NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Eliminating cyclist and pedestrian deaths in Nashville is top of mind for Mayor Freddie O’Connell.

The mayor announced last Friday, Jan. 26 that he plans on putting $12.5 million towards transportation safety, and the data shows it’s needed.

“We know that NDOT has embraced this goal of trying to eliminate fatalities related to car crashes eventually, and so we are going to continue that,” O’Connell explained during a media roundtable.

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Statistically, Nashville has been ranked one of the most dangerous cities in the country for pedestrians. During the media roundtable, O’Connell spoke on continued concerns from council members and the actions/steps he plans on taking to combat the problem.

“We’ve heard, as we’ve had these meetings with council members, a constant theme is particularly elementary schools and communities in walking distance can’t safely walk to the schools, so ensuring that safe routes to the schools are a part of this is a big deal,” he explained. “We will also be announcing we hope in short order, re-constitutionalizing of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee, all with the goal of driving down pedestrian fatalities.”

The problems plaguing Nashville streets are nothing new to city leaders. October 2023 marked the one-year mark for “Vision Zero” first proposed by former Mayor John Cooper.

Nashville’s Vision Zero Action Plan (2022) set a goal of eliminating serious injuries and deaths on roads by 2050. For months, NDOT has been hard at work to make that vision come true.

“When a fatal crash happens within 10 days, we go to the fatal crash site and we investigate the infrastructure around that site that may have led to the crash or that can be improved, regardless if that was the reason behind the crash,” said Guneet Saini of NDOT.

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Saini explained when a fatal crash happens, NDOT gets notified by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD). Then, NDOT investigators visit the scene to create short and long-term improvements to help make the area safer.

Already from previous incidents, the department has noticed a trend.

“A lot of these crashes do not happen at an intersection. Several of those happen either not at an intersection or on an unmarked crossing, especially when it comes to pedestrians. With that in mind, that is one of the major factors that contribute, the missing safe crossing locations for pedestrians is one of the major contributors to pedestrian fatalities in Nashville,” Saini explained.

In other cases, she said, “There is no median and there is six lanes or five lanes for crossing for a pedestrian at a lot of locations…but when we go into that site we actually see people walking on a roadway which does not have a sidewalk, does not have a safe crossing location, however, it is generating pedestrian traffic.”

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Another project NDOT is pursuing is the “Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP).” The project is focused along Gallatin Pike and would impact six intersections with traffic lights. The goal is to allow emergency vehicles the opportunity to trigger intersection lights, allowing the vehicles to drive through cross streets faster and respond to scenes faster.

“We heard their concerns about their difficulty of navigating through the traffic, and we realized that’s something that is very critical to them, to be able to reach to a certain crash location and reduce the response time, because for them and for everyone, seconds matter,” Saini said.

NDOT hopes to implement the EVP project this year. The project will be a six-month pilot program to access the area.

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