by Andy Martin The May 1st County Primary vote on the $8.9 billion transit tax referendum is one for the record books. 123,963 votes: 44,636 FOR and 79,327 AGAINST. For reference, the last County Primary May 6, 2014 had 38,804 total votes. What happened? In a rush to scoop the story every major Nashville news organization has opined on the results with little reflection. Here are the real reasons why the referendum failed in a landslide. We already have transit This will come as a shock to out of state meddlers like StreetsBlog USA, CityLab, and the National League of Cities, but Nashville has transit. Likewise, based on the convulsions from the mayor (Nashville “will fail” if the referendum does not pass), metro council, and local media, you would think even locals don’t know this. The Nashville Metro Transit Authority budget is $80 million. We have buses, shuttles (AccessRide and airport shuttles), private/public partnerships, ride sharing, car and van pooling, BRT lite (non-dedicated lanes), the Music City Star, and bike paths. According to MTA there are roughly 10 million riders (or rides) per year. One wonders what MTA CEO Steve Bland thinks when Nashville leaders say we “do nothing.”…
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