FOX 17 Nashville

SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. — To study and develop alternatives to sitting in gridlock, the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority and Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee are undertaking a yearlong, long-term planning effort called nMotion.

The groups expect the Nashville area to grow by more than 1 million new residents by 2040. Much of the population growth is coming to the nine counties surrounding Nashville, like Robertson County.

Transit leaders are now holding several community meetings to meet with county leaders, including a forum at Stokes Brown Public Library in Springfield tonight. Between 2010 and 2040, the region will grow by 80 percent from 1.7 million to nearly 3.1 million.

The largest amount of growth, in both percentage terms and absolute terms, will be in Rutherford and Williamson counties.  RTA’s CEO, Steve Bland says every county is impacted.

Bland  says, “ It’s really a regional issue. Over half the people in our region work and live in different counties. We have  done a lot of online work, but the community meetings really give us an opportunity for dialogue and give and take, whether it’s question answer or getting a sense of what a city or county is particularly interested in.”

Robertson County, Mayor, Howard Bradley says, “We want to work on more ridership. The days of everybody driving to Nashville in their own car, we’re past that now simply because of congestion and pollution. So we need to be thinking about this collectively to come up with some better answers.”

The Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee is also involved. The non-profit is working to bring regional transportation to the mid-state with a dedicated funding source.

Transit Alliance’s, Jo Ann Graves says, “It is not just about buses and trains, it is a multi-model approach. If you’re going to ask the people to pay for it, then they have a right to have a say so in it.”

The ultimate goal is to have N-Motion’s study wrapped in 2016, with short and long-term recommendations.