Where Would We Be Without the Alliance? Do We Really Want to Know?

Note

After more than 15 years of building leaders, shaping conversations, and advancing transit in Middle Tennessee, the Transit Alliance is at a critical crossroads. We are facing a funding cliff, and we are appealing to our supporters to preserve the work of the Alliance, the work that has helped shape where our region stands today and how far we can go. This is our Hail Mary.

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Fifteen years ago, the idea that Middle Tennessee needed to invest meaningfully in public transit was aspirational at best. The idea that the region could align around transit investments felt more hopeful than likely.

Beyond a small group of business and organizational leaders, transit was largely a foreign concept. Conversations about improving regional mobility beyond adding lanes for cars were rare. Even when an elected official understood the need for stronger transit investment, translating that understanding into lasting policy was a long shot at best.

In 2009, the Transit Alliance was created to change that trajectory.

Not through quick wins or one-off campaigns, but through building leadership, maintaining consistent communication, investing in sustained education, and committing to a long-term strategy designed to build durable support for transit.

Since then, 650 civic, business, nonprofit, and public-sector leaders have participated in the Transit Citizen Leadership Academy (TCLA). They’ve built relationships across county lines and ideological divides. They’ve learned how transportation shapes workforce access, economic competitiveness, housing, affordability, and quality of life.

Many now serve in roles where decisions about growth and infrastructure are no longer theoretical. They are voting. Drafting policy. Shaping outcomes at the local and state levels.

Over time, the conversation changed.

More organizations began treating transit not as a peripheral issue, but as central to their mission. Today, transit and mobility are core to nearly every meaningful discussion, from housing and workforce development to access to opportunity.

The Transit Alliance helped Middle Tennessee move from “we can’t spend money on transit,” to “well, maybe we could,” to “let’s do this — and do it well.”

We supported the shift from isolated efforts to regional alignment. We pushed continuously from short-term fixes toward long-term goals.

Along the way, we helped hold a community together through a failed transit funding ballot measure, destructive tornadoes that tore through Davidson and Wilson Counties, and even a global pandemic. We did it all while holding space for a bigger goal that could meaningfully improve lives.

Beginning in 2021, we were the first to urge elected officials to consider another transit funding ballot measure in 2024. We did not walk away from our communities when it was difficult. We stayed.

In 2024, Davidson County secured dedicated funding for transit through the voter-approved Choose How You Move transportation improvement program that invests in sidewalks, signals, service, and safety. It was a milestone more than a decade in the making.

That moment did not materialize overnight. It was built brick by brick through leadership development, persistent education, and years of relationship-building that rarely made headlines, but fundamentally shifted what was possible.

That impact has not gone unnoticed.

Over the years, the Transit Alliance and the Transit Citizen Leadership Academy have been recognized by peer institutions and regional partners for convening across sectors, strengthening leadership, and advancing collaboration around transportation.

The Alliance has received recognition from the 82 Alliance and the Greater Nashville Regional Council, including a Regional Collaboration Award. In 2017, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce honored the Transit Alliance with its Regional Excellence Award. In 2020, TCLA received the Sustainable Transportation Award from TDOT and TDEC.

These awards reflect sustained trust. They represent acknowledgment from business leaders, regional planners, state agencies, and civic partners that the Alliance fills a role no one else does, and that the region is stronger because of it.

A Pivotal Moment

Middle Tennessee is growing faster than its infrastructure. Employers are competing for workers who need reliable ways to reach jobs. Families are making housing decisions shaped by affordability, commute times, and transportation costs. Local governments are navigating increasingly complex choices about land use, investment, and mobility.

This is precisely when institutional knowledge, trusted relationships, and steady leadership matter most.

And it is also a moment of real vulnerability.

The Transit Alliance is at risk. Sustaining long-term, capacity-building work is a challenge, and we are facing a funding cliff.

What Happens If the Alliance Is Gone?

Without the Alliance, there is no neutral space where regional leaders and residents can wrestle openly with hard questions before decisions are made.

There is no shared learning environment preparing new leaders to understand transit as an economic and quality-of-life issue, not just a budget line.

There is no organization focused on what comes after the milestone, when implementation, coordination, and accountability become the real test.

Progress does not stop all at once. It wanes. Without an entity dedicated to holding space for long-term thinking and honest “what if” conversations, relationships weaken. Momentum fades. Opportunities pass us by.

So, We Ask: Where would Middle Tennessee be without the Transit Alliance?

Without a place to build shared understanding before votes are cast. Without a trusted forum where leaders can learn, test ideas, and challenge assumptions outside the pressure of the moment. Without an organization focused not on the next headline, but on the long arc of progress.

The Transit Alliance has never existed for credit or quick wins. It exists to prepare this region — its leaders and its communities — for growth, and for the responsibility that comes with ensuring access to opportunity.

That responsibility does not end with one milestone.

And the work required to meet it is far from finished.