After Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Fare Reductions, Just 16 Percent of The Metropolitan Transit Authority Funding Is Self-Generated

  Mayor Megan Barry’s July 1, 2017, Metro Budget included proposed fare reductions and no-cost transfers for Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) users, making the “self-generated” portion of MTA’s funding a mere 16 percent, with the balance coming from Metro Government at 60 percent, the State at 6 percent and Federal at 19 percent. In Mayor Barry’s budget for fiscal year 2017-18 adopted by the Metro Council and approved by the MTA Board, effective August 1, 2017, “2nd Ride Transfers” within two hours of initial boarding were eliminated and nearly all other fares were reduced by at least 24 percent and up to as much as 40 percent. The total cost passed on to taxpayers to compensate for just the fee restructuring portion of next year’s MTA budget is $2.75 million. MTA is the public transportation agency based in Nashville that utilizes buses primarily through Music City Central, a paratransit specialized van service for people with disabilities, the Lebanon-to-Nashville Music City Star commuter rail, the free Music City Circuit and contracted services with the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) for service areas connected to Nashville/Davidson County. In 2016, MTA reported that of its $73.6 million budgeted operating funding, $16.8 million or 23…

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RTA CEO: ‘Daily Recurring Congested’ Areas To Get Much Worse in Metro Nashville, One Million People And $8 Billion Later

  GALLATIN, Tennessee – During the nMotion Plan Update meeting for Sumner County held last month, Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and Regional Transit Authority (RTA) CEO Steve Bland spoke to a short slide presentation that included, among others, one titled “Projected Traffic Congestion.” The slide includes two maps, shown here, using red to highlight the “daily recurring congested” areas within middle Tennessee. The map on the left, portraying the current situation for daily recurring congested areas, is described as being “based on roadway volumes and travel speeds” and reflects what middle Tennesseans are painfully aware as locations for commuter traffic delays. Comparatively, the map on the right dated 2040 is captioned, “Based on the MPO’s (Metropolitan Planning Organization’s) traffic model which incorporates growth and development forecasts,” after an additional one million people are expected to migrate to the Nashville area over the next twenty-plus years. Shockingly, the projected congested areas in 2040 is after a whopping $8 billion is spent on transit and other improvements, according to Steve Bland. Indeed, the slide is subtitled, “These forecasts include all current and proposed projects in the 2040 Regional Plan.” Bland, who dubbed the information “the slide of doom,” did not elaborate on…

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Regional Transportation Administration CEO Steve Bland Concedes Transit Will Not Fix Traffic Problems

  GALLATIN, Tennessee — At an nMotion Plan Update for Sumner County meeting held July 27 at Volunteer State Community College, Regional Transit Authority (RTA) CEO Steve Bland said he “wouldn’t lie” that transit will not fix traffic problems, adding that “Denver still has traffic problems,” and, in fact, Atlanta and many other major cities with extensive transit systems are included on lists of cities with the worst traffic. Bland’s admission confirms the work of Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Professor Malcolm Getz, who, representing his own views and not that of the university, states that evidence demonstrates that “better transit does not reduce congestion,” rather “the volume of vehicular trips expands to congest whatever space is available for traffic regardless of the level of transit service.” Bland also said that “middle Tennessee’s system needs to be middle Tennessee’s system” and that there is no existing transit system doing it well enough for middle Tennessee to model after. Following the Tennessee legislature’s approval of the IMPROVE Act, which included a provision called “local option transit surcharge,” nMotion Plan Update meetings have been held in other Nashville/Davidson surrounding counties, including Williamson and Wilson. Steve Bland was named to the RTA Executive…

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nMotion 2016 Transit Plan Update Meeting Held in Sumner County

  GALLATIN, Tennessee — Steve Bland, CEO of the Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee, was the featured speaker who updated Sumner County elected officials and citizens on the nMotion Strategic Plan Thursday at Volunteer State Community College.  The nMotion 2016 Transit Plan was approved by the Metropolitan Transit Authority in September 2016, but has not yet been adopted, executed or funded by any of the individual middle Tennessee counties. With approximately 100 people in attendance, including several County Commissioners, Gallatin City Councilmen, City Mayors, County Executive Anthony Holt opened the meeting by thanking the speakers and hosts of the event as well as the state legislature and governor for passing the IMPROVE Act. He questioned whether it had hurt anyone at all, saying gas prices aren’t any different, but it is “giving us resources.” Holt also said that Sumner County and the middle Tennessee region is facing a lot of challenges, predominantly related to tremendous growth of an additional one million people by the year 2040 that “we can’t build our way out of” or “build a wall to prevent people from coming.” Holt said “we can’t all travel in a car,” and that an alternative is needed in…

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