Project Background
Since 2004, Nashville has undergone enormous development changes and made significant investment in bicycle, pedestrian, and public transit infrastructure, while new mobility-as-a-service (MAAS) technologies such as ridesharing and e-scooters have become an integral part of Nashville’s transportation ecosystem. This project’s goal has been to modernize the Traffic Impact Study Guidelines to align with existing mobility trends and current best practices to assist the Nashville Department of Transportation in building out a safe, efficient, and sustainable transportation network for all travel modes.
What was Reviewed
The 2004 Traffic Impact Study (TIS) Guidelines and Scoping Form, served as the requirements and constraints that developers must follow as they evaluate the impact of new development on the surrounding transportation network. Beginning in October 2022, the Nashville Department of Transportation and the consultant team, Arcadis, reviewed the existing guideline, the existing code (17.20.140), conducted an existing assessment review, and analyzed various transportation-related vision plans to help shape what the new guideline would look like. The Nashville Department of Transportation also worked with a broad range of stakeholders to assist in the modernization of the Traffic Impact Study Guidelines, associated review processes, and related codes/legislature. The stakeholders included the following groups: Metro Planning, Metro Legal, Metro Parks, Nashville Connector, Metro Information Technology Services, Metro’s Traffic and Parking Commission, Nashville Department of Transportation’s Vision Zero team, WeGo, the Sustainability team in the Mayor’s Office, external Engineering Consultant Firms who complete Traffic Impact Studies, the development community, NAIOP members, ULI members, Walk Bike Nashville, Tennessee Department of Transportation, and Neighbor2Neighbor.
The five main objectives of this project:
- Evaluate the requirements of existing guidelines and codes against major peer cities nationally.
- Seek feedback from stakeholders including elected officials, planners, traffic/transportation engineers, developers, and consultant teams.
- Develop a modernized guideline with associated code changes to align with Nashville Department of Transportation’s mobility goals and account for the diversity of modal split, intensity of development, and current best practices.
- Align the associated Metro code with the updated guideline.
- Prepare tools to assist Nashville Department of Transportation, developers, and consultants in streamlining the Traffic Impact Study process and managing data in a more efficient way.
Multimodal Transportation Analysis Guideline Release
The Multimodal Transportation Analysis (MMTA) Guideline was completed in August 2023 as the draft final guideline for public review. The final stakeholder meeting took place on September 6, 2023, and the project team received public comments until September 13, 2023, for implementation of feedback into the final Multimodal Transportation Analysis Guideline document. The final document was released on September 27, 2023.