By Ronald W. Weathersby
Bus lines expand as record number of passengers ride city buses
To better serve its growing passenger volume, the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) have added more bus service throughout the area. The MTA transit system currently provides approximately 33,000 daily passenger trips, which is up from 32,000 last year. Combined with the RTA’s regional bus and train services, more than 10 million trips were recorded in Middle Tennessee last fiscal year.
Nationwide, ridership on public transportation rose 1.5% to 10.5 billion trips in 2012, the highest annual total since 2008, according to a report from the American Public Transportation Association. Nashville joins at least 16 systems that reported record ridership numbers last year. The increase in transit ridership was partially driven by high gas prices and a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures concludes that an individual can save more than $10,000 a year by riding public transit instead of driving.
Although the public’s attention has been on such high-profile MTA projects as the East West Connector Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, which will operate in some of the city’s more middle and upper income areas, the region’s working poor are depending on public transportation more than ever before to carry them to their jobs and across the region. According to the United States Department of Transportation, the working poor, those with an annual personal income less than $8,000, spend nearly 10 percent of their income on commuting expenses, more than twice the 4 percent figure for the total population. The disparity grows to five times higher when compared to the 2 percent figure for workers earning $45,000 or more per year. Additionally the working poor who use their own vehicle to commute to work spent 21 percent of their income on commuting, while those who took public transportation spent 13 percent.
MTA has responded to the need for increased services by adding and enhancing bus lines across the region and in North Nashville including one route, which eliminates the need to travel downtown for connections to the city’s transit system according to Patricia Harris-Morehead, MTA director of communications & marketing.
“Nashville, like many cities in the south does not have a grid street pattern and because of that, our transit system developed into a hub and spoke system,” explained Harris-Morehead who has served in her position for more than 10 years. “Prior to our current CEO arriving more than 11 years ago, we were severely underfunded and operating like a small mom-and-pop business, but all that has changed. We have introduced connector services that preclude traveling downtown and a number of other new routes.”
For example, last August Route 21 or the University Connector began providing a new cross-town service connecting six universities including Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College, Fisk University, Vanderbilt University, Belmont University and Lipscomb University. Buses travel via the 28th/31st Avenue Bridge every 30 to 60 minutes on weekdays and hourly on weekends. It provides transfer points to 10 MTA bus routes. It is the growing system’s fourth connector route.
Additionally Route 29 on Jefferson Street has been expanded with more frequent service during rush hours and added hourly night service to downtown on weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
This month MTA added a second BRT lite service on Murfreesboro Pike where new 60-ft hybrid buses will operate every 15 minutes on weekdays. The new service operates along the system’s second busiest corridor from downtown’s Music City Central to the Hickory Hollow area. Passengers using this service will arrive to destinations faster due to fewer stops along the way and more frequent buses.
However, in spite of these measures, last week state Representative Brenda Gilmore, who represents North Nashville said a lawsuit against the city was, “certainly an option” if MTA officials choose not to modify the East-West Connector BRT to include service to North Nashville.
“North Nashville has just been neglected,” she told the Tennessean. “It’s pretty clear that wherever BRT has gone across the nation, businesses, housing and amenities have sprung up immediately. We would like to see some of that wealth spread.”
Gilmore, who plans to discuss the matter with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, said any lawsuit from the group would have an “economic disparity” focus and referred to a lawsuit in Los Angeles that readjusted a BRT line to include a low-income neighborhood there.
Gilmore says 40 percent of people in North Nashville depend on the bus and said the Nashville Leadership Council wants “at least” a BRT stop at 28th and Charlotte avenues. North Nashville activists also want a “community benefits agreement” with MTA to guarantee employment for those who live in the area on the BRT project, both during and after construction.
In the Tennessean article Paul Ballard, CEO of MTA, pointed out that, “North Nashville has always and continues to enjoy some of the highest frequency and quality of [bus] service in all of Nashville-Davidson County.”
Gilmore said she is “appalled at the differences” between the amenities at stops in North Nashville compared to the other stops along the route.
Gilmore said she would like the group’s concerns to be addressed before Metro applies for transit funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to cover approximately half the estimated $175 million project. Metro would likely apply for federal funding in the fall.
The city’s BRT project, as well as North Nashville economic development, was on the agenda at a Nashville Leadership Council meeting Monday at the North Police Precinct.
In an effort to assist Nashvillians, MTA established a Travel Training program several years ago that teaches people one-on-one or in groups how to ride MTA buses. The agency provides training that helps people feel more comfortable and confident riding transit buses to their destination. The program is available to anyone who wants to learn how to ride MTA buses and is very helpful for students, parents, seniors, and people with and without disabilities. Two travel trainers provide training at homes, in classrooms, community centers, and on buses.
For more information about the Travel Training program, call the MTA’s Travel Training Office (615) 880-3597.
To learn more about transit schedules and fares, go to nashvillemta.org, call Customer Care at (615) 862-5950 or visit the Ticketing and Information Center at Music City Central, 400 Charlotte Avenue.