[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

One small piece of good news:  the terrible parking in front of the old BatteredNFried in 5 points that often blocked the sidewalk will not be coming back after the tornado.  I asked a guy working there when I was walking by.  He basically apologized that it ever existed in the first place and blamed parking mandates.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

On 12/20/2019 at 4:01 PM, bwithers1 said:

@ArongG There was a fair amount of neighbor opposition to this base zone change from CN to MUN-A among neighbors on Fatherland and the next-door neighbor on S 14th Street.  The Planning Commission's Public Comments document contains at least some of those comments and some of my responses https://www.nashville.gov/document/ID/51e34685-7104-40d2-b70f-3e5d4e966d0b/December-12-2019-Comments-received-through-December-12.  One of those neighbors had requested that the original request for MUL-A be changed to MUN-A, and the applicant agreed to do that, but still the neighbor and other neighbors on Fatherland wrote in opposition and came to the hearing to pull the item off of the consent agenda for a full deliberation.  The neighbor on S 14th asked me why the owners couldn't simply put a house there, and I replied that the Community Plan for that parcel is Neighborhood Center, the present base zoning is Commercial, not residential, and that the intent of the MUN-A base zone change is actually to allow residential units.  I also pointed out to the Commissioners during my testimony that going all the way back to the community input that resulted in the MDHA Five Points Redevelopment District land use plan and design guidelines in 1991, the community specifically allowed for Mixed Uses on this parcel and its inclusion in the Commercial Corner subdistrict section of the design guidelines calls for mixed uses with ground-floor retail/commercial with residential above and rear or pull-under parking.  So the same community that has worked on the Conservation Overlay and neighborhood preservation efforts also specifically has called for mixed-uses on this site going back for almost 30 years.  The Commissioners did recommend approval and so the item will now come before the Metro Council at a future public hearing, possibly the February public hearing.

Thanks as always Brett.  I know it is not fun to stand up to a small number of angry neighbors but your reasoning is solid.  I honestly could not believe some of the comments. This lot is literally at the same corner as a large beer market.  This property has been vacant and in disrepair for many years.  I can't believe anyone in the neighborhood wouldn't see an improved use as better than that.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

26 minutes ago, AronG said:

Hi Brett, thanks for the info. Gotta say it seems insane for me that we have to wait for "pedestrian strikes" (aka dead people) to guide our street design, but I guess that's Nashville in 2019. The factors that induce drivers to hit people are super well-known, and as much as we all like to blame Nashville drivers, unfortunately it has much more to do with the pushback you describe from Public Works. Those guys are trapped in a mentality from 30 years ago, when 98% of street design was about maximizing car throughput for suburban commuters. When we can't even put in a crosswalk without it getting smashed up, it's the most blatant possible evidence that we've created a violent safety hazard in our public spaces and need to revisit the design choices that got us there. It's not like this is some kind of mysterious problem; the solutions have been documented repeatedly by organizations like the NACTO (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/). But right now Public Works cares more about easy maintenance than our dozens of dead pedestrians every year, and they continue to ignore modern urban design guidelines and best practices unless there's specific pressure on each project.

I know the systemic problems are out of your control, but I hope you'll use the influence you have on D6 design choices to push things in the right direction. Eastland and Chapel was one example where Public Works started with an incredibly ignorant design, and still only managed to get it about halfway fixed based on pushback. We'll eventually join the rest of the urban areas of the world in designing our intersections for people instead of cars, but until then every project is an opportunity to improve neighborhood safety. 

I agree, Public Works is generally in the habit of ignoring best practices that are well established in other cities.   The overwhelming majority of even new pedestrian and bike infrastructure in Nashville is dangerous by design.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

20 hours ago, grilled_cheese said:

LOL

 

https://www.wsmv.com/news/east-nashville-neighbors-oppose-former-church-becoming-a-bar/article_790407c8-d349-11e9-a1ee-db126cd7c5ad.html

What is the actual controversial issue here?  Is there a zoning change application?  Can neighbors (who don't live on Gallatin) prevent this guy from opening a restaurant on a commercial road?  If there's not a zoning change, I don't see why he should have to have community meetings and bend over backwards.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

14 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

I know a lot of folks will be glad to be rid of a certain Councilperson over there.

