Micromobility in Nashville

[carey...@comcast.net]

I am a member of the Transportation Licensing Commission and the last  meeting included a request from Lime, the scooter and bike company,  to start a pilot program with fifty sit-down scooters. They are  very different from the stand up variety we know and love. Nashville would have been one of about five cities in the world where they would be tested, including Seattle, Denver and Zurich.    At the behest of NDOT the Commission disapproved the request 4-1. I’ll let you guess the member in dissent. 

The request has reappeared on the TLC agenda for Thursday, August 21. I do not know why but will hope that the TLC votes to approve it at this second opportunity.   

I hope you would email TLC members to support the Lime request to increase transportation choices in Nashville consistent with that Choose How You Move stuff.

Carey Rogers

mwh...@me.com, vwor...@gmail.com, annie...@gmail.com, eb...@yahoo.com, juan...@northpointhospitality.com, atto...@patrickmcnallylegal.com, car...@tndisability.org, granddi...@gmail.com,Richard...@nashville.gov,Tim.Sc...@nashville.gov

 

TLC will also hold its annual meeting for renewal of additional permits for pedal taverns and pedicabs.  It sounds funny but I  have come to believe that pedicabs serve a purpose as alternative transportation while pedal taverns  are just for the entertainment of visitors. They will never be a competitor to Uber or Lyft but they are a choice for non-auto transportation

 

 

 

 

 

[carey rogers]

There was one member of the commission missing from the list. Sorry.

 

mwh...@me.com, vwor...@gmail.com, annie...@gmail.com,carey...@comcast.net, eb...@yahoo.com, juan...@northpointhospitality.com, atto...@patrickmcnallylegal.com, car...@tndisability.org,

[carey rogers]

The request for 100 Lime scooters was approved after too long of a discussion. Fifty will replace the standard scooters downtown and fifty will be placed at selected bus stops in coordination with WeGo. Riders to and from bus stops will get a 70% discount which might make the things affordable.

If you're a glutton for punishment here is the TLC meeting.   Let me know what happened.

https://www.youtube.com/live/QSVeFVTvreE?si=fFKUT51-ytTtU-gb&t=1602

For those who are not familiar with my rants I'm not crazy about scooters as alternative transportation but they are popular around the world and they support bike share. The companies make money from scooters because they're cheaper and more popular.  I think Lime has discovered that the bikes are being ridden more than we expected.  The scooters are used over 1 million rides a year in Nashville. We'll see how many bike rides this year with about 500 bikes which is the largest bike share in our history. Other progressive cities have far more bikes and scooters than Nashville. Seattle has over 2,000 bikes and 5,000 scooters. Denver has 1,000 bikes and 4,000 scooters. 

Nashville will not subsidize bike share as do many other cities so we are dependent on large corporations to pursue profits. BCycle is well known after more than 10 years in Nashville but they do not have a contract as required by law. NDOT has been working on that for over a year and BCycle can't expand until it's completed. 

Carey

[Jeremiah Wooten]

I found it darkly humorous how much one commissioner in particular seemed incredibly concerned about the potential for scooters/gliders/bikes to block a bus stop! Of course, anyone who has spent any amount of time in or around any part of Nashville knows it's the scourge of unregulated 2 ton private vehicles everywhere that makes it difficult to safely service bus stops, safely cross a street, safely walk or bike pretty much anywhere!

I sent a quick email to that particular commissioner as I was watching the meeting and am including it below for y'all in case you hear that particular silly talking point against micro-mobility regurgitated.

Hello!

Appreciate your concern about bus stop accessibility at today’s TLC meeting.

As a bus operator for WeGo, I can confidently assure you that I have never had an issue loading or unloading passengers at a bus stop because of bikes or scooters. The biggest issue with bus stop accessibility is (of course) much larger vehicles blocking bus stops like private cars, taxis, ubers, ETVs, loading trucks/semis, etc.

Scooters are very small and take up very little space, so it’s quite easy to pull to the curb 2 feet in front of or behind the scooter while still keeping the bus close to and parallel to the curb to achieve ADA compliant boarding.

Cars on the other hand, take up 10-20x the space of a scooter and entirely block me from pulling the bus close to and parallel to the curb. I either have to pull in at an angle, which doesn’t allow me to safely deploy the ramp for ADA boarding, load and unload into the street instead of onto the curb, or pull way past the bus stop often to the next block and wait for passengers to travel up to that spot.

