Nashville's Revised BRT Isn't Actually BRT at All

Since we last checked on the debate over Amp, Nashville's proposed BRT system, things have gone from meh to bad to worse. In the past few weeks, Tennessee state legislators have issued new directives that will make the project considerably harder to pull off. At issue is the design of BRT itself — namely, whether or not buses should be allowed to run in an exclusive lane.

Here's where things stand at the moment: both state legislative bodies have approved bills that prohibit some Tennessee cities from "constructing, maintaining or operating any bus rapid transit system using a separate lane." The House version allows such a design if approved by the metropolitan government and the state transportation commission. The Senate goes one step further to prohibit BRT from running in a center lane, effectively blocking Amp as it's presently conceived.