MTA planners unveil three scenarios related to transit

[key2success]

Originally Posted by Hey_Hey

I crunched numbers for Vandy and Belmont and combined the two institutions have 45,000 students and employees. If you combine just Vandy and Belmont with the CBD you do get to around 100,000 commuters, and that doesn't include any of Music Row, Midtown, or West End.

yea but most of them dont drive

[Hey_Hey]

Nashville will have right at 2 million people in its MSA by 2020, assuming migration and growth patterns remain the same. We probably wouldn't have a fully built out LRT system until the population was 2.25-2.5 million even if we started today. We need to project forward, and with growth rates what they are the. Nashville will be the type of city that would utilize a full LRT by the time it could be built out.

[thunderstruck666]

key2success brings up a good point, and one I was actually thinking of when I was on the way to work this morning. Here at least. there are very few people living downtown that have cars. That would be a good base to draw on for using public transportation, but don't count on there being that many less cars on the road since most of them don't have cars. My first thought when the population of Vandy was brought up (don't know what Belmont is, assume it's a college) was that most college students don't have cars. Again, good for ridership but not reducing traffic if they don't drive.

[nashvols]

lol, I think most college students have cars. Perhaps not as high a percentage as area residents...but believe me...I went to a school with a pretty urban layout (UT Knoxville) where pretty much everything (especially now with a Walmart and Publix close by) was within walking or biking distance. I would guess that 80+% owned cars, and most that didn't were foreign or way out of state.

Now the usage of a car....that's different. With crazy parking procedures and more permits than spots, the idea was that you DIDN'T want to constantly use your car. I usually went a week or two without driving at a time (because of gas prices, mainly).

But I just wanted to clarify....I don't buy the notion that most college students don't have cars. But I do think that the convenience of transit (if frequent enough) is very enticing to college students so they do NOT have to move their cars.


Also, a note on employees. It might be fair to say that college students aren't contributing much to the traffic situation, but that is absolutely not the case with the employees....especially VUMC. The nurses, doctors, and hospital staff live all around the metro area. That's why ANY regional commuter plan that converges on Downtown Nashville should include a fast and easy way to get to West End....whether it is LRT or BRT. You have 3 major hospitals (VUMC, Centennial, St. Thomas-Midtown), two universities, and a few million square feet of office space (including HCA HQ) in a relatively compact area (not to mention, Music Row).


With the number of residential, hotel, and office proposals in that area, Nashville would be downright crazy not to have LRT running right down West End Avenue. To hell with Lee Beaman.