Infrastructure

By strategically placing housing, businesses, public facilities, and amenities within walking distance of public transportation, transit-oriented development (TOD) creates walkable, “complete” mixed-use neighborhoods that optimize land use. Research shows that TOD offers families significant benefits, such as increased transportation and housing options, leading to an improved quality of life and economic mobility. However, because of these benefits, transit-oriented, walkable neighborhoods are in high demand. As a result, improving transit access often increases property values and taxes. Both factors can lead to gentrification and displacement, particularly in previously disinvested communities.

Our brief includes three policy recommendations to protect, preserve, and produce housing options in impacted communities. The report also details examples of anti-displacement strategies and provides several case studies from across the country.

Using information from the National Transit Database (NTD), ThinkTennessee analyzed transit data for the largest 35 metro regions, including Nashville. The data tells a clear story: all cities, regardless of size or region, can be high-performing transit cities if they invest in increasing service and are committed to prioritizing transit over private vehicles, particularly in the densest part of the urban core. The best-performing transit cities have invested in robust frequent bus service, and a network of dedicated-lane, high-capacity corridors combining bus rapid transit (BRT) and rail transit.

Our research report shows that Nashville’s current transit system is underfunded, provides low levels of service, and is underperforming; however, it also reveals promising insights from comparable cities that could help inform the design of the proposed transit plan. Read the full report by clicking the image to the right. Data tables can be viewed here.

Dedicated funding from local government is essential to a community’s ability to construct, operate, and maintain reliable, high-quality public transportation services. In Tennessee, however, no local government agency has adopted a dedicated funding source for transit.

In this resource examining dedicated transit revenue across the 50 largest metropolitan areas, we find that 46 of the 50 metro areas have secured some form of dedicated funding. Of the four major metro areas lacking dedicated funding, two are in Tennessee: Nashville and Memphis. Most major U.S. cities rely on some form of sales tax to fund transit, which can generate an average of $394 million in annual revenue. This resource includes an interactive map to explore how cities fund their transit and a downloadable dataset to further examine the context behind the diverse funding structures of transit agencies.

The election of Memphis’ 65th mayor presents an opportunity to leverage regional investments to create sustainable, equitable long-term growth. Smart investments and policies to create safe, walkable neighborhoods and vibrant, mixed-use corridors will connect Memphians to each other and to economic opportunity.

This policy roadmap provides four recommendations to ensure that all Memphis residents benefit from regional economic growth: 1) Create vibrant, walkable neighborhoods with a variety of housing types, safe streets, and more transportation options; 2) Reimagine corridors to connect people and neighborhoods, rather than separate them; 3) Review what is working well and what needs improvement across city departments; and 4) Dedicate more funding for multimodal transportation and affordable housing.

Tennesseans are driving more than ever, but the state’s current transportation funding sources are not generating sufficient revenue to keep pace with this growth or to expand available transportation options.

Despite having one of the highest per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the country, Tennessee spends fewer state and local dollars on transportation infrastructure than most other states. Tennessee also contributes fewer dollars to its transit agencies than other states, and none of its major cities have adopted dedicated funding for transit. Additional funding — particularly investment in multimodal transportation choices beyond driving — is needed to bridge this gap and improve health, safety, and financial security for Tennessee families.

Our Changing Lanes policy brief provides a summary of our key findings and recommendations. For more detail, please see our complete State of Our State: Transportation and Mobility report.

Nashville’s next mayor has an opportunity to leverage our growth to improve the quality of life for all Nashvillians. Providing safer, more affordable transportation and housing options will require an all-hands-on-deck approach.

This policy roadmap provides three recommendations rooted in data and best practices to help Nashville’s mayor accomplish three priorities: 1) Lead and empower a proactive and effective Metro administration; 2) Secure more dedicated funding for housing and transportation; and 3) Institute innovative policies to meet our housing and transportation goals.