~j

[carey rogers]

Before the discussion at the meeting one of the commissioners who shall remain anonymous responded with  to an email (see below) about the agenda item on scooters. He was appointed by Freddie O'Connell. For better or worse scooters are now part of alternative transportation and the administration needs to develop a plan and a strategy about micromobility. That includes BCycle which still does not have a contract after more than a year of NDOT effort. Not exactly inspiring.

Carey

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I agree that traffic in the downtown area is bad, I also believe that this is due to not only all the party buses and pedal taverns, but also due to the excessive number of scooters and bicycles.

 More scooters will only add to the problem, most of the scooters are used by tourists as a recreational vehicle after a few drinks, everyday I see scooters on the side walks, going too fast and not following any traffic rules, often I see two and sometimes three people riding a single scooter without even a helmet. The majority of scooters are not used as a real way of everyday transportation by people in Nashville. Bicycles present a similar problem, again, the majority of riders don’t respect any  traffic signs, everyday on my way to work I see at least two cyclists running red lights and despite having a designated road, they also ride on the sidewalks.

We need better public transportation, we need to fix the roads and we need better traffic lights before we can see a substantial improvement in our traffic, more bikes and scooters is not a move in the right direction, in fact, I believe it’s a terrible idea for Nashville. 

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[Matthew Hertz]

Oof.  Does this individual work (or lobby for) Nissan 😆🫣

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[jonathan...@gmail.com]

Regarding what the commissioner said:

There has actually been real research on whether cyclists or cars violate traffic laws more often, and overwhelmingly proper research finds that motorists violate traffic laws (failing to yield right of way, speeding, running red lights, etc.) more than bicycles. 

It gets tiring when people go off their subjective impressions and can't be bothered to look up the facts, which are widely available for anyone who actually wants to know them.

Moreover, traffic safety studies in NYC found several years ago that installing protected bike lanes not only protected bicycles, but also protected pedestrians. Fewer pedestrians get hit by cars on roads with protected bike lanes. Earlier this year, research found that when protected bike lanes are installed, stores on streets with protected bike lanes get bigger increases in foot traffic and sales than stores on streets without bike lanes, and that residential properties on streets with protected bike lanes see increases in their value, compared to homes on streets wtihout bike lanes.

So there is actual research which shows that bikes violate traffic laws less than cars do, and that protected bike lanes enhance safety for bikes and pedestrians, and stimulate economic growth on the streets where they are installed.

It would be fun if the Metro government, the Greater Nashville Regional Council, a local non-profit or one of our local universities would do similar research here.

[John Norris]

Two observations:

First, even if scooters and bicycles are being used on sidewalks, how could that possibly worsen downtown traffic?

Second, the number of deaths caused by users of scooters and bicycles is minuscule compared to the number caused by drivers of automobiles. 

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[Bruce Barry]

That a commissioner would say "more bikes and scooters is not a move in the right direction," failing to distinguish between the two, is appalling. While I agree that there are issues with scooters and that there is a point where more isn't better, the fact of the matter is that scooters are a legitimate part of micromobility in cities domestic and foreign and the point is it to manage them better not demonize them.

As for the matter of bikes running lists and ignoring traffic rules, while (per another respondent's point) there may be some statistic somewhere showing cars are worse than bikes, as a bike commuter myself it seems perceptually obvious that bikes do this all the time and it bugs the shit out of me when they do. Whatever the stats may show I see far more bikes run red lights than cars. So many bike riders in this town are too dense to get it into their brains that this just makes drivers of cars dislike bikes more, grow hostile to bike lanes, and act more aggressively toward those of us on bikes. Not that this will ever happen but I'd like to see police pull over and ticket bike riders who run lights (and also vehicles who use bike lanes as loading zones). 

I am also irked by the commissioner's comment that "The majority of scooters are not used as a real way of everyday transportation by people in Nashville." That is an inane observation from one who is supposed to be involved in transportation planning for the city. First of all, many of them are used that way (just look at how they are used around Vanderbilt, for instance). But sure, mostly not, because they are largely meant for visitors not "everyday transportation" ... that's a big point of them. And  with the exception of perhaps a small number of purely recreational "these look fun" spins, every use of a scooter is a "real way of transportation" - the rider is using it to move about the city in some way and not in a 2-ton vehicle. I'd like to suggest that this commissioner seriously consider resigning from the commission and finding another form of public service in Nashville that involves less ignorance on display.

