37206dude

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:

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.

I've been talking to Brett about this one a little bit. There's a long story here that I won't get into yet.... but in the metro map there is a (theoretical?) alley that looks like it cuts through the existing parking. How will that impact the development if at all?

I am disheartened by talk of widening freeways. They are the problem, not the solution. I am hopeful that in my lifetime, as the freeways crumble and become more and more expensive to patch, we will see more elevated freeways come down so we can begin to stitch back together the neighborhoods they destroyed. SF did it with the Embarcadero. Seattle is currently tearing down the Alaskan Viaduct. http://www.preservenet.com/freeways/FreewaysEmbarcadero.html http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/06/how-seattle-is-reclaiming-its-waterfront-from-an-elevated-urban-highway/397325/ They probably won't be successful, but the political movement in Dallas to tear down the 345 has some steam. http://www.anewdallas.com/ Interstates are barriers to communities, at the very least we should move aggressively towards capping them with livable space, but ultimately they need to come down. Sprawl has been devastating. We need to focus on smarter development to begin to reverse that damage.

This was just a "friendly" exhibition match that was not part of the Gold Cup at all. The first gold cup game is tomorrow Tuesday. Despite the solid advanced ticket sales, the stadium was grossly unprepared. It took more than an hour in line to get through the gate. Typical concessions lines ran about 45 minutes and were operating with staff numbers well below capacity. The one we went to had one register open and a line of at least 50 people waiting. Nashville is a great location, draws from a pretty wide region. Not only GA, AL, KY, but decent numbers from as far as Indy or STL. Nashville is also a great destination, many people came from much further than that and stayed for the weekend to visit.

EJ Boyer (NBJ): Hyped-up condo sales event falls short of 'unrealistic' expectations http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2015/07/hyped-up-condo-sales-event-falls-short-of.html “My expectations are unrealistic and my wife told me that — it didn’t sell out,” McNeilage said.

Yeah, I agree with you. My main problem still is that his title was "better roads" but his article was mostly just about "more roads". I wrote a pretty harsh email to the Tennessean about this piece. Mr Daniels himself took my criticism very graciously but did not seem to have informed himself well on this topic before writing about it.

I found this article to be really hard to understand: Without better roads in Nashville, transit options will fail Frank Daniels III, [email protected] http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/columnists/frank-daniels/2015/06/18/without-better-roads-nashville-transit-options-will-fail/28896141/ I think he makes a number of big mistakes. Despite the title his thesis is (in addition to enjoying time alone in his truck) not about improving road design but is that we need "additional lanes and more roads" Managing road space is not about transit vs cars, it's about how many car trips people take and how far those car trips are. Everyone has mandatory trips but the discretionary ones add up over of a population of drivers. His remedy of building more road capacity (in addition to no clear explanation of how this would support transit) would have the predictable effect of inducing more demand for discretionary car trips and increasing congestion with resulting negative impact on time lost in traffic and environmental damage from more idling cars. Whichever road has the new lane capacity will immediately fill up with traffic but none of the other roads on the network have been widened to accommodate this new volume and traffic congestion increases everywhere. The examples of this are too numerous to list but induced demand is so well established that it is a fundamental rule of traffic engineering that has to be the primary consideration in managing road capacity.

From the EN google group: Join Peter Westerholm and the project designers for 17th and Fatherland to ask questions and get information about the future use of the church. We will meet on Wednesday, June 24 at 5:30 at the Shelby Community Center. ______________________ This is the church across from The Post near Olive & Sinclair Chocolate