We'll see what happens in D5.  I'm afraid that there's a small but very vocal NIMBY mindset that will try to block everything.  We'll see if the new guy can listen to residents but still move things forward that deserve it.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

1 hour ago, bwithers1 said:

Yes, the present base zoning limits the height and floor-area-ratio coverage on the site to being basically what is there now.  I have spoken to one of the owners and they have been looking at updating and reusing the building for retail. 

Thanks Brett.  This is disappointing.  I live on this block and was hoping for something better.  At that intersection, the other 3 corners engage the street and the BM parking lot stands out like a sore thumb.  In the context of the 37206 building and the rest of the area it is very surprising that they wouldn't at least try to get rezoning for an improved use.  I think the neighborhood would be supportive. 

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

18 hours ago, Edgefield D said:

Has anyone heard anything about the old Bill Martin Foods building at 11th and Fatherland? Nashville property records still show the owner as Bill Martin.  I was thinking that it actually sold. 

There's a sign up "For Lease" at Bill Martins.  Does this suggest that there will not be major changes or rezoning?  I would think that big corner lot would be prime for some improvements over the old building.  

One block away...  the church at Fatherland and 10th has a sign up announcing liquidation but to my knowledge has not officially sold yet.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

I'm skeptical of the safety benefit of speed limiting scooters.  If we have the technology to do that then we should use it to slow down cars.  That would have a much greater safety benefit.

[Davidson Southeast: Antioch, Century Farms, East of Brentwood]

Shipping containers turned into affordable housing in Nashville:

https://www.wsmv.com/news/shipping-containers-turned-into-affordable-housing-in-nashville/article_c38ce664-b3e3-11e9-b862-f7434ce4a507.html

“We’re trying to target that missing middle: nursing, police, hospitality worker, the younger crowd that’s moving into Nashville that may not have a lot of possessions and need 600 square feet”

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

All of the new scooter safety rules are all well and good but this is set up for failure unless the city makes it a serious priority to build protected bike lanes.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

My biggest frustration with the scooter debate is that so many people claim to be huge wheelchair advocates and don't want the sidewalks blocked.  That's great, but scooters are the least of the problems faced by wheelchairs in Nashville. They're a nuissance but are easy to move, I move them occasionally when I'm walking and it's no big deal.  I can't move utility poles, cars, broken sidewalks, etc.  If all of these folks are really such passionate ADA cheerleaders then after we ban scooters they should be screaming for more ADA sidewalks and ramps and for ADA detours at construction sites.  That would make a way bigger impact for wheelchairs than outlawing scooters.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

1 hour ago, Nash_12South said:

I'll admit to being a curmudgeon on this issue, but what a crock. The scooter companies all act like these are brand new problems never before encountered in any other of the myriad of cities they operate. This whole process is simply buying them time to tamp down local opposition and continue to operate. How will anyone verify how many scooters are actually removed from the roads? How is progress gauged? Will local police take on anymore of a roll in enforcement? I think reducing the number of scooters will make the problems appear less serious and they will declare victory with little concrete actually being done to address the issues.

I do think with time you can educate Nashville residents on how to operate and deal with scooters. Unfortunately the vast majority of users seem to be  tourists who will arrive ignorant of the rules and wouldn't follow them anyway.

Apologies for not being progressive.

The problem is not education.  Education will have little safety benefit.  The safety problems with our streets existed long before scooters and will continue even if scooters are banned.  The way to make scooters safe is to put in protected bike lanes so the scooters are not competing with cars or pedestrians for space.  Reducing scooter numbers and slowing down scooters are not safety measures.  If Nashville was serious about street safety they would do something substantive to reduce the number of cars and to calm traffic to slow down cars. 

[Davidson West: Bellevue, Bordeaux, Green Hills, MetroCenter, Nations, N Nashville]

18 minutes ago, Andrew_3289 said:

My two cents - When will an opportunity to buy ~800 acres of land within a 10 mile radius of downtown for under 10 million dollars present itself again? In the immediate future, not a great look given the budget issues the city has but sometimes you cant pass up a good opportunity when it comes.