Sadly the anonymous commissioner seems not to realize that if traffic is "bad" because of micromobility happening then that is arguably good, though granted the micromobility needs to be properly managed with appropriate infrastructure and social norms around riding. I know that Nashville will never be Copenhagen, but having just been there last month a fella can dream. 

On Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 11:12:38 AM UTC-5 carey...@comcast.net wrote:

[carey...@comcast.net]

Those scooters are more popular with the populace than these folks think. It never ceases to amaze me that the people who invite tourists to town and profit from their presence are upset when some of them ride scooters or get on pedal taverns and party buses.  At least the damn scooters are transportation, and we require the companies to provide bikes at 25% of scooters. More scooters more bikes. Right now there is no other way to grow bike share. Scooters get over 1 million rides a year. We have half the number of cities like Seattle, Denver, Austin, etc. I’m pretty sure those are cities more committed to “Choose How You Move” than Nashville.

 

I occasionally mention this and I’m not sure anyone believes me. I contacted the profs who do the Vandy poll to get some of the numbers. I assume (hope) bike share would draw larger support.

  

The Vanderbilt poll shows 53% support for scooters. People making less than $45k a year support them at 60%. Respondents age 18-34 support by 62% and 35-44 at 58%. African American support is 58% and Hispanics at 77% (whites at 45%).  

 

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/Nasville_2025_slides_final.pdf

 

https://www.vanderbilt.edu/csdi/vupoll-home.php

 

So opposition to scooters trends older, wealthier and white.

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[Patrick Garner]

Hey Bruce,

Would love for you (and anyone else) to join me in my south Nashville neighborhood sometime to observe drivers’ interaction with stop lights and stop signs. It may not change your opinion of bicyclists who roll through stop signs and stop lights, but I assure you it will correct your data/observations by demonstrating how rarely drivers come to a complete stop. I often roll through stop signs or go early at a stop light—it is often safer for me to do so and reduces conflict with impatient drivers. You may be familiar with places that have formally adopted this “Stop as Yield” or “Idaho Stop” as part of their traffic laws. https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2022-03/Bicyclist-Yield-As-Stop-Fact-Sheet-032422-v3-tag.pdf

I’ve been working with the city to try to address the issue of red light running at the intersection of Nolensville and Joyner for a little over 2 years. The red light running is not unique here, but it just happens to be the intersection by my bus stop where I am most often nearly killed. Recently, NDOT suggested I have folks in the neighborhood come out and help record data on red light running to show the city. Would love for you to help!

 P

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 29, 2025, at 11:03 AM, Bruce Barry <bbl...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Bruce Barry]

Thanks Patrick. I take your point that light running by cars varies at different intersections in different parts of the city. Regarding the "Idaho stop" concept, yes I know if it and think it's a reasonable thing for bikes. However, one of my biggest annoyances as a bike rider is how things go down at 4-way stops. Sometimes cars at such stops will think they are being polite (and they are I guess) by waving the bike (me) to go even though it is not my turn as defined by how traffic at 4-way stops work. I regard that as a dangerous thing for bikes and wish drivers would never do it, and when they wave me on I usually shake my head and stand my ground: "it's your turn to go, driver, so go... you are making me less safe not more safe by waving me through." Waving a bike though out of turn creates unpredictability for other drivers which equals risk for the bike rider. As you know the law requires bikes to act like cars, and it's important that drivers treat bikes like cars in these situations. I mention all of this in relation to the Idaho stop concept because it gives bikes a kind of permission to run stop signs, which if done aggressively sends more signals to more drivers that bikes do whatever the hell they way. When I approach stop sign on a bike with cars around I may do an Idaho stop but I visibly slow down enough to signal to cars that I am prepared to stop, and if I roll through it is only because it is actually my turn, so to speak. There's a similar logic for bikes starting to move before the green at a light to make it clear to everyone at the intersection that you are there and going in the direction you are going. But that means leaving no more than a couple of beats early. Way too many bikes move so early that again, it isn't seen by driver's as a safe play, it's seen as lawless arrogance by the bike.