Visiting without personal transportation (Germantown, Gallatin: car rental, rental, hotels)

[projectmaximus]

I'm thinking about bringing a small group of people (one to two dozen) to Nashville to tour the neighborhoods and study urban design principals and such. See what we can learn from Nashville's successes and struggles. Just wondering if you think something like this would be feasible via public transit (or some other cost-effective option) as we'd really rather not worry about chartering a bus. Can we hit, somewhat conveniently, a handful of walkable, urban neighborhoods over the course of a day and a half?

Thanks for any input!

[Willie1212]

You'll lose far too much of your time trying to find a bus and get where you're going. So, possible? - yes....feasible? - definitely no. I suggest your crew takes Uber and/or Lyft cars from one neighborhood to the next. Cost will be about 8-10$/car with 3-4 people/car. Very cheap. Should be no prob. East Nashville to Germantown, Germantown/Buena Vista to the Nations, the Nations to Hillsboro Village/Belmont, from there to 12th South, from there to 8th South, from there to wherever. I'd suggest Woodbine/Radnor since it's the last urban neighborhood to develop - now in the earliest stages of change....also not far from the airport. Good luck.

[BirdieBelle]

I can't imagine it.

Especially if you're bringing a group that large, I agree with Willie that you will waste a lot of time if you don't have a plan in place. Chartering a bus will take away a lot of the worry.

Of course, if you just try to walk everywhere, our planning shortcomings will immediately become apparent.

[Hey_Hey]

With all due respect to the previous posters, they're misinformed. Unfortunately, people who don't live in the core neighborhoods and actually take public transit often assume that the public transit that is available in the more suburban areas equates to the public transit in the urban areas. If you are staying in the core neighborhoods and you're ok walking 3-5 blocks you can hit up several urban neighborhoods fairly easily. Also, I would recommend doing it during the week. It's possible on the weekends but frequency is less.

There are two free downtown circulators that run every 15 minutes that would shuttle you from the CBD to Germantown, Capitold District, Sobro, and the Gulch. 12South, Edgehill, Hillsboro Village, Sylvan Park, Edgefield, Lockeland Springs, Music Row, Midtown, Wedgewood Houston, Cherokee Park, Fisk/Meharry, West End, Belmont-Hillsboro, and Hillsboro-West End are all urban neighborhoods that are served by frequent bus service. Obviously, nothing is going to be faster than a chartered bus, but that will also be quite expensive.

[CountryGirl2b=]

Here are the free tourist buses. Not sure they really go as far out as you need. I don't see it going to Sylvan. Maybe these aren't the buses Hey-Hey is referring to?

Nashville MTA Music City Circuit - Free bus service to key destinations in downtown Nashville

And here is a link to the local "mass transit" info:

Nashville MTA Maps and Schedules - bus maps, bus schedules

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

With all due respect to the previous posters, they're misinformed. Unfortunately, people who don't live in the core neighborhoods and actually take public transit often assume that the public transit that is available in the more suburban areas equates to the public transit in the urban areas. If you are staying in the core neighborhoods and you're ok walking 3-5 blocks you can hit up several urban neighborhoods fairly easily. Also, I would recommend doing it during the week. It's possible on the weekends but frequency is less.

There are two free downtown circulators that run every 15 minutes that would shuttle you from the CBD to Germantown, Capitold District, Sobro, and the Gulch. 12South, Edgehill, Hillsboro Village, Sylvan Park, Edgefield, Lockeland Springs, Music Row, Midtown, Wedgewood Houston, Cherokee Park, Fisk/Meharry, West End, Belmont-Hillsboro, and Hillsboro-West End are all urban neighborhoods that are served by frequent bus service. Obviously, nothing is going to be faster than a chartered bus, but that will also be quite expensive.

So you basically just named a bunch of random random neighborhoods and said they are "served by frequent bus service." Which could be said about most any mid-sized city.

Your inaccurate perception of MY familiarity with transit aside, my main concern is that the OP is bringing a group here. Sure, they all could stand around and waste a lot of their day and a half trying to figure out MTA, or they could have a bus at the ready to get them where they need to go.

