Letter to the Editor: The Bus Stop Makes the Neighborhood

Hello, everyone.The bus system in Nashville is essentially invisible. Yes, you pass by the stops and see the vehicles on the road, but for the vast majority of Nashvillians who have never and will never set foot on a bus, functionally, buses do not exist. Because you spot them scooting around town and understand them in this abstract sense, it’s hard to grapple with how expanding bus routes and increasing their service hours might affect a neighborhood.But lately, I’ve been doing some neighborhood arithmetic. Using the powers of journalism and critical thinking, it isn’t hard to see how 24/7 bus service would change my little neighborhood.I live over by the Charlotte/White Bridge intersection. Charlotte (Route 50) is one of the most trafficked bus routes in town. Under the new transit plan, it’s set to receive continuous, around-the-clock service. Recently, a new 24-hour 7-Eleven opened on White Bridge, right in front of a bus stop for Route 3—which is also set to operate 24/7 if the transit referendum succeeds.Diagonal from all this by I-40, there’s a Waffle House that remains open 24/7, but since Covid, it only accepts pick-up orders in the early morning hours to stave off late-night brawls. Across...