I do a lot of advocacy in various ways for safer streets. I have two children 3 and 5 and we walk, bike, stroller, red wagon, etc all over EN including through Edgefield to get to East Park and some of the businesses nearby such as Yeast Nashville and Bagel Face. I bike commute on Shelby and am aware of what that street is like. I lobby public works often. Most of the time it goes nowhere. I did get them to fix the sidewalk on Fatherland near 13th and the storm grate in the bike lane on Shelby near 5th. If you have the leverage of an organized neighborhood group you may have a stronger position. Keep the pressure on Public Works, talk to your council rep. Carol Norton also has a lot of respect and connections with public works and has been instrumental in getting things done. I fight for walk/bike safety, smarter street design, and safer traffic laws just about every day in all kinds of different ways. I don't see how this problem at all precludes adding more homes. In fact, one of the best things we can do for walking safety is to get more people out walking around and make it part of the normal culture. For something like a problem with the crosswalk light you can report it here: https://www.nashville.gov/Public-Works/Forms/Request-Customer-Service.aspx It may also speed up repairs to report to the city council rep who is currently Peter Westerholm. If you want to see traffic calming on Shelby I am all for it, including modifying the street itself and/or speed limit but that is going to be a long range uphill battle. If the neighborhood really gets behind it and you communicate to Peter what you want then the chances improve.

Let's all remember to be respectful because I think we can have a positive discussion and find some common ground. For me, the comparison to Atlanta and LA is relevant. I lived in Atlanta in the 90s for 6 years. Atlanta in the last few years has been doing some great things (HOT lanes, street car, beltline rails-to-trails project, etc) but they spent decades digging themselves a huge hole that will be difficult to climb out of. Atlanta is the real cautionary tale for Nashville because if you look at the highway congestion we are becoming more like Atlanta every day. Atlanta and LA are among the worst examples of poor planning. The main problem is low density sprawl that results in long highway travels for many everyday trips. The way to avoid becoming Atlanta is to build high quality infill that gives people the opportunity to live, work, and play locally. The emphasis on living local in the neighborhood and the positive environmental impact that comes along with that lifestyle, to me are very consistent with the character that makes East Nashville great.

Hello, I live very close by in East End. I'm sorry if I painted a broad brush and was unfair. I find most people are very reasonable but there are a very small number in EN who seem to vocally oppose just about everything. I agree it is important for the community to set standards and guidelines for development. I only want each proposal to be evaluated on it's own merits. I am still waiting to see the design details, but is there a specific concern about this 10th/Russell proposal? I live very close to 10th St and I am quite pleased with how nicely it is filling in. There has been some very underused space there for a long time. This is a street connecting 2 vibrant commercial clusters. Filling in more density is appropriate in that context. Kevin Erreger 1106 Fatherland St

MHZC is today... Do you think it will actually meet opposition there? If so then it's important for everyone here to voice support if you do feel the plan is appropriate. At this first stage there is no design consideration so just a matter of scale and use (all residential). MHZC: [email protected] 2015SP-070-001 10th/Russell 210 South 10th Street Project Lead: Robin Zeigler, [email protected] I went ahead and also cc'd planning: [email protected]

Yes, that's it. Thanks Brett. What do you think of the 10th/Russell project? Anyone else have any thoughts? I don't know what the reasoning was for the change but District 6 rep Peter W told me the original plan was for mixed use but now is residential only. I would have preferred some mixed use there.

I just got the notice for Planning Commission hearing for 10th/Russell (church lawn property directly across the street from the Farrow, the one where the farmer's market used to be) 2015SP-070-001 R8 to SP-MU June 25 4PM Sonny West CC 700 2nd Ave Can anyone find and post some details of the proposal? I still cannot figure out planning's website. I am concerned there may be some of the usual curmudgeony opposition to any density. If this is a solid plan I would like to at least email my support and I will try to make the meeting....

