Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed 44 executive orders on Friday, including Executive Order 45, which expands Metro’s Green and Complete Streets policy with calls for the city to close some streets to vehicles and “serve the most vulnerable users of the transportation network.” The policy was originally introduced by disgraced former Mayor Megan Barry in 2016.
The text of O’Connell’s order acknowledges inspiration from Barry’s Executive Order 31, signed in 2016, which aimed to “[a]pproach every transportation improvement project phase with the purpose to create greener, safer, and more accessible streets for all users” to “enhance environmental quality” of Metro Nashville.
O’Connell’s executive order goes further than Barry’s, and outlines more specific goals for Metro’s streets under his tenure.
His executive order reveals that O’Connell’s administration intends to make public thoroughfares “places to be” by implementing “car-free streets, pedestrian-scale lighting, shade trees and landscaping, public art, walkable destinations, street furniture, and other amenities.”
According to a statement O’Connell provided in a press release, he reportedly declared the changes represented by his order “the backbone of a more livable and resilient city,” and said Nashville’s “streets should feel safe, comfortable, and convenient” to “pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, and drivers.”
The mayor’s executive order promises to give “specific attention” to “the safety and comfort needs of the most vulnerable individuals on our streets – people walking, biking, taking transit, and using wheelchairs or other mobility devices” while also “balancing the needs of those driving private, commercial, freight, and emergency vehicles.”
One of the guiding principles for O’Connell’s effort includes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). O’Connell’s mandate declares the Green and Complete Streets program “elements are implemented equitably and inclusively throughout the region.”
The order likewise promises to equitably serve “disenfranchised populations and communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in planning and decision-making processes,” specifically “low-income individuals, people of color, older adults, children, youth, people with disabilities, and people living in households without access to a private automobile.”
O’Connell’s apparent focus on those who do not drive their own vehicles comes after his transition team suggested pushing for heavy investment into public transit in a November recommendation.
One recommendation urged O’Connell to improve “trust in our transportation system” and consider a transit referendum to coincide with the 2024 presidential election. Citing the “many lessons” learned after Metro citizens voted against a similar proposal in 2018, the proposal suggested O’Connell could time a request for “long-term funding for transit” “during a high-turnout election.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News, and also reports for The Tennessee Star and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
