O’Connell brings on Vanderbilt’s mobility director, expects to know more ‘by the end of the month’
Mayor Freddie O’Connell said Friday that he expects to know more about whether a November transit referendum is feasible “by the end of the month.”
He also announced the temporary hiring of Vanderbilt’s Michael Briggs as director of transportation planning in the lead-up to a potential referendum. Briggs’ appointment is in partnership with Vanderbilt, where Briggs is the director of mobility, and he is expected to return to the university in less than two years, O’Connell told reporters.
“He’s coming on to help evaluate feasibility, work with [the Nashville Department of Transportation] and WeGo, work with [Metro’s new transportation director Tanisha Hall] to do some of the technical advisory pieces that would potentially go into a referendum,” the mayor said.
Prior to moving to Vanderbilt, Briggs spent a decade at the Metro Planning Department, eventually leading its multimodal transportation planning division.
O’Connell’s transit-focused transition committee recommended putting a transit referendum on the November ballot in order to take advantage of higher voter turnout during a presidential year. Metro’s most recent transit referendum was handily defeated in 2018, and O’Connell has said a potential new vote would focus on smaller-scale improvements than those sought six years ago.
“The things you need to clear are legal and financial,” O’Connell said Friday. “First and foremost, can we meet all of the conditions that would allow it to be on the ballot in the first place? The next is can departments, particularly WeGo and NDOT, support the planning process that would meet the financial and legal tests? I think we’ll know that by the end of the month.”
