No More Shortcuts
By Rodney See, Community Member
4 min read Nashville community member uses a well-known shortcut through the Nations as an example to describe how public spaces are negatively affected by fast moving vehicles through neighborhoods. Our Design + Research Assistant, Taylan Tekeli, provides visualizations of Rodney's solutions.
driving through neighborhoods should be slow, boring and safe
There’s a challenge I give to my angry driver friends: when you’re gripping the wheel full of anxiety anywhere pedestrians could be, whether you see any or not - drive 10 miles an hour slower than you typically would. What you do on the highway is your own business, but if the roadway is intended to be shared - just slow down. In most cases, they do not find a huge increase in travel time. With that being said, don’t ask me what I think of right turns on red!
I have been a driver for over 20 years –I have even been paid to drive— but I have been biking and walking for almost my entire life. I have burned my fair share of petrol, but you can consider me an advocate for safer streets.
Every driver has shortcuts, some of these routes are more popular than others. Some are scenic and some are probably illegal. Streets used as shortcuts typically involve higher rates of speed. They often cut through otherwise quiet neighborhoods in order to have one less stop light, in favor of yield or stop signs. You have probably taken a shortcut—you’re a driver after all. To be fair, you are not intending to rampage through a busy pedestrian area—you just want to shave a couple seconds off your trip and avoid some congestion, right? I ask you to consider this: would you give up your shortcut to provide safe access to a park, or a school, or a daycare center in your neighborhood? I think we should.
Here’s one example:In West Nashville, near where the Briley Motor Speedway begins, in the shadow of a single highway lane lifted four stories into the air, sits England Park: a useful, and relatively new addition to the decades old neighborhood known as The Nations. Established in honor of Martha and Andy England, its western side is a burbling Richland Creek, but on its eastern side is Delray Dr.—a shortcut used by many who travel between Morrow Rd. and Urbandale Ave.
This little road sees an amount of traffic well above average. A GPS may even route you this way. I guess that proves it is a shortcut? However, I believe this presents a problem for pedestrians near England Park. Ideally, there would be sidewalks on these roads. Instead, baby strollers, dog walkers and joggers are forced to share the same road that has been a shortcut to drivers for decades. I hope we can agree the threat to pedestrians is greater when we have to share the road with 2-Ton metal boxes whose operator is running late.
slow drivers near ShortCut Entry Locations
Introduce signs and speed bumps every 50 feet in order to keep cars from zooming down Delray Dr. You could also introduce a roundabout at an intersection adjacent to the park for the same reason. That way, drivers are more likely to keep to Morrow Road and steer clear of the infamous shortcut.
1. Delray Drive entry at Morrow Road and Michigan Ave
2. Delray Drive entry at Urbandale Avenue
3. Delray Drive entry at Illinois Avenue and Morrow Road
This entire model can be replicated near schools and parks all over Davidson County. We need only to identify the routes that act as shortcuts. Then we can look at the options that the surrounding roads offer; often times the solutions are tough, but simple. We cannot wonder why our kids aren’t playing outside when all of their parks and schools (and the routes accessible to youth) are surrounded by fast moving cars. The noise, the danger, the air pollution—all of these are threats that need to be removed quickly and completely if we would like to change our kids’ activities. As motorists, we will still get where we are going, we just need to admit that we have a car problem on too many of these streets.
There are many neighborhoods where the traffic is constantly speeding by simply because the routes act as shortcuts. Many of these routes have been in use for decades; Nashville is full of them. Locals are proud of their personal mental networks created simply to get around these crazy streets. I applaud them, but with a little cooperation and creativity, we could find a sweet spot that allows for all forms of travel to be respected and protected. Finally, most of these measures to reduce traffic can be completed with very little funds through tactical urbanism.
Why not give the future the gift of safe streets?
Interested in identifying your local neighborhood shortcuts and improving the experience for the pedestrians in the area? Rodney’s recommended roadway changes would complement an expanded Greenway along Richland Creek, connecting England Park to West Park to the north. To the south, a long-planned project along Charlotte and White Bridge could be utilized to expand the Greenway to the widely used paths near McCabe Park.
You may be interested in learning more about the opportunities around waterways like urban creeks. Attend our Urban Design Forum on Activating Waterways!