Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said not only does Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum appear to be illegal under the IMPROVE Act, but the transit plan’s overall vision of commuters suddenly switching over to public transport is “absurd.”
O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, called “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last week, which would be funded through a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax.
The mayor’s plan includes miles of new sidewalks, bus stops, transit centers, parking facilities, and upgraded traffic signals.
Davidson County voters are expected to vote on the referendum to either approve or dismiss the funding source on the November ballot. O’Connell argues this is permitted under the IMPROVE Act, a bill that passed the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017 and permits local governments to seek a dedicated funding source via surcharge to support mass transportation projects through local referendum.
However, Cunningham pointed out that the IMPROVE Act only allows for increasing taxes through a voter referendum for mass transit systems – such as bus routes – and not for installing simple projects such as sidewalks and traffic signals.
“What is legal are the words of the bill. The legislative intent was very clear. This was for mass transit and specific mass transit projects,” Cunningham explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“What [O’Connell’s] done is he’s put a lot of elements in this plan which are not mass transit… There are many elements in this plan that are simply illegal…Let’s hope that we can find a good attorney that will challenge this in court on behalf of Nashville taxpayers, because it needs to be challenged. This is not legal…It has to be for shared passenger public transit,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham called the plan’s price tag of $3.1 billion in initial costs and $111 million in recurring costs “absurd,” noting that only approximately 1-3 percent of commuters take buses.
“It’s absurd. If you look at the most optimistic estimates of how many commuters take buses, it’s between 1 percent and 3 percent,” Cunningham said. “The 97 percent plus, but it’s probably more like 99 percent, of people who’ve never ridden the bus, who never will, they’re not going to magically transform and hop on these buses. It’s an absurd idea and it’s crazy to invest this kind of money in this technology,” Cunningham said, noting how a 30-year investment in buses – an “antiquated form of transportation” – is not practical as technology among transportation is rapidly evolving.
“Buses are a very antiquated form of transportation – the early 20th century – and one of the main problems with buses is crime. If you go onto YouTube and you search for bus attacks, stabbing, shootings – there are three or four that happen every day,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham also addressed the underlying agenda of the transit plan, explaining how the push for public transportation is part of the “ultimate goal” of “getting people out of their cars.”
“It’s so typical of the lefties and their mind frame. They have this green fantasy where everybody gets out of their cars, and believe me, that is also one of the ultimate goals here is to get people out of their cars, which is an absurd goal for Nashville, Tennessee. But that really is the vision; the fantasy the greenies have in their minds is that this is going to get people out of their cars. There is absolutely no evidence that if you build it, they will come. Other transit agencies have tried this. They’ve tried to build these huge bus systems with the hope that people would magically transform and start using the bus system. It has not happened anywhere. If anything, it has proven that the Uber and Lyft model is a model that people like – Individual, safe, convenient transport where you get in a car, you go from one point to another,” Cunningham said.
“It’s just absurd to stake our future on 20th, really 19th-century transportation when in fact, we’ve got Waymo which has self-driving cars in four cities. There are hundreds of these companies now that are working on autonomous vehicles and that’s certainly going to be a part of the future right now. It’s just crazy to have a 30-year plan based on 19th-century technology. It’s just absurd,” Cunningham added.
Watch the interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell.
I’m a researcher and analyst and did a lot of research about Mass Transit when they tried to get Regional Mass Transit approved. They lose HUGE money. In 2018 (before COVID) Denver lost $600 million a year and fares only covered 7.5% of expenses.
Even the train to Lebanon (Music City Star) loses a lot of money and has very little impact on traffic. After 17 years of operation it still loses $1 million a year and its fares only cover 30% of operating expenses (the loss is much higher if you include debt service and replacement reserves). At most it only takes 600 cars off the roads. If you study the Music City Star projections, you will find that they are very misleading. A commuter who rides the train to and from work 250 days a year is counted as 500 “passengers”. That’s right – they call one person 500 passengers!!!! So, 500 commuters riding to and from work are called 250,000 “passengers” (500 x 2 trips a day x 250 days a year).
Across the US there’s a pattern – revenues end up being half the “projection” and costs end up being much higher. Davidson County already has BY FAR the highest debt of any county in TN. The worst mistake they can make is just saying “we need it” or thinking it will greatly decrease traffic. They use the term “death spiral” – that happens a lot. In Denver they asked people “Why don’t you ride it?” The answer was > “I get where I need to go faster and cheaper by driving.” Will people ride it if COVID comes back?
It makes sense around the Downtown area – they should have buses every 10 minutes between 6 am and 8 pm.
Ben Cunningham is a Tennessee treasure.
Not only is the plan absurd, they are planning on buying up land along these routes in order to build low income housing. Their goal is to make everyone dependent on the government for everything they have in life and that’s ultimately what Democrats want a socialist state.
It’s a very devious way to spread low-income housing – they did it in L.A.
Is it true that people making less that $48,000 a year ride free? That would include all the Homeless and the illegals.
Ben Cantrell, as usual, is correct. This is a “boondoggle”! Lots of “stuff” added to this deal! Vote no, save your tax money to pay for your necessities.
the absurd part is thinking it will only cost 3.1bn.
try double.
also, THEY are the ones ‘choosing how you move’. they’ll make the choice for you.
there is no choice in this “choose how you move”. It’s ride the bus or else….several big parking lots have few cars in them just west of the capitol, but regular people cannot park there. How about a parking garage for the average joe who wants to drive and works downtown????