On Wednesday, 35 public bus riders and their supporters gathered for the public release of the 20-page Bus Route Report Card study. The event coincided with the launch of a long-term campaign by Music City Riders United for racial and economic equity in Nashville’s public transit (check out the report here).

The Bus Route Report Card is a first-of-its-kind study in which the experts, 619 WeGo/MTA bus riders on 36 routes, were surveyed between May and October of 2018. Music City Riders United asked riders to give grades between A and F on 10 standards of quality public transportation. It then tied rider responses to research exposing gross failures to address decades of inequitable public infrastructure development and funding public transportation primarily used by working-class residents.  

Findings

The Bus Route Report Cards revealed these critical findings:

• Bus routes earned grades ranging from B to D+
• The two worst routes identified by riders, Antioch Express Route 38X and Golden Valley Route 41, service low-income, predominantly people of color neighborhoods (14-38% poverty rates and 47-79% people of color)
• The highest scoring routes service several of the wealthiest and overwhelmingly white neighborhoods in Nashville. The West End/Bellevue Route 5 and West End/White Bridge Route 3 scored B and C+ respectively (8% poverty rate and 80-89% white)
• Riders identified system-wide deficiencies with public transit service

All 10 areas of concern earned Cs. The worst problems identified by riders include:

• Infrequent or no bus service on weekends.
• Hours of operation are too short. Buses do not run early enough in the morning or late enough at night.
• Insufficient benches and shelters along routes.
• Lack of crosswalks at or near bus stops.

Bus Riders Speak Out

During last night’s press conference, several riders spoke out.

A. Randolph explained, “I ride my bike and take the bus every day. One of my issues is trying to get across the street because often there are no crosswalks, especially ones with lights to tell cars they need to stop for pedestrians to cross the street. It becomes dangerous. Two years ago we had 23 pedestrians killed in Nashville, and last year the number hit 24 pedestrians killed. That’s not okay.”

“I attend Pearl-Cohn High School and ride the 41 (Golden Valley) to get there,” said Diamond Ford. “The bus isn’t there when I get out of school, so I need to wait 45 minutes to an hour before it arrives.”

Kutonia Smith, an organizer with Music City Riders United, placed riders’ frustrations in a broader framework of inequity: “Many of the bus stops are in low income neighborhoods and are very dangerous to get to. They are in ditches or on the side of heavy-traffic roads with no sidewalks or crosswalks. It’s especially hard for people with disabilities to get to those bus stops,” she said. “Bus stops in wealthy neighborhoods have benches, shelters, crosswalks, stop lights, bike lanes and more. They often don’t have that in the low income neighborhoods. Many of the bus stops featured in our report were near where pedestrians were killed simply trying to cross the street. The top dangerous streets are controlled by TDOT and Nashville Public Works.”

Recommendations In Report

These issues require urgent action from the Metro Council, WeGo, Metro Nashville Public Works, and the Tennessee Department of Transportation. We urge that:

• Metro Council dedicate increased funding to expansion of bus service to 24 hours per day, increase bus frequency on weekends, and expand service hours and frequency in growing working-class neighborhoods outside the urban core.
• Metro Council increase funding to Public Works in the next fiscal budget cycle with funds specifically earmarked for building protected crosswalks at every bus stop, prioritizing the most dangerous stops in working-class and people of color neighborhoods.
• Public Works and TDOT present a plan and schedule through the end of 2020 to build protected crosswalks at every bus stop, prioritizing working-class and people of color areas.
• WeGo create a comprehensive plan to build shelters at all stops, with priority on high-ridership stops in historically neglected neighborhoods.

At the press event, Sam Schaefer concluded, “the state of public transit in Nashville is not acceptable in the form that it currently exists. It’s not equitably serving our riders, and it’s not serving any of them well enough. These are not abstract problems with faceless people; these are real things that can be solved by taking action.”

We will not rest until city government takes tangible steps to address worsening economic and racial segregation in Nashville. Nashville Metro Council, WeGo, Public Works and TDOT have been put on notice.

Check out the Bus Route Report Card here.