Change of topics away from bikes... I posted this on the West/Nations page since that's where this particular project is and asked there for feedback about that specific zoning request, but here I would like a more general discussion of mandated parking for commercial development. 51st and Illinois development sounds like it is getting resistance for potential impact on traffic and parking. http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2015/05/traffic-parking-worries-delay-nations-mixed-use.html The developer in this case is Michael Kenner and I agree with his take is: "Do we continue to design to the problem, which is traffic and parking, or do we design for the solution?" This reminded me of an old blog post from Chad Grout about parking mandates: http://urbangrout.com/east-nashville-zoning-lose-the-parking/ Kenner and Grout have the same personal profit motive here but I genuinely believe they are correct. I really don't see any argument for it. At a time when we are struggling to give people some choices about transportation all this does is force a private business to subsidize the one choice that is most destructive for the city: "everyone bring your own automobile wherever you go." We don't say: if your business is a certain size then you must build a bus stop shelter or a Bcycle station. I'm not in favor of that either, but if you are going to mandate something I would actually argue for those kind of mandates rather than mandating parking. I want to be clear that I am not in favor of stopping any developer from building as much parking as they want, I just don't want it to be mandated. If free street parking fills up, to me that's good. Empty space is wasted space. If there is a very strong market demand for parking, then someone will choose to devote their private land for a parking deck and charge a lot of money for it. I really trust the free market to sort these things out very efficiently and parking mandates distort supply and demand both for land use and for transportation options in ways which have a negative impact on the city.

This post maybe could also go in the transportation problems thread but I put it here for now... It sounds like this development is meeting some resistance: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2015/05/traffic-parking-worries-delay-nations-mixed-use.html The project, being developed by Michael Kenner, of MiKeN Development LLC, was scheduled for a vote yesterday at the Metro Board of Zoning Appeals, but a letter of opposition from Council Member Buddy Baker, who represents the neighborhood, has convinced Kenner to defer the vote for at least two meetings to bolster more support. Is there some specific information available about this project? Did anyone weigh in to the Zoning Board or Mr Baker about this? Who exactly is opposing this and what are the specific issues? Like I said if the issue is parking requirements, maybe I should move this to the transportation problems thread. I could write my own long rant on parking mandates and the economics of private and public space but this (not very recent) blog post from Chad Grout does a pretty good job. Even though it was specifically written about East Nashville, the same principles apply elsewhere in Nashville: East Nashville Zoning: Lose the Parking http://urbangrout.com/east-nashville-zoning-lose-the-parking/

I really was joking, but sure I would enjoy sharing the bike commute. I usually leave home (7-7:30ish, but sometimes a little later) and back leaving Vandy around 4:30. I sometimes do come in from Woodland St bridge to Union to Church, which would be less out of your way. The morning is way easier for traffic and better for a social ride. We could meet at bagel face or yeast nashville in the am if that would work some time. Anyone would be welcome. That map was approximate, I've gone a few different routes on the way home. Simplest is straight down Demonbruen either to the ped bridge or up 5th or 4th to KVB. The ped bridge is easiest traffic-wise, hardest stepness wise, but also requires a left on Shelby. The bike lane on KVB is scary because many cars turn right hooking through the bike lane without looking for bikes, although if you are willing to take that risk you can bypass a lot of slow traffic. The KVB bridge bike lane is in the gutter and usually filled with debris so I do take the traffic lane if I go over the road bridge. Either way, I take Shelby over I-24 which itself is a little hairy. The only real alternative is looping around Davidson, but that's too far out of the way. I do ride the traffic circle to KVB sometimes. The traffic circle to KVB is fairly intense on a bike, you need to get into the left lane within the circle and cross in front of cars waiting to enter the circle. I have some serious blinkers to make myself as visible as possible. I've never seen another bike there. Will, do you have occassion to ride the KVB traffic circle?

Sorry rookzie, I don't think I phrased my post well, I meant no ill will to anyone. As I said my main point is that it's very hard to understand what it's like if you've not ridden there yourself.

This is true, but it's often a bad idea. If you are going very slow it's fine some places, but at any reasonable speed the sidewalk is not well suited for bikes the visibility is too poor. Even when my little kids riding bikes on the sidewalk I have to be constantly vigilant for driveways etc

Just to be clear I was joking about all this. My point was that unless you actually bike in the city during rush hour it's not easy to really understand what this is like from the point of view of the bike rider. I do bike commute from Vanderbilt to East Nashville but I was approximating the locations to major intersections.

