MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s Jennings and Rebecca Jones Chair of Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning recently hosted a panel discussion on sustainability, mobility and livability with three guest speakers as part of its Scholars Program.

The panel was sponsored by Cumberland Region Tomorrow and moderated by Ugur Orak, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. 

“I think every student should have an understanding of economics … irrespective of what majors we are, what we are trying to do or what our future goals are. These are policies and economic factors that impact all of us,” said Sreehari Sreejith, junior finance major with a minor in business analytics.

The 20-year-old Scholars Program student from India continued, “Having an understanding about those kinds of factors and the problems that actually affect us is a great way to start. I think that’s all part of being a citizen, and that is your sort of social commitment, if you will.” 

The Oct. 25 one-hour panel was held in the School of Concrete and Construction Management Building and featured three local leaders to share their expertise as part of the third module of the Scholars Program, which aims to teach its cohort of students about livability challenges in the region through multidisciplinary research and mentorship.

The speakers included Shelly Hazle, vice president of regional policy at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and senior policy advisor at the Greater Nashville Regional Council; Andy Lucyshyn, owner and mid-south region leader with design firm Gresham Smith in Nashville; and Alan Thompson, chief marketing officer at civil engineering firm RaganSmith in Nashville.

The discussion focused on transportation options, housing, funding, sustainability and artificial intelligence, or AI, followed by a student Q&A.

“Getting to see their perspective has been really insightful,” said Ashna Goel, 21-year-old junior accounting major from Brentwood. 

“A lot of these topics, as a student, you don’t necessarily think about because it doesn’t affect you. And so, being forced to think about those things has been really eye opening,” she continued.

The speakers discussed the transit referendum that will be on the ballot for Davidson County on Nov. 5, where voters will either choose “For” or “Against.”

“You’re asking those voters to selflessly vote for this generation. It’s not so much for us,” Thompson said of the forum. “You’re making a decision that’s going to have a huge impact on these guys on the front row.”

If the referendum gets approved, transportation options for Middle Tennessee residents will improve within 15 years, Thompson said.

Goel’s highlight of the panel was “really understanding the transportation bill. I actually had never really looked into it,” she said. “I think getting to understand kind of why the people that are behind it have created it and what the bill stands for was really cool,” she continued.

Goel stressed the importance of the panel, saying it was “important because a lot of people don’t necessarily seek out this information. It’s really important to … get other people’s perspectives and get to understand where people are coming from.”

Middle Tennessee transportation challenges

One of the major challenges discussed at the panel is the lack of transportation options throughout the region.

Hazle discussed the need for more bike lanes that are safer as well as increasing crosswalks and decreasing the urban sprawl, making walking an option for city residents. Thompson then brought up the need for paths that go out of residential areas, making biking and walking a foreseeable option.

The ultimate goal of the Nashville referendum is to allow people to “work, live and be entertained all within a walking distance or riding distance of where they live or within the distance of a transit center,” Thompson said. 

Public transport, such as buses, was also mentioned. With the choice lanes soon to be implemented on Interstate 24 Southeast, Thompson said buses would use those choice lanes, hopefully increasing the desire to use public transport rather than driving.

The biggest takeaway of the panel for Sreejith was the topic of public transit “because that’s something I’m researching … just how do you evaluate problems in public transit, and especially with the different policies that are going around and what kind of elements are playing into the outcome of those problems?”

People often commute long distances to and from major Middle Tennessee cities for work since these cities often have higher paying jobs, Lucyshyn explained.

“Drive until you qualify is their thing. So, if you can’t afford this house in Franklin, then drive to Spring Hill. If you can’t afford Spring Hill, then drive to Columbia. If you can’t afford Columbia, drive to Lewisburg,” Thompson said. “You’re just driving farther now — farther out from the city core in order to be able to afford a house, and then there’s a huge transportation cost when you’re commuting.”

Housing cost ‘has greatly outpaced earnings’

Affordable housing, NIMBY-ism (not in my back yard), government assistance and politics are also major challenges, according to Hazle. 

