. 1, 2025.
The city is hoping to receive $1.4 billion of federal funding toward transit projects over the next 15 years.
The project would include everything from sidewalks, signals and street work to corridor and transit improvements across the city.
“Ninety percent of Nashvillians told us through Imagine Nashville that they support investing in public transit and the Choose How You Move Program will get us where we want to go faster and safer, no matter how you’re moving,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a statement. “This is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to build out our priority sidewalks, to synchronize signals so you’re spending less time at red lights, and to connect neighborhoods via a better transit system that doesn’t have to come downtown just to go somewhere else.
“This is about the sustainability of our workforce and this community, and how we bring the cost of living down so that our residents can afford to live here.”
The project will add 86 linear miles of sidewalk along with 592 new or upgraded traffic signals.
The designated transit corridors will put dedicated transit-only lanes in strategic locations on 10 of the city’s most used roadways on areas such as Murfreesboro Pike, Gallatin Pike, Nolensville Pike, Dickerson Road, West End, Charlotte Pike and Bordeaux/Clarksville Pike.
The Choose How You Move project includes 12 modern transit centers, 17 Park & Ride facilities and double the hours of our high-frequency daily service and increase total bus service by almost 80%.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
FYI – I’m a researcher and analyst and did a lot of research about Mass Transit when they tried to get Regional Mass Transit approved. They lose HUGE money. In 2018 (before COVID) Denver lost $600 million a year and fares only covered 7.5% of expenses.
Even the train to Lebanon (Music City Star) loses a lot of money and has very little impact on traffic. After 17 years of operation it still loses $1 million a year and its fares only cover 30% of operating expenses (the loss is much higher if you include debt service and replacement reserves). At most it only takes 600 cars off the roads. If you study the Music City Star projections, you will find that they are very misleading. A commuter who rides the train to and from work 250 days a year is counted as 500 “passengers”. That’s right – they call one person 500 passengers!!!! So, 500 commuters riding to and from work are called 250,000 “passengers” (500 x 2 trips a day x 250 days a year).
Across the US there’s a pattern – revenues end up being half the “projection” and costs end up being much higher. Study the numbers. Davidson County already has BY FAR the highest debt of any county in TN. The worst mistake you can make is just saying “we need it” or thinking it will greatly decrease traffic. Study what happened in Minneapolis and the number of US Transit systems that break even (very few). They use the term “death spiral” – that happens a lot. In Denver they asked people “Why don’t you ride it?” The answer was > “I get where I need to go faster and cheaper by driving.” Will people ride it if COVID comes back?
It makes sense around the Downtown area – they should have buses every 10 minutes between 6 am and 8 pm.
>> Is it true that people earning less than $48,000 ride free?
A better solution is staggered work hours, encourage people to work from home, preferred parking for people who ride-share. and have excellent Mass Transit in the Downtown area – buses every 10 minutes between 6 am and 8 pm. Liberals think it is a good idea but never look at the numbers and they think someone else will ride it – that’s what happened in Denver and it was a financial disaster.
It was so bad that there was an article titled “Denver has a coming transit apocalypse”
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/358048-denver-has-a-coming-transit-apocalypse/
ALL I see is one more TAX and they waste the tax dollars now, tax tax tax we have to end TAXES NOT ADD TO THEM.