On One of Nashville’s Most Dangerous Roads, Urgent Safety Concerns and Long-Term Plans Collide

[Greg O'Loughlin]

The overhaul of the Gallatin Pike corridor is being complicated by the 2024 transit plan approved by voters

https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/06/02/nashville-vision-zero-choose-how-you-move/

This is an ineffective city.

You can attend all the community meetings, you can write on all the post its, you can apply to join an number of toothless, fruitless committees, you can attend those committee meetings, you can write to your council person, you can campaign for a transit initiative, you can canvass for a transit initiative, you can vote for people who promise to lead on transit and it won't amount to a single ounce of difference, let alone improvement. 

This city is less safe after electing Freddie, after killing and the resuscitating BPAC, after starting VisionZero, after passing CHYM.

Ineptitude, lack of leadership, and lack of vision or intelligence - these are the defining qualities of this city government, this council, and this mayor. 

I was duped - I thought with Freddie at the helm and Sean leading transportation, we'd not only see improvements in safety, but also in the city's discourse about prioritizing human-scaled city design and infrastructure.

Instead we got deadlier streets, more dangerous roadways, fewer micro-mobility options, more committees to discuss the reports of other committees, and apparently no one working to make sure it's all lining up in the same direction.

Not only do we have less safe streets, more dead bodies lying the road, and more injured cyclists and pedestrians, but the degree to which the people of Nashville believe that their participation and engagement has ANY impact has been damaged. Why bother voting, getting engaged with committees, attending community meetings, talking to your neighbors, campaigning, donating? NONE of it works. Thanks to Freddie, Sean, WeGo, NDOT, VisionZero, and BPAC - anyone paying attention sees a city that is feckless, ineffective, uncoordinated, and unable to do the things a city government is supposed to do.

But, hey - it's not all bad - if you're stressed out and maybe want to try yoga in the middle of the street, WalkBike Nashville has you covered, or at least when they're not laser focused on making sure you and your neighbors all continue to see your bike as a toy and cycling as recreation.

[Chris Bowe]

Greg,

I hear your frustration, and feel it too! Gallatin Pike was my inroad to safe streets advocacy in this city and it was deeply infuriating to look at the short term "safety improvements" that they offered in place of the mostly baked designs we were shown years ago.

But I also think it is unfair to judge CHYM by what it has achieved in year 1. It was always going to take several years to see meaningful, transformative change, and the referendum never represented anything different, imo.

What was not discussed in the linked article is what I interpret as the main reason for "pausing" the Gallatin rebuild: pursuit of federal funds to supplement the CHYM dollars to execute a more ambitious project. We have heard from a few folks in the mayor's office that they are looking for federal funding, which is why the Gallatin project schedule slides showed a NEPA review timeline and a later start date than I anticipated.

I think it is absolutely justified for us to question the wisdom of asking *this* federal administration to finance a transit-centered project, and that's the biggest issue I have with the approach on Gallatin. It is great to be ambitious - something our transportation leaders have not been in my experience - but I don't think Sean Duffy is salivating over improving on-time bus performance on the 56. There may be perfectly acceptable reasons for doing this: construction costs are going parabolic lately, after all. I'd love to hear someone from the city articulate the reasoning in clear terms, though. I just don't buy that the plans we saw in 2024 will be in meaningful conflict with the full corridor design. I hope Freddie can be more transparent about what is happening behind the scenes with the money, because it sure seems like we have collected a lot so far.

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Chris Bowe

C: (314) 281-8365

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