I agree with Greg.  If this is just a real estate investment then it shouldn't come from greenway funding.  Greenways should be accessible to the most number of people possible, ideally reachable without a car.  Greenways have the most value when there is connectivity to safe bike routes and this fails that test.

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

Anyone know anything about 930 McFerrin?

http://maps.nashville.gov/MPC/2019SP-027-001_plan.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1elbAIP6h-bXrhJvanaInjDsEsEzm4NenFUko5gR7PTNyLzRNkewZuugQ

Looks reasonable enough to me and the SP prohibits short term rentals.

There's one neighbor on the warpath against this so I'll be curious to see what happens...

 

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

So I got a notice that apparently one of my neighbors (near 5 points) is applying to construct a single family house without building sidewalks or paying into the sidewalk fund (124 S 12th St, permit #20190018835).

I think that there is already a sidewalk.  How does this work?  Are they supposed to build a new one?

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

Mark Sanders is applying for a zoning change to mixed use for the parking lot behind the Local Taco on Fatherland.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

We "discussed" the Tennessean article in June arguing for more roads and against transit.

It took some time, but the Tennessean Opinion pages have now run my piece in response, which is mostly about induced demand:

Tennessee cannot build its way out of traffic congestion

http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/09/02/tennessee-cannot-build-its-way-out-traffic-congestion/71545486/?hootPostID=50c730f75f5e75ee7d52374050910f09

 

The word space was too short to get into specific options of BRT, light rail, etc.  My main point was that "free" highways cost everyone and distort supply and demand.  I did briefly advocate for congestion based pricing in the form of HOT lanes similar to Atlanta and other cities.  The Tennessean feed turn that into:

Tolls as high as $10? A Vanderbilt scientist thinks it could help solve @NashTheTraffic woes

 

I think it's clear in the end of my letter, but in case there was any confusion, my science work is in biology and has nothing to do with transportation in any way.

 

-Kevin Erreger

37206dude

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

I've complained above about the stretch of the new Davidson St bicycle path starting by the stadium. I sent my pictures and an explanation to my newly elected city council rep Brett Withers and he said he will look into it. I skip over that in the video below.

Once you get past the very narrow first part, overall the design is not horrible.  They could have given bikes a little more width and had less parking and/or car lane width, but this is now the best bike lane in Nashville.

The main issue I see is how difficult it will be to branch off any connectivity to other safe bike routes.  The adjacent "Shelby Hills" neighborhood has mostly narrow streets and big hills.  5th is included in Nashville Next as a future bike lane.  I also hope the Cayce redevelopment will make the neighborhood more bike friendly.  For now, 14th will be a popular route to access Davidson from East Nashville, and is home to much ongoing and planned land development.

Here is a video of the bike lane along Davidson and then up 14th to Shelby to show what the connection to the neighborhood is like:

 

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

New bike lane on East side of riverfront, Davidson St.  

The bike lane is a 2-way "cycle track" on the West side of street, but it's built in the gutter, not acceptable. There is much wasted width elsewhere.   The paint needs to be redone to give bike riders a lane outside of the gutter.  Many parent tow kid trailers here, they need some width to the bike lane.  No excuses are acceptable to configure a new street pattern like this with so much wasted space.

 

The East side of the street has a ~9' buffer that looks like the old 1 way bike lane northbound.  This can be taken out completely if there is 2 way bike traffic on the West side.  Also, 10' for car lanes is more than is necessary in this context.  This is a high bike traffic, relatively low car traffic road along a park. 9' car lanes would be safer and more appropriate here anyway.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

Thanks to all who chimed in.

I'm glad bike lanes are getting more attention in the transportation community.

I did not intend my cartoon to be a specific design.  That walkway must be at least 15' wide and I would leave it up to a pro to figure out the details.  There must be a way to use some of that space even if it means changing the type of landscaping in the buffer.  Some cities have incorporated permeable concrete into bike lanes but I don't think those were in such a dense area.

I stand by my impression that the bike sidewalk is an inappropriate design downtown.  I can see it on 28/31, but it's not going to work out well on 1st Ave where pedestrian traffic is high.  FHWA guidelines clearly spell out how to differentiate a bike lane built above street grade from an adjacent sidewalk.  Those guidelines are not being followed and it looks like Division St will be the same design. 

