Sixty-five percent of Nashville residents voted in favor of the Choose How You Move referendum that provides dedicated funding for transportation.
Dedicated revenue will make the city more competitive for federal transportation grants.
The referendum is funded by a half penny sales tax. The average family would spend $6 per month with those living within a quarter mile of a transit stop saving $200 annually on transportation.
The Choose How You Move plan focuses on safety improvements across the transportation system, upgrading to smart signals at intersections, doubling the hours of high-frequency daily service with crosstown and express routes, 86 miles of new or upgraded sidewalks, and a collection of 12 neighborhood transit centers.
Nashville Metro Council passed the $3.1 billion plan unanimously before it could be placed on the ballot. Eight-four percent of residents supported putting a transportation referendum on the ballot, according to a Vanderbilt poll, while 90 percent agreed that investing in city-wide public transportation is an important future priority, according to Imagine Nashville.
The cost of transportation for the average Nashville household surpasses the average cost of housing, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with Nashvillians spend $1,000 monthly to own, lease, gas, park, and maintain a new car, according to AAA estimates.
Following the referendum’s passage, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced the first three administrative steps for implementation of the plan.
“With passage of Choose How You Move we are moving from talking and planning to doing,” O’Connell said. “We built the program from ideas and plans generated by our community, for the benefit of the community, and implementation will include continued partnerships with our residents and elected officials. We’re ready to get to work. Let’s go.”
A job posting for the Choose How You Move chief program officer position was published on the Metro Human Resources website on Wednesday. The chief program officer will be tasked with leading the timely and successful implementation of the program, the largest collection of capital projects in Metro’s history, and will coordinate with departments and private partners. The position will report directly to the mayor.
An advisory committee will engage Nashvillians during program implementation and will include Technical and Citizens Advisory Committee members and others who met throughout the pre-election process and created the program.
The advisory committee will provide at least quarterly updates to the Transportation and Infrastructure, Budget and Finance, and Planning Committees of Metro Council.
The mayor’s office will draft legislation outlining continued engagement with the Metro Council regarding program implementation and financial reporting. Work will be in collaboration with Sean Parker, Metro Council Transportation and Infrastructure chairman, and Delishia Porterfield, Budget and Finance chairwoman.
Metro and the Department of Finance’s procurement team will hold informational sessions with
vendors that are interested in helping implement the program. The sessions will cover the best ways to get involved and how to do business with Metro.
Metro will issue procurements that will leverage partnerships to execute capital improvements.