A charter will enable them to get out and about in their target areas, observing the transit stops and the environment around them (availability of sidewalks, bike lanes, etc.). Music City Circuit? An excellent but limited option.

[GWoodle]

Originally Posted by projectmaximus

I'm thinking about bringing a small group of people (one to two dozen) to Nashville to tour the neighborhoods and study urban design principals and such. See what we can learn from Nashville's successes and struggles. Just wondering if you think something like this would be feasible via public transit (or some other cost-effective option) as we'd really rather not worry about chartering a bus. Can we hit, somewhat conveniently, a handful of walkable, urban neighborhoods over the course of a day and a half?

Thanks for any input!

I don't see this as possible at all.

For one thing, how will you get from anywhere to Nashville? There is no Amtrak & no bus thruway service. Your group would need to fly in and use a hotel bus for lodging. From there only Gaylord offers some bus service from the Opryland hotel to their entertainment attractions. Maybe you can contact Gray Line to makeup a different tour of Nashville for your group.

If your group drives a van or 2 to for 12 adults it gets easier. Maybe try a car rental co.

Nashville MTA Trip Planner - plan a bus trip, bus departure times, bus arrival times

You will need to contact MTA to get pass & fare information.

THe free shuttle bus is only in the central downtown area. You will need another bus or walk to the downtown Music City Star station.

[Hey_Hey]

Clearly this group is interested in urban design/the built environment, and he mentioned specifically public transit. I would venture to say that they would prefer to use public transit even if it is less time efficient than driving a chartered bus (and I admitted previously that from a time perspective that is probably the most efficient mode of travel).

However, I still contend that this tour would be easily doable with public transit. As opposed to what GWoodle claims, there are multiple ways to get downtown from the airport (I assume they want to stay downtown given the nature of their group). --MTA runs the #18 from the airport to downtown hourly express service seven days a week from the airport to the downtown hotels.
-Jarmon transportation runs an "Airport to Downtown" shuttle
-3-5 taxis or ride sharing cars will suffice
-Many downtown hotels have shuttles to/from the airport

The poster stated that they wanted to "hit a handful of walkable/urban neighborhoods over a day and a half." Having been on walks similar to what the OP is proposing, I assume they will spend a 1-2 hours in each neighborhood walking and discussing architecture, streetscape, setbacks, building heights, transit, etc. From the downtown hotel starting point they could hit the Gulch, Sobro, and Central Business District without walking at all when using the Music City Circuit (which is free). If they are willing to walk 5 minutes through an urban, walkable neighborhood then they could also visit Rolling Mill Hill and Germantown. The Music City Circuit runs every 15-20 minutes daily, so there will be essentially no wait.

As for the other neigborhoods I suggested, they are all served by frequent (ie bus service every 10-25 minutes). Sylvan Park/Charlotte Ave is served every 15 minutes by the #50 BRT Lite Charlotte route with real time updates. Five Points and Gallatin Pike is served every 15 minutes by either the #26 (local) or #56 (BRT Lite). Lockeland Springs is served every 20-25 minutes by the #4. Edgehill and 12South are served by the #17 every 20-30 minutes. Midtown/Music Row/Hillsboro Village is served by the #7 which has service every 20 minutes. West End/Richland/Cherokee Park has the #3/#5 which combined gives service every 20 minutes.

If I were them I would get all five of the neighborhoods in the I-40 loop using the Music City Circuit in one day. The next day i would choose one or two of those I listed above. All of them are more residential with mixed use corridors. It would be easy to hit up two of them using MTA in the morning. I would specifically recommend Midtown, Music Row, and Hillsboro Village as it is served by the same route and they all have a different built environment with different assets and weaknesses.

[projectmaximus]

Thanks for the replies!! They're all very helpful, even the differing opinions!

A few answers/details:

-We are flying up
-Arriving on Friday (hopefully early) and leaving Sunday, possibly Monday if it is a holiday.
-Yea, we are probably a bit more tolerant than the average group when it comes to walking and transit. We still need to see all the things we need to, but if we have to walk, wait and ride a little bit more that should be fine.
-The other options we're considering are Pittsburgh, Cincy, Houston, and Baltimore.