Wednesday Pedal Press #6
Bi-weekly insights, updates, and musings on cycling, infrastructure projects, Vision Zero, and more in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Hey MiddleTNCyclists — I’ve decided that this format is best served bi-weekly, as it allows me more time to share more in-depth information as it is available. Additionally, I am not confident that there is enough information worthy of a weekly post. So, every other week it is! If you are following along, I appreciate your support.
Midtown Rod-Eo
NDOT held their Midtown Rod-EO on Thursday the 18th — and from what I can tell, a lot of great feedback was given. This community open house focused on the initial round of engagement regarding the Athena Bikeways Project and the Church St Complete Street. Fairpointe Planning shared a reel on Instagram with photos from the event. You can see the scope of both projects in the map below:
I am really excited about this project and think it will do a great job addressing the lack of connectivity in the Midtown/West End area. Centennial Park has felt like it’s been on an island for quite some time and this will open up many safer routes to, from, and through this part of town. This also grows multimodal accessibility to Centennial Sportsplex, which is fantastic. And the Church St Complete Street project will abut and extend to Connect Downtown, lengthening accessibility to downtown and East Nashville.
I truly wish Vanderbilt University had designed a dedicated bikeway through campus, to connect 25th Ave S to the upcoming Complete Street project on Edgehill Ave. As it is, the University acts as a roadblock between growing cycling connections throughout town. But I also sympathize that the campus has been designed this way for a reason.
Both the Athena Bikeways Project & Church St Complete Street project pages include public surveys. Make sure to reach out and provide your feedback! I will keep an eye out for any future project information and community meetings.
Demonbreun St Bikeway Project
This project is starting to take shape and looks like it will alleviate some serious stress on cyclists on one of Nashville’s most infamous streets. Despite only being about 2/10ths of a mile long, if we look at Nashville’s map on BikeLaneUprising, we can see that Demonbreun is the most reported offender for bike lane obstructions:
Ironically, if you visit BikeLaneUprising’s Contact Us page on a computer (sorry, mobile users), the page features a video of this section of Demonbreun St in Nashville.
The latest engineering plans are available on NDOT’s website, and from what we’ve seen on the ground so far, there have not been any glaring changes from the depicted design. I put a number of the individual pages together to get a complete picture of what the street will look like when finished:
One of the most important changes in this project is the removal of the turn lane onto 14th Ave S & I-65 on-ramp. In its current configuration, cars line up and block the bike lane, creating dangerous situations. The right lane will have a shared right/through arrow in the redesign. And all parking has been removed from Demonbreun St other than the designated loading zones. This is a big win.
Altogether, the additional bump outs, smaller curb radii, medians, vertical components, and narrower lanes will slow traffic, and increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians along this street. Despite being listed as a Bikeways project, this really follows Complete Street guidelines. We’ll keep an eye on it and are certainly looking forward to the project’s completion.
SORBA Mid TN New Leadership
If you’ve ever wondered who maintains and supports middle Tennessee’s dozen or so wonderful mountain bike trails, it’s SORBA Mid TN — and they just got new leadership! I was fortunate enough to connect with the new President and VP, Matt Carver, and Shawn Hill last week to learn about their background, SORBA’s role in middle Tennessee, and its direction into the future.
Matt and Shawn are wisely focusing on streamlining and strengthening the chapter’s internal operations at the onset of their tenure. During that process, they have identified that a key to their success is finding a Member Development Officer. If you are passionate about mountain biking and working with the community, this would be a tremendous opportunity and a phenomenal way to step up your involvement.
Check out my full interview with Matt and Shawn below. As I am hoping to do a better job of hitting our mountain bike trails soon, I promptly joined SORBA and have a fresh pair of socks on the way. I’m excited to see what their energy, experience, and leadership will bring to the community.
August Events Spotlight
All of my favorite group rides and clubs are still all on deck for August, but here are some specific ways you can get involved with cycling and pedestrian advocacy:
Greenways and Open Space Commission Meeting
Wednesday, Aug 7th. 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
If you want to learn more about the development process behind our parks and greenways, this is the meeting for you! You can learn more about the Greenways and Open Space Commission on their website. Unfortunately, their meeting agendas are always somewhat vague, including for the next meeting, and their meeting minutes are not shared publicly at this time. But if you miss the meeting and want to follow along, you can always watch the latest on their YouTube playlist:
Smart Growth America Complete Streets Webinar: Session 2 (Virtual)
Thursday, Aug 8th, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
This is an excellent, ongoing Webinar series that shares information behind the Complete Street design methodology that Nashville has adopted. From Metro’s website: “This session will look at the implementation of Complete Streets principles including how specific design changes can achieve streets that are healthy and safe for all road users.” Many Nashville residents are hearing the term Complete Streets for the first time from the Mayor’s Choose House You Move referendum, or from community meetings surrounding any of these projects.
