Visitors: Nashville has traffic... plan accordingly (Memphis, Clarksville: rent, how much, hotels)

[BeeHoyal]

As tourism and bachelorette party season swings into gear in Nashville, I have heard already that visitors from other parts of the country have completely underestimated the kind of traffic Nashville has and some are being rude to their Uber/Lyft/Cab drivers as if those drivers have some form of control over traffic jams, long red lights, short green lights, construction blocking streets, etc because said visitors did not budget their time accordingly to be at their next destination on time.

With all due respect, if you are at your hotel on West End or in an AIRbnb house in east or west Nashville and need to meet your party at an event at 6pm downtown... please don't wait to request your Uber/Lyft/Cab at 5:50pm and then get mad at the driver who has to fight who knows how much traffic to even pick you up and even more to get you to your event/meeting while listening to you whine about how late you are going to be and how your friends are already there and have been for 5 minutes.

Keep in mind that if the Uber/Lyft drivers get tired of being brow-beaten over the traffic that they don't have any control over...they could always go back to a traditional day job and then with less of them out there driving, how long will it take during peak traffic to get picked up and get to lower Broadway?

OK?

[N.Cal]

Keep in mind that if the Uber/Lyft drivers get tired of being brow-beaten over the traffic

It would actually be nice if all the Uber and lyft drivers were actually from Nashville and not from Clarksville or Spring hill or other far flung places where they have no idea where all of the very popular places are located. I had one delriver once who had no clue where the Gulch was.

[BeeHoyal]

From what I heard, if the riders put the destination in correctly, any driver could follow the GPS and get them there except there are some riders who put in non-existent destinations such as the "Raymond Auditorium" (Ryman) or 12th Street (east Nashville) when they wanted to go to 12th Ave. (Thompson Hotel in the Gulch).

Maybe more of the visitors should rent cars and drive themselves. Then they will all be on this forum asking why the traffic was so bad and why they had to pay so much to park, etc.

But, yes, looking at google maps when off duty to know where popular attractions and districts are couldn't hurt. However, who could disagree that a cabbie can't control how much traffic there is at rush hours and getting snippy and disrespectful with them over that is rude and uncalled for especially if the rider wasn't prepared to leave on time. That's the rider's problem. The Lyft driver is not their mother who makes sure they learn to leave the house on time.

[jmecklenborg]

Almost everything tourists do in New Orleans can be walked to from hotels or from a drop-off point on Canal St. Not so in Nashville.

Public transportation for commuters versus weekend visitors can overlap, but it should be noted that the new streetcar systems in Kansas City and Cincinnati are each getting much higher weekend ridership than weekday ridership. Not hard to imagine that streetcars in a center reservation following the AMP route would get pretty substantial weekend ridership.

[jabogitlu]

Not familiar with KC or Cincinnati's systems but I believe Nashville would benefit more from light-rail than streetcars. Memphis has streetcars and although they do suffer from a lack of good design (e.g., stopping about half a mile short of midtown, not very well integrated into Beale Street), they generally are a fairly poor way to move around the city even for tourists unless you're just looking for a scenic trolly ride along the Mississip'.

The best thing about light rail is that it will incentivize and boost urban development along its stops. That speed/scale is virtually unreachable for a streetcar.

[jmecklenborg]

There is a huge difference between "tourist trolleys" and the modern streetcar systems that visitors actually use repeatedly during a visit to travel throughout a city.


Broadway/West End is set up well for such a system as is Demonbreun and then across the river on the pedestrian bridge to Five Points.

[jabogitlu]

Yeah, totally, I get your gist but I'm saying if Nashville is gonna spend limited transit dollars, the city would be better served by light rail that effectively moves tourists and residents between the airport, Opry Mills, downtown, Germantown, the Gulch, Vandy etc. That scope is too large to effectively be served by streetcars.

Take Seattle. They're now actually at a stage of public transit where they're installing streetcars for Capital Hill, downtown etc., but it's built on a light rail spine from the University of Washington to the airport. Something similar is a necessary first step in Nashville (or a dedicated, bona fide BRT).

ETA: Ah, I just saw that you said "Not hard to imagine that streetcars in a center reservation following the AMP route would get pretty substantial weekend ridership." Sorry, I missed this the first time around. You're right! Too bad the AMP has struggled so much in Nashville.

[jmecklenborg]

The core dilemma facing a downtown Nashville surrounded by a much more densely populated belt of neighborhoods (a metro progressing from a metro of 2 million to 3 million in 20-30 years) is the logic of its arterial roads. Obviously, West End & 21st meet and enter the downtown in a natural manner. But Broadway terminates at the riverbank and Gallatin Pike and Shelby each come into the downtown at different points. Crossing the river in a continuous manner is obviously not possible with a conventional bridge since a lower Broadway bridge would require a steeply ramped approach or a level viaduct (not hard to imagine at-grade rail continuing onto a viaduct on that slope in front of the arena) straight through the heart of the city's entertainment district. I imagine that some architects and engineers would enjoy the challenge of creating a bridge approach that would completely define the city but no politician would risk the controversies that would no doubt surround the design of such a structure.

So West End/21st and then arguably 8th Ave and Lafayette each come into the downtown in a traditional manner, but then none of the other arterials do. Charlotte and Gallatin each enter the downtown in an awkward way. 12th enters awkwardly. It's a total mess exacerbated by the extremely narrow side streets. Meanwhile, we are told that the super-hard rock precludes subway construction.

So I'm pretty skeptical that Nashville will be able to function as a significantly larger city. Atlanta is a total mess at 6 million but it is at the very least centered around one major city street which continues in an almost-straight line for several miles and has a subway running beneath it.

[DonCorleone]

I think we just need to tell everyone Austin is better. Maybe offer free Greyhound/pedal tavern tickets to bachelor and bachelorette parties to New Orleans.

[nashvols]

None of this will matter when our robot overlords take over.