Driving in Medieval Times

Getting pulled over in Nashville used to be a fairly regular occurrence. Before graduating high school, I got at least a handful of speeding tickets and warnings, and attended driving school on two separate occasions; in general, I felt very monitored on the road. Because of that, I'd try to follow the speed limit, use turn signals more consciously, and come to a full stop at every stop sign. The thought of a law man out there who might pull me over changed the way I drove.

Then, in 2018, I learned that the Metro Nashville Police Department would no longer pull over drivers for minor infractions. After a series of studies were released purporting to find no correlation between the number of traffic stops and the reduction of criminal activity, traffic stops fell off precipitously.

It had long been a goal of the department to reduce the number of stops. In 2012, MNPD initiated 445,152 stops. By 2018, they got that number down to 204,484. In 2022, the most recent year for which there’s full data, MNPD conducted just 18,663 traffic stops.

With this in mind, at the start of Covid, I bought a cheap 1990 Mazda Miata and didn’t bother to register it. I treated it as a “fugitive” car of sorts. I stopped considering speed limit signs, referred to it as my go-kart, and on lazy Sunday afternoons, I’d blitz down Briley Parkway and split off onto the rural roads in North Davidson County. Looking back on that period, I am certain that I achieved nirvana.

My point in telling this story is that I could feel the lack of police presence on the roads, and as a result, my behavior changed. Even with the risk entailed while driving an unregistered vehicle, I wasn’t concerned in the slightest about being stopped.

Similarly, less conscious and more reckless drivers than myself across the country have changed their behavior. As traffic stops plummeted, drivers have acted more erratically and, as a result, roads have gotten more dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians. Pedestrian deaths are currently the highest they’ve been in forty years.

A number of reports analyzing what’s contributed to this rise focus on the size of SUVs, the use of smartphones, or inadequate infrastructure. Twelve years ago, an entire global initiative designed to address it called Vision Zero emerged. And cities like Nashville have adopted its tenets, building out pedestrian infrastructure and modifying roads to make them safer (e.g. illuminating crosswalks and banning right on red). Vision Zero initiatives are tied deeply into Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum. It’s a program you hear about repeatedly from local leaders as a kind of secular mandate from heaven that requires urgent attention.

And yet, the solution is sitting right at their feet. The roads are more dangerous now because people drive more dangerously. The most immediate thing the city could do to make them safer is empower police officers to pull over people for driving like idiots again. DAVIS HUNT

✝️ The Passing Of A Nashville Mogul Bill Freeman, an influential Nashville powerbroker who co-founded the real estate firm Freeman Webb Company, passed away yesterday. A local investor in more ways than one, his company owned both the Nashville Scene and Nashville Post. Freeman was also a prolific fundraiser for the Democratic party, and even ran for mayor in 2015. 

"The Police Department responded to a 911 call concerning a shooting at 7:46 p.m. Sunday," MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron told the Tennessean. "Mr. Freeman was found deceased. His death is being investigated as a suicide."

“Bill was many things—real estate visionary, mayoral candidate, pilot, media magnate, staunch Democrat—and friend,” Mayor O’Connell posted on X. “Our city, state, and nation are better for his tenacity and commitment.”

🚨 Belmont Shooting Trial Update Mayor O’Connell’s prediction following the tragic death of Jillian Ludwig—a freshman Belmont student shot and killed in a park near campus last November—may, in part, come true. At the time, the mayor voiced his concerns when it was discovered that the suspect in the case, Shaquille Taylor, had been released from police custody shortly before the shooting: 

I definitely think it is worth looking at the gap that exists between someone who is deemed incompetent to stand trial, and yet winds up in a place where they can be on the streets untreated and armed. And so we do seem to have a loophole there. Because my fear right now today is, even with a murder charge—and we don't know this in advance, but I have seen the statement from District Attorney General Glenn Funk's office about this—I suspect that if there were a murder charge for the same suspect it could be possible that that would be dismissed.

Now, a year later, doctors who evaluated Taylor have informed the judge that he is indeed too incompetent to stand trial. While he might get off the hook for the same reason he has been absolved of other past crimes, a new law may prevent Taylor from returning to normal society. In July, “Jillian’s Law” went into effect requiring those deemed mentally unfit for trial to be involuntarily committed to a treatment facility. 

According to NewsChannel 5, the judge is expected to issue a decision on Taylor’s mental capacity on December 9.

🚌 Who Funded The Transit Campaign? Mere days before the election, questions about where millions in pro-transit funding came from put a slight crack in the veneer of O’Connell’s Choose How You Move campaign. In a letter sent out on October 29th, the state’s Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance demanded that the nonprofit, Nashville Moves Action Fund, disclose its donations when it was discovered that several special interest groups reported giving to the initiative.

Yesterday, Axios’ Nate Rau published his findings after digging through the disclosures only to uncover an unsurprising pattern: “The transportation effort was funded by a conventional cross-section of business interests, which previously backed the Music City Center and downtown stadium projects.” According to Rau, the Nashville Moves Action Fund received $2.34 million in donations from the likes of “Predators co-owner and former Gov. Bill Haslam, labor union groups, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and engineering firms that figure to bid on the upcoming city contracts all contributed to the effort.” 

DEVELOPMENT

• Ex-Pennington Distilling site listed for sale (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 ZZ Top @ Ryman Auditorium, 7:30p, $79.50+, Info

🎻 Danish String Quartet @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $20+, Info
+ Presented without the Nashville Symphony

🪕 Bluegrass Mondays - Vickie Vaughan @ Dee's Lounge, 6p, $10, Info

🎸 Timbo & Lonesome Country @ Jane's Hideaway, 8p, Info
+ modern take on classic country, bluegrass & hillbilly Jazz

🪕 Val Storey, Carl Jackson, Larry Cordle & New Monday @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

💀 Grateful Monday @ Acme Feed & Seed, 8p, Free, Info

🕺 Motown Monday @ The 5 Spot, 9p, $5, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.