16-05-2025
‘What we want is a fair conversation': Concerns over the design process of East Bank Boulevard
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — As work continues along Nashville's East Bank, some think not every option for the main roadway through the development is getting a fair chance.
In 2022, Metro released the 'Imagine East Bank Vision Plan,' which includes three alternatives for East Bank Boulevard — the main road through the project. A six-lane concept includes two lanes for cars in either direction and one bus lane in either direction with protected bike lanes, and there are two four-lane options included within the plan.
APRIL | Civic design organization calls for 4-lane streets with protected bike lanes in East Bank Development
At a Tuesday Vision Zero Advisory Committee, Katherine McDonnell — who chairs the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission — spoke up and said that she thinks leaders have favored the six-lane alternative over the four-lane options. McDonnell added that she previously served on the Vision Zero Advisory Committee, which studied 'high-injury networks' across Nashville, and finds the six-lane design too wide to align with Vision Zero's mission of reducing injuries and fatalities along Music City's roads.
'Why we're proposing to build a brand-new piece of our high-injury network in a brand-new neighborhood where we can build anything?' McDonnell said. '[It] really contradicts all the efforts that have been made until this point to go in the opposite direction in trying to reduce people from dying on our roadways.'
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'This should not even be a finalized design at this point,' McDonnell said. 'There are three options on the table and I think what we want is a fair conversation around those three options.'
The Nashville Mayor's Office sent News 2 a statement:
'The mayor's office doesn't build roads, so we don't have a position other than being supportive of a public comment process that has been ongoing for weeks.
The East Bank team will take all shared feedback to create a database on the input. That work follows the remarkably robust public engagement process that informed the Imagine East Bank master plan.'
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