“The last couple of years, the cost of housing has greatly outpaced earnings in this region. Ownership and rental have really increased,” Hazle said. 

“There’s a slew of policies involved that communities should look at from streamlining permitting processes, so that people who are trying to build affordable housing can get through the process much quicker because time is money when they’re trying to develop housing; to rezoning; to allowing missing middle housing, which is a big issue of we’re not building duplexes and quads and the type of housing that young people need, but also people on the other end of the spectrum that are trying to downsize and look for smaller places, maybe staying in their neighborhoods, but they just don’t have those options,” Hazle continued.

The Middle Tennessee area has a large demand and little supply of houses, explained Thompson. “We’ve been told if we built as hard as we could, we still would not meet up with demand by 2028, so you have lot more people than we do houses,” he noted.

Lack of funding

While all speakers agreed that there’s always going to be people opposed to tax increases, they all emphasized the need for a slight tax raise to fund better transportation.

Thompson said regarding taxes, “To move forward, you have to put some skin in the game to invest in your own community. That’s part of being a resident or a citizen in that community.”

“Of the top 50 cities — Nashville’s one of four that doesn’t have dedicated funding. That puts us at a disadvantage from getting federal funds,” Hazle said.

Thompson asserted the need for Nashville to increase its sales tax by half a cent, making the tax 9.75 percent, which is consistent with surrounding counties. He then said that “60% of that’s going to be paid by people coming into Davidson County and going out of Davidson County,” because of tourism.

Increasing sustainability

All three speakers recognized that not only does increased transportation options make local residents lives more convenient, but it also helps the environment.

“By having a more effective transit system … it should accommodate a more environmentally friendly option than what we currently have today,” Thompson said.

Lucyshyn agreed, saying, “You’re implicitly getting carbon reduction by not having vehicles idling (on the Interstate).”

Benefits of AI

Lucyshyn discussed that AI, or artificial intelligence, allows local leaders to translate and understand large amounts transportation data, which then helps them to understand what the region needs and how to combat issues that arise.

“The application of AI to analyze that data and perhaps come up with root causes you didn’t realize were the actual issue that we were experiencing” is the goal, he said.

Hazle and Lucyshyn explained that AI can be used to track speed variability across lanes on Interstate 24 as well as understanding traffic patterns and traffic flow.

“It taught me a lot about transportation technologies being incorporated a lot, especially recently,” said Zach Burgess, a 19-year-old junior data science major from Franklin. “What I was most interested in was AI being put in traffic lights.”

Reflecting on the panel as a whole, Burgess said, “It’s important for students because students are really young, and they’re going to be the ones who get to experience what is done now, in the future. And so, everyone’s sort of planning for the future.” 

“It’s important that we’re involved because we will also have to do that for our future generations,” he said.

About the COE-URP

The Jennings and Rebecca Jones Chair of Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning produces and disseminates information relevant to the planning needs and issues in the Midstate region. It encourages dialogue on these critical issues among area policymakers, opinion leaders and the broader community of interest. For more information on COE-URP, visit https://urp.mtsu.edu. 

About the Scholars Program

In the nine-month Scholars Program, students learn the fundamentals of applied research and engage with community leaders through guest speakers, conference opportunities and the COE-URP advisory committee members with the goal of accomplishing data-driven changes within the region.

The structure of the program includes nine modules and six milestones to guide students through the research process. By the end of the program, they will each write and present a research project on one aspect of livability in the region.

Murat Arik is the Scholars Program chair, and Richard Tarpey, Ugur Orak and Steven Livingston are the three faculty mentors.

The student cohort of the second year of the program is comprised of Zach Burgess, Isabella Gilbert, Ashna Goel, Drew Hair, Aykut Iri, Kalistah Lawrence, Hannah Osborne, Syd Panak, Sreehari Sreejith and Kayla Welker. 

For more information on the Scholars Program, visit https://urp.mtsu.edu/scholarsprogram/.

— Maddy Williams (Maddy.Williams@mtsu.edu)