Join us Wednesday, January 9 at 6:00pm! Music City Riders United members will gather outside the downtown bus station to release MCRU’s 20-page Bus Route Report Card study.

Now is the time to demand city and state government address racial and economic inequity in Nashville’s public transit! Riders will highlight their biggest concerns, including the need to expand routes and hours of operation, benches and shelters, and protected crosswalks in working-class neighborhoods historically neglected by WeGo/MTA, Metro Nashville Public Works, Tennessee Department of Transportation, and the city’s elected officials. The press conference will release grades, from B to D+, on 9 routes and point to unequal funding for bus lines.  

We will ask why routes like the Golden Valley (North Nashville) and Antioch Express lines are treated differently than routes feeding Belle Meade and Midtown. Why low-wage hospitality workers who keep the tourist industry running cannot access public transportation to get home from work at night. Why pedestrian deaths and injuries continue to rise in working-class Black and immigrant communities while neighborhoods like 12 South and Midtown get improved crosswalks and other pedestrian safety infrastructure.

Music City Riders United will present several policy and funding proposals to immediately begin to address these problems, because every step toward transit equity will chip away at the rising economic and racial re-segregation of our city.

Will you join us Wednesday?

In Unity,

Angelique Johnson & Kutonia Smith