Middle Tennesseans on the Move
County leaders met in late September to discuss Rutherford’s approach at accommodating the future transit needs of an area that ranks 20th in Forbes’, “America’s Fastest-Growing Cities 2017” list. The Murfreesboro-Franklin-Nashville area is expected to grow by three million people in the next 20 years.
Mayor Shane McFarland was in attendance at the event and one the first speakers to address the curious crowd. Greeting the audience with an update about the Bridge over Broad Street where he said, it will be open and ready to go by December 17th.
As great of news as that is, the concern for the days meeting was about a much broader effort to eliminate traffic.
Initial steps at tackling middle Tennessee’s transit needs have already been taken in the form of the IMPROVE Act‘s passing. A law signed into effect by Gov. Bill Haslam, which increases the state’s gas tax and allows for a referendum to occur in certain counties, with Rutherford being one. This referendum can impose a capped surcharge on taxes already collected to be dedicated to transit projects.
Nashville and Mayor Megan Barry will have their referendum hearing in May of 2018. While Rutherford has not yet announced a date for their hearing.
Though a date is not set, the discussion topics are. They will range from ideas for revenue sources to put ser charges on, to the process of forming a committee and citizens group for the project. During the meeting, certain taxes were suggested for the ser charge, consisting of wheel tax, hotel and motel tax and property tax for some areas. Three more taxes had been discussed, but were not agreed upon prior to the day’s meeting. The charges will be decided on by mid to late October.
The first signs of improvements that I-24 corridor users will notice are new sidewalks, buses with leap-frogging ability during backed up traffic and improved traffic signals. In regards to the leap-frogging buses, the idea is to make shoulders accessible to them when traffic is under 35 MPH. Other plans in place included the construction of a light rail and autonomous cars. For more about future plans, visit nmotion2015.com
The money generated through the IMPROVE Act and Moving Forward project, will help the 53 thousand plus commuters who make their way into, and out of Nashville daily. In a recent county study, it was discovered that residents of Rutherford spend more time in traffic then any of the other surrounding counties that commute to Nashville.
Other alarming traffic statistics include that roughly $1300 is lost in productivity daily due to traffic and 33.6% of peak time driving is in congestion. Statics discovered by INRIX traffic scorecard 2016. Since 2014, traffic along I-24 has increased by more than 60%. The numbers are of course projected to inflate with the growth in population that’s expected over the next 20 years if nothing is done.
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