(The Center Square) – Nashville’s will look to add an additional 0.50% sales tax to help fund $3.1 billion in transit work through a Nov. 5 referendum.
If the transit proposal passes, the tax will begin on Feb. 1, 2025.
The city is hoping to receive $1.4 billion of federal funding toward transit projects over the next 15 years.
The project would include everything from sidewalks, signals and street work to corridor and transit improvements across the city.
“Ninety percent of Nashvillians told us through Imagine Nashville that they support investing in public transit and the Choose How You Move Program will get us where we want to go faster and safer, no matter how you’re moving,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a statement. “This is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to build out our priority sidewalks, to synchronize signals so you’re spending less time at red lights, and to connect neighborhoods via a better transit system that doesn’t have to come downtown just to go somewhere else.
“This is about the sustainability of our workforce and this community, and how we bring the cost of living down so that our residents can afford to live here.”
The project will add 86 linear miles of sidewalk along with 592 new or upgraded traffic signals.
The designated transit corridors will put dedicated transit-only lanes in strategic locations on 10 of the city’s most used roadways on areas such as Murfreesboro Pike, Gallatin Pike, Nolensville Pike, Dickerson Road, West End, Charlotte Pike and Bordeaux/Clarksville Pike.
The Choose How You Move project includes 12 modern transit centers, 17 Park & Ride facilities and double the hours of our high-frequency daily service and increase total bus service by almost 80%.