Lack of connectivity is a major issue.  If Nashville used cheaper forms of design for protected bike lanes than an elevated sidewalk, then they could cover more distance and connect the big projects.  Without connections, short stretches of safe bike lanes do not provide full ROI.

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

If you agree with me that the bike sidewalk design that Nashville has used on 28/31 Connector, 11th Ave Gulch, and 1st Ave is not a good design, then consider touching base with someone in metro about Division St because they are about to build another one there.

http://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Capital-Projects/Division-Street-Extension.aspx

 

The Nashville-style bike sidewalk does not fit guidelines from FHWA or informal guidelines from NATCO or the "Green Lane" project.  It also does not match other cities.  The design is both expensive and lousy.  Experienced bike riders stick to the full traffic lane rather than riding on a bike sidewalk with no distinction from the ped sidewalk.  Children, tourists, etc will not ride on bike facilities that are not connected to other safe bike facilities.

Nashville should stop building incredibly expensive 0.3 mi sidewalks and instead focus on cheap low profile protection for existing lanes.  Note the price for "raised bikeway" compared to others here:

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/14-ways-to-make-bike-lanes-better-the-infographic

 

 

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

 

Applaud you for taking up this cause.   If any of us can help, let us know.       

 

Most important is to talk to city council this fall.

At least Barry (I'm not sure about Fox) has committed to consolidating into a single department of transportation.  To me, if this happens then there needs to be a competitive outside search for new leadership.  Someone from a city with an established record of success and innovation.  I wouldn't even consider Nashville to be late adapters, we are missing an entire generation of innovation in bike facilities.  The new Davidson St path is the best thing so far, but it's basically a greenway without connections to neighborhoods and is of limited value.  

1st Ave is new and also a disaster.  They applied the 11th st design there, but Riverfront is a ton more pedestrians than even the Gulch.  The design should have been more like in the fhwa guidelines:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/separated_bikelane_pdg/page08.cfm

Compare Nashville to Cambridge, Mass:

 

-Kevin Erreger

[email protected]

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

I have no background in engineering. I'm an idiot who rides bikes and I saw the problem in 2013.

KVB is a disaster in current context.  There is now a (poorly engineered) bike lane along 1st up to KVB.  There's the riverfront huge project and Davidson path from East Nashville.  There's the $18M Gulch bridge next year.  Guess what connects them all?  KVB.

There's so much with it's fixable.  Ideal would be a safe bike lane all the way from 8th to 1st, but that may be asking too much.  There's a work around if you can make a safe lane 8th to 5th and then through walk-of-fame, symphony, to get to ped bridge..  any thoughts?

 

[The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread]

OK, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate thread, so please let me know.

I'm a bike guy.  I have a cargo bike I haul my kids, groceries, etc. on and I almost never drive a car.

I have read up on guidelines and precedents in other cities and Nashville is doing a shameful job on bike facilities.  They are expensive, yet still engineered poorly.  Much like roads (or tracks) bike lanes are most valuable on a connected grid.  Nothing in Nashville is connected and there are no plans to fix that any time soon.  I have some serious documentation of all of these issues I will share with some new council members this fall. One other thing I am doing is making some videos to depict the problem to folks who do not ride bikes.  Here are two of them:

 

 

 

 

[Davidson East: East Nashville, Inglewood, Madison, Donelson, Hermitage, Old Hickory]

A question for you East End boys.

 

Does anyone know what is going on the SE corner of 10th and Fatherland? Land is cleared and equipment on site, but no sign.

http://www.nashville.gov/Portals/0/SiteContent/MHZC/docs/2015 Meetings/4 April/SR 301 S 10th Street and 1004 Fatherland Street.pdf

 

 

 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2015/7/28/november_finish_eyed_for_east_nashville_project

Three-building Fatherland Corner to be located near Five Points

Published July 28, 2015 by William Williams

East Nashville-based boutique developer Mark Sanders is targeting a November finish for his under-construction Fatherland Corner project.

To be located at the southeast corner of the intersection of South 10th and Fatherland streets and three blocks from the Five Points epicenter, the approximately $1.4 million project will include three two-story buildings, with a collective approximately 8,500 square feet of retail/office/service space.