Those of you who tagged that you liked Will's post, rookzie, Vrtigo and Nashvilletitans like this I cordially invite you to ride with me in the city some time. We can act like vehicles together, forgo all dedicated bike lanes, and ride in the full traffic lanes. I even have a Bcycle card you can use. Will, feel free to come along. This is my regular route around 5PM. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/465+21st+Ave+S,+Nashville,+TN+37212/Woodland+St+%26+S+11th+St+WB/@36.1539742,-86.7640503,15z/data=!4m24!4m23!1m15!1m1!1s0x88646696f48fe3d7:0xbe099fe9531d62c0!2m2!1d-86.8003339!2d36.1445701!3m4!1m2!1d-86.7921076!2d36.1490195!3s0x88646691e30bfb47:0xd14531a3bdcad366!3m4!1m2!1d-86.781269!2d36.156706!3s0x8864665f9035feeb:0x4f8109c87569030f!1m5!1m1!1s0x886467d2ebaeee95:0x20e57263fd8f90ad!2m2!1d-86.750254!2d36.177293!3e0 When I see how the streets and bike lanes are in Nashville it seems to fit the general principle that when you design something that you would never use yourself it often ends up being crap.

Bike on pedestrian accidents are relatively rare and nowhere near as severe in outcome as auto-bike or auto-ped. Cyclists are generally traveling much slower than cars, have a clear view in front of them, and are cognizant of people since they themselves are so vulnerable. It may be an inconvenience and slow some people down a little, but joggers in the bike lane are not among the serious road safety problems we need to address. If you are actually worried about the effect of bikes on pedestrian safety then build safe bike routes so people stop riding on the sidewalk out of fear of being killed in the road.

Bike lanes will always get relatively low use if they are poorly designed and also there is no enforcement by police to keep users safe. That's where we are at now. I outlined it above but briefly if it's not: safe AND where people need to go AND connected to a network of safe bike routes, the use will always be limited and we will never be getting optimal efficiency from our roads. To crack that cycle, we need protected lanes, but that's not enough. They need to be on useful routes and they need to be linked together. That's what it will take. If you do that then use will increase dramatically. The city and the chamber keep talking a big game about this but so far there is not much there there. They can build that fantastic Gulch-SoBro bridge, it will be nice unto itself, but for transportation if there is not a protected lane from Sobro down towards the riverfront then we are missing a big opportunity to link together the big ticket projects that are currently in the works (11th Ave, SoBro bridge ///////////// Riverfront Park, Davidson Path). Linking these projects together will add value to them, leaving them disconnected is a lost opportunity and lost value for our infrastructure investments. As far as joggers in the bike lane I really don't see a big problem. Sidewalks are really not suitable for running on, the surface is too unforgiving and just kills your knees. All surface streets are shared routes between cars, peds, and bikes. If there are joggers in the bike lane, then bikes use the traffic lane, and cars slow down a little.

I'm a 38 year old professional with kids. I'm generally pretty risk averse. I'm doing everything I can to try to make biking safer in Nashville. I have mirrors, lights, and all kinds of gear to try to make myself insanely visible. I make the best effort I can to ride as to be visible and predictable. I ride because it takes me ~25-30 min including bad weather, CMAs, whatever. I park my bike at my building. I don't pay for parking or gas or much for car maintenance. I get a little bit of activity and fresh air before sitting at a desk most of the day. On the rare times I have to drive it takes 30-60 min (or more if it's raining or there's any events), including the time it takes to walk to the parking deck etc. It costs all the money I describe and I'm stuck in traffic a little pollution making box. I'm making a transportation decision that actually has a positive impact on others as far as traffic congestion, air quality, etc so at the very least we shouldn't actively discourage this behavior.