Improving Blue Hole Road for Teens

By Nia Maddux, Harpeth Hall Intern

5 min read With the new soccer field added to Antioch park during the summer of 2022, a new issue arises. Getting young teens and families to the park safely without driving is near impossible with the lack of sidewalks, bus stops, and bike lanes connecting to the park. To make teen activities more accessible, the addition of youth-friendly transportation is necessary.

Making Antioch Park More Accessible

Antioch has many issues with their non-vehicular modes of transportation, with many of the sidewalks and bike lanes abruptly ending randomly. This does not help the families in the area get to the parks to exercise and have fun together. By building off of the Nashville Youth Design Team’s (NYDT) work, we propose sidewalks and bike lanes be constructed connecting the park to the neighborhoods nearby. We also suggest that the bus stops near the Southeast Nashville Public Library connect to a new bus stop at the park. These modifications would make the park feel more integrated in the community, especially for kids who can’t drive themselves.

Blue Hole Road now

With a school right across the street it is infinitely more important that the park is made into a nice and welcoming place for the community so that kids feel comfortable getting over to the park to play after school. One old, faded crosswalk isn’t cutting it for these kid’s health and wellbeing. Nashville’s Vision Zero Plan was put in place because of the amount of people killed traveling in Nashville, both walking and driving. This plan, while focused on bigger and more dangerous roads, puts in perspective our need for road improvements to create a safer city. 

Improving Teen Interaction with the Park

Over the summer of 2022, the NYDT came up with ideas on how to improve South Nashville’s community. In doing so they installed a soccer field at Antioch park and hosted a soccer tournament for teens. This tournament was very successful, with 46% of the people who participated stating that they would come to the park weekly if the soccer field stayed. They were surprised by the amount of people who said they would only come back monthly (23%) or a few times a year (16%) though. There is a distinct lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, and bus stops near the park; this could contribute to the amount of people only willing to go to the park every month or so. We argue that the percentage of people willing to return to the park weekly could increase if there were easier and safer ways to access the park. Chris, one of the people on the NYDT who looked into installing bike racks in Antioch park stated that, “Not being able to safely get to parks, schools, restaurants, and bus stops affects the physical, recreational, and social wellness of youth in Antioch”.

Ideas for how to make the park more accessible for families

Another student on the NYDT who lives in the area told me that there were no sidewalks that allowed people in the community to access the park. With so many families in the Antioch area, the park is a valuable asset that could lead to lots of healthy exercise for kids and teens. If there are more safe ways to access the park, families could be more motivated to go play on the soccer field more often and get the exercise they need. Studies show that teens are more motivated to exercise when it is fun, social, and part of a routine. The soccer field allows for all of those motivations to be met. The research that the NYDT did showed that many teens in Antioch like to play soccer, so with the field installed they can have fun playing a sport they love together. With easier access to the park, the soccer tournaments could possibly become a weekly event in Antioch. 

Blue Hole Road Now

Blue Hole Road with Improvements

Ideas on how to Improve Blue Hole Road

Blue Hole Road Improvements

Sidewalks are the first and likely most obvious change needed on Blue Hole Road. Sidewalks connecting the park, school, and neighborhoods would make walking to the park much more reasonable and safe for the community members. Redoing the crosswalk would make Blue Hole road safer for students at Antioch Middle School to cross. I also suggest creating a second crosswalk slightly further down where there is a sidewalk from the school that runs into the road with no crosswalk. Bike lanes would add another safe and quick way to get from home to the park for many teens. We should also install a bike rack at the park like the NYDT suggested for families who ride their bikes to the park. Both these modes of transportation would also allow for exercise on their way to the park, which benefits everyone.

With bus stops a little over a mile away, it isn’t too far to add a few new bus stops in the neighborhoods and at the park. These new routes provide a new way to get to the park as well as to schools, restaurants, and other places in their community. Bus stops tend to look very similar, so to help this stop stand out we can come up with a creative design for the stop. The design could be based off of a soccer goal to represent the mini soccer field added over the summer, as well as getting people who visit the park to think about soccer.

Bus Stop Design Idea

Artistic Rendering of Our Ideas

Community Engagement + the First Steps

Research we found all points to teen exercise being extremely important for their health and mental well-being. Without safe and easy access to parks and greenspaces, it is much harder for teens to get that much needed exercise. As of now, there is nothing being done about community access to Antioch park. Because there aren’t many wrecks on Blue Hole road, it has not caught many people’s attention, which is very unfortunate. To get the community’s opinions, I suggest a survey is sent out to families in Antioch to see which mode of transportation is most convenient for them so we can begin to work towards making the park more accessible for everyone. By providing safe transportation we hope that more people will want to return for weekly soccer games.