Red-Light Politics

State leaders are pushing back against Nashville’s no-right-on-red proposal as the Metro Council moves to reprioritize Vision Zero efforts around pedestrian safety. A spokesperson for House Speaker Sexton recently dismissed the measure as “a ridiculous proposal only Democrats could support,” while House Transportation Committee Chair Dan Howell urged caution: “Local elected officials should be cautious about adopting reactionary policies in response to tragic events, particularly when they create inconsistent rules that confuse visitors and drivers or negatively impact businesses.”

Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda and other Metro council members introduced the no-right-on-red proposal amid a rise in pedestrian deaths, underscored by a deadly Lower Broadway crash that killed an Australian tourist and injured three others.

Proceed With Caution

The pushback isn’t just from Republican leaders. Mayor Freddie O’Connell warned against the implications of the sweeping bill during a recent media roundtable. “We're going to have to do some examination of how no-right-on-red interacts with state routes,” he said. “I think the scale that's been initially proposed, without any kind of pilot period or data capture in it, seems very quick.”

Narrowing the Lane

Sepulveda has since announced her plans to scale back her proposal and intends to introduce an amendment that would limit the right-on-red ban to downtown, school zones, and within Tier 1 transit corridors.

But the sudden uproar about Nashville’s pedestrian deaths—which totaled 28 at the time of the legislation’s introduction—and the reactionary legislation deserve a second look. Where does the legislation come from?

The No-Right-on-Red Club

No-right-on-red policies tend to spawn in major cities where foot traffic is high. They also happen to be dominated by Democratic lawmakers. Washington, D.C. recently imposed a citywide ban, district/neighborhood-wide bans have been established in Atlanta, and intersection-specific bans have been passed in Jersey City and Newark.

More Speed Bumps?

The mayor’s Choose How You Move initiative also aims to strengthen pedestrian safety along key corridors, continuing its installation of bike-lane barriers and speed bumps. When asked about neighborhoods that have complained about the safety measures in areas where bike and foot traffic appear to be negligible, the mayor’s office explained that CHYM isn’t just about what is convenient for drivers.

“The data shows us that when you make transit more accessible, more reliable, and more frequent, ridership increases,” said the mayor’s Deputy Communications Director Alex Apple during Friday’s media roundtable. “The same would be when you continue a sidewalk here that goes towards the library. You see people able to take it. Right now, if you wanted to walk right from here to the library, you would, I guess, have to traverse this grass lot, and so we're trying to make a system that is comprehensive and makes sense.”