Is Nashville next to adopt this strategy (backing away from highway expansions)?

[Shakeesha]

Originally Posted by GWoodle

Agree.

The center median has already been built. Expanding I-24 here would require building a wider ROW. Doubt if TDOT has the money to do this & rebuild all the bridges. So the SMART corridor will have to work. IMHO may require some police activity to slow down traffic. Speed limit is 70 not 80 or 90.

I am always tailgated going more than 80 mph! Some of the entrances and exits are very dangerous such as Harding, Briley, Bell Rd, Old Hickory Blvd. The transfer trucks do not have enough room to merge or exit safely at high speeds.

[PHofKS]

Some articles about the brilliantly conceived I-24 'Smart Corridor' plan.

From TDOT.
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From England:
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'From the AI developers

AI developers:
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And from Vanderbilt "The smartest roadway in the world"
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And a slide from TDOT images.

[shinestx]

Originally Posted by GWoodle

Not up to Nashville MPO to decide. You would have to ask TDOT. As a pay as you go state with no debt TN may be years behind on projects that need to be built.

Take I-69 from Memphis to Fulton KY. Take I-22 into Memphis. Take the process to expand I-65 from Nashville to KY. For the middle TN area take north 1/2 of I-840. There may be other projects to add more truck lanes to I-40, I-24 from Clarkesville to Nashville. A lot of other smaller projects waiting for funding.

I think TDOT having NO DEBT is mismanagement, as you've pointed out with the deep backlog of projects. Even conservative private businesses utilize debt (it's the cost of time... doing things in the present in return for future dollars). I don't understand how TDOT makes that a big deal to be proud of. Even if they leveraged at just .25, they would be able to get dozens of projects started and well underway. Meanwhile, the traffic situation gets worse by the week and far more dangerous.

I just came from Cincinnati and I-75 through Kentucky, through sparsely populated counties has beautiful wide 3-lanes in each direction. That's in the middle of "nowhere" and then there's I-24 between Chattanooga and Murfreesboro which has been overutilized for well over a decade now. I haven't driven that route in recent years when the lanes going up Monteagle are solid trucks, bumper to bumper. I now expect somewhere along the way to be at a complete stop! Then I-24 in Chattanooga is an utter disgrace to the state of Tennessee. Coming up I-75 in Georgia, it's wide and beautiful open (3-4) lanes to the state line. Then it bogs down, and looks like 1960s inner city 2-3 lanes, inefficiently designed, under-capacity narrow lanes through the city. It's always bogged down and many times at a standstill.

SHAME ON TDOT! Shame for your mismanagement and inability to keep up with the growth! Roads to nowhere? Stop it! Tennessee's cities need your attention!

[shinestx]

Originally Posted by Rsaw7854

Well, my kids live in Chicago and tell me about all the wonderful people they see on mass transit. Like people shooting up, peeing in the corner, etc. One day one of them got on the train on their way to work and sat down, then got off at the next stop because a man was openly masturbating a few seat down facing the aisle. They ended up being 20 minutes late for work due to no fault of their own. Mass transit doesn't have any big downside, it is another panacea.

And I cannot forget the young man from Nashville (coincidentally) who was attending college at University of Chicago who was shot on one of the Chicago trains just a few years ago. Just sad!

[jabogitlu]

Originally Posted by shinestx

I think TDOT having NO DEBT is mismanagement, as you've pointed out with the deep backlog of projects.

SHAME ON TDOT! Shame for your mismanagement and inability to keep up with the growth! Roads to nowhere? Stop it! Tennessee's cities need your attention!

You're yelling at a government that was so proud of returning something like $15 or $20 to people in the form of that rebated (or canceled?) car registration thing. The people of TN elect folks who want to keep the state just as it was around 1970 or so.

[Igor Blevin]

It is a little curious that the reasoning given is reducing greenhouse gases.

This at a time when vehicles are transitioning to BEVs. Lexus has a goal of only BEV sales by 2035. Same for General Motors. It takes 10 years to add a lane, from planning, to funding, to Rights of Way, to construction.

It just seems like weird timing.

[Logical95]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

I certainly hope so.

I hope Nashville does not become "another Atlanta," in terms of traffic and highway expansion.

Nashville really needs to build out a rail system, and get that going for its future growth.

Isn't there already a small rail/ train that runs from Mt. Juliet to Nashville? Not sure how good it is though......

[N.Cal]

Originally Posted by Logical95

Isn't there already a small rail/ train that runs from Mt. Juliet to Nashville? Not sure how good it is though......

There are only limited trains, early morning and afternoon. If you need to go anywhere besides Broadway, then you need to go find and take a bus to get there. And if you are in the city and want to go to dinner, then forget it because you would need to be finished with dinner well before 6 PM.