One Day. Two Cities. A More Connected Region.
Updated: 7 days ago
There is something different about discussing regional transportation when you’ve spent the morning riding it.
On October 16, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) hosted a ribbon cutting for its new regional Park and Ride adjacent to the new Murfreesboro Transit Center.
The Transit Alliance wanted to celebrate this new regional transit development and what it means for Middle Tennessee. So we hosted a Middle Tennessee Study Mission. We took learning on-the-road, trading the classroom for buses, facilities, and conversations shaping our region’s future. Our Nashville-to-Murfreesboro journey offered a closer look at how transportation options affect connectivity between communities. We also looked at what we stand to gain by strengthening those connections and adding new ones.
We explored the I-24 corridor via RTA’s new Murfreesboro Park and Ride and the RTA 84X Express to Murfreesboro. It was a reminder that regional connection exists and it gives travelers, commuters, and visitors an affordable and reliable way to make the trip. Bonus: it happens to remove the very things that create traffic: individual vehicles. Along the way, the questions we often discuss in a classroom became tangible: Where can you board? How do you connect to your next destination? What makes transit a practical choice for someone’s daily life?
Once at the park and ride and before the ribbon cutting, we took a tour of the Murfreesboro Transit Center which brought those questions into sharper focus. Just one year old, the center was a highlight of the day. Definitely a facility that could make transit agencies several times its size envious. It gave us an opportunity to consider how thoughtful investment in the places where people wait, transfer, and find their way can improve the entire experience of taking transit.
Then it was on to MTSU, where local expert panelists helped us explore regional connectivity from several perspectives. Our conversation moved beyond how people travel to what those trips make possible: economic ROI, access to jobs, education, healthcare, and the opportunities that shape a person’s future and support a region's prosperity.
Poor connectivity shrinks your region's economy because companies look at workforce within a 45-minute drive and/or transit ride.
--Dr. Murat Arik
Investing in transportation has a cost. So does failing to invest.
That second cost deserves more attention. What happens if we do not invest in strengthening support for our regional economic prosperity and access to opportunity? What does limited access mean for an employer trying to recruit workers? For someone pursuing an education? For a household whose opportunities depend on having a reliable car?
These questions helped frame a deeper discussion about opportunity costs, the expense of not investing in multimodal transportation, and how other regions are responding to growth. We explored what Middle Tennessee can learn from approaches that look beyond additional roads and highway lanes and how to evaluate investments for the access, economic opportunity, and long-term value they create.
Dr. Arik punctuated one of his remarks with clarity, "Poor connectivity shrinks your region's economy because companies are looking at workforce within a 45-minute drive or transit ride. When traffic congestion takes up time, you are shrinking your area of workforce access."
Taking the classroom into the real world makes room for a different kind of learning. A transfer becomes something you experience. A facility becomes a place you can explore. A conversation about regional connectivity has the day’s journey behind it.
And the learning happens between destinations, while in conversations with fellow participants, observations along the route, and questions that might never surface during a presentation.
It was a long day. It was a worthwhile one.
Thank you to our hosts, panelists, transit partners, and everyone who joined us with curiosity and a willingness to experience our region from a different perspective.
We’re already looking forward to inviting you on another Middle Tennessee Study Mission. There is more to see, more to learn, and more we can do together. No airfare needed.
Author's note: One of the day’s most memorable moments came during the ribbon cutting for the new Murfreesboro Park and Ride. A family visiting from Japan hopped aboard the 84X to explore downtown Nashville. As our group was discovering what Murfreesboro had to offer, they were heading in the other direction to do the same in Nashville.
It was a small moment that captured a big idea: regional connectivity works both ways. The same route that brought us to Murfreesboro opened the door to Nashville for another family. When we connect communities, we expand the possibilities for people to explore, participate, and spend time—and money—across our region.