Last month’s webinar focused on how complete streets build equitable and prosperous communities for everyone and is certainly worth a watch if you’re interested in joining the next webinar.
Traffic and Parking Commission (Lebanon Pike Speed Reductions)
Monday, Aug 12th, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Believe it or not, it is not the Nashville DOT that has the authority to set speed limits around Davidson County. That role belongs to the Traffic and Parking Commission. “The Commission adopts and publishes traffic regulations … and the establishment of speed zones upon metropolitan streets and roads.” In the last Pedal Press, I covered the upcoming vote regarding speed reduction along Lebanon Pike. Since then, members of the Vision Zero Advisory Committee have reached out to Council Members who oppose this reduction. I offered to meet with Council Member Eslick, and he outright declined.
From what I understand, opposition to lowering the speed limit boils down to two issues: enforcement of the current speed limit needs to improve, and the additional drive-time burden on drivers along the corridor. And I certainly agree that enforcement needs to improve. When a vehicle passenger tried to assault me by throwing trash last spring in Council Member Eslick’s district, Detective Michael Apsey of the Hermitage Investigations Unit was utterly useless at handling my case and ultimately stopped responding to my queries despite a preponderance of evidence that included two camera angles.
That said, the opportunity to lower the speed limit along Lebanon Pike is not fruitless. I acknowledge that additional safety measures along the corridor are also needed. However, advocating against speed limit reduction because these measures are not yet in place or because of unsatisfactory enforcement conditions suffers a perfectionist fallacy. A doctor would not advocate that it is worthless for a patient with heart disease to start dieting and exercise because they’ll never become an Olympic athlete.
I’d also like to put the drive-time speed burden into context. Lebanon Pike is 12.6 miles long from the Davidson County border to Korean Veterans Boulevard downtown. I recognize the speed at different points along the corridor varies, but it is safe to say that the average is 40 miles an hour. Sans traffic lights, it would take a car to travel 18 minutes and 54 seconds to travel this distance. At 35 miles an hour, it would take 21 minutes and 36 seconds. I would argue very few people are driving the full length of the corridor on any given occasion, but if they did, the difference would be almost completely negligible — under 3 minutes.
However, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety similarly found that the average risk of severe injury to a pedestrian increased from 50% at 31 mph, 75% at 39 mph, and 90% at 46 mph (Tefft 2011). The difference between these speeds in situations of traffic violence is the opposite of negligible. They are exponential, and life-changing.
Again — Lebanon Pike runs through Metro Districts 11, 14, and 15, which are respectively represented by Councilmembers Jeff Eslick, Jordan Huffman, and Jeff Gregg. If you live in these districts, I encourage you to reach out to your council members and vocalize your support for the speed reductions. As well, you can reach out to the Traffic and Parking Commission to share your support. Or join me at this meeting!
Vision Zero Advisory Committee Meeting
Tuesday, Aug 13th, 5:00 – 7:00 pm
The next VZAC meeting will focus on New Member Discussion, as well as updates from the other subcommittees: Engineering & Planning, Fatal Crash Investigation, Strategic Planning, and Outreach. There will also likely be an update on VZAC’s coordination with NDOT regarding Streetlighting retrofits along the High Injury Network, and the Safe Routes 2 School project. New and interesting information always comes up, too.
A community comment period is always open at the beginning of the meeting.
Nashville + Bike Lane Uprising
Saturday, Aug 17, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Bike Lane Rising is hosting their first-ever event in Nashville at Beyond the Edge! While I have no idea exactly what it’s going to entail, I’ll certainly be there to find out. They are a fantastic advocacy group, bringing concrete data and information to bike lane obstructions. From their website: “Our data has been used to directly reach out to companies who block bike lanes, has been used in court cases where bicyclists have been injured or killed, has gotten laws passed, and has pressured cities to build safe bike infrastructure.”
Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission
Monday, Aug 19th, 5:00 – 6:30 pm
BPAC is still getting their feet wet, but I definitely learned a lot about their vision and plans for the future attending their July meeting. They will be impactful in all things that they do.
I recently discovered that Metro Nashville’s Bike Rack GIS later went MIA, which was due to some internal concerns about the data accuracy. I suggested to members of NDOT that this could be a good task for them to take on!
Like with VZAC, a community comment period is always open at the beginning of BPAC meetings.
Be visible. Be predictable. Do good. Cheers!
Do you have something you think I should feature or investigate? Please let me know at [email protected], or by completing the Contact Us form on our Mission page.