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 from that Waffle House is the former site of a White Castle (soon to be a Wells Fargo, I believe) that Whataburger pulled out of a few years ago after management discovered homeless people squatting in the abandoned building.
Tucked back away from the main thoroughfares are some apartment complexes thick with dysfunction that sometimes pours out into the street. I’ve had packages stolen off my porch before, and hearing gunshots is not unusual.
At first, the 7-Eleven was a welcome addition to the area (great drink selection). But the longer it’s been there, the more it resembles the kind of late-night haunt you avoid at all costs past a certain hour. Marrying a 24/7 convenience store to a 24/7 bus system that stops right in front of it will surely do nothing to make it nicer. Am I wrong about this?
Onward.
