A group of bus riders started to ask, “Why are we still at the back of the bus?”
We are an organization of public bus and AccessRide riders fighting for racial and economic equity. Riders who depend on Nashville’s inadequate public transit system - whether it’s blind and disabled folks or residents whose low wages lock them out of our city’s dominant car culture - know that our current transportation infrastructure heavily favors wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods while leaving many waiting in literal ditches.
In June 2016, a group of bus riders started to ask, “Why are we still at the back of the bus?”
Our first look at how the city treats its bus riders started with toilets. That’s right, toilets. The men’s restroom at Music City Central had no stalls or even barriers separating the toilets from each other. The women’s bathroom had broken stalls, a filthy and broken baby-changing table, and more often than not, no toilet paper. We launched a campaign comparing photos of Tennessee state prison bathrooms with the ones at the bus station, publicly asking MTA Board members, news media, and the public at large to guess which was which. After just a couple weeks, the MTA began fixing the inhumane conditions and eventually rebuilt the bathrooms entirely.
In a brief 3 years, we have carried out multiple successful direct action campaigns, often in coalition with other transit advocates. Some highlights include:
Bus Routes
Expansion of service hours and increased frequency on the Bordeaux Bus Route #22, servicing historically Black neighborhoods in North Nashville
Bus Transfers
Free bus transfers
MTA Funding
Holding off attempts to slash MTA funding in Metro Council in 2018
Crosswalks
Increased construction of protected crosswalks in low-income neighborhoods by exposing deadly intersections and exposing the inequities in pedestrian infrastructure funding
We continue to hold the mayor, Nashville Metro Council, MTA/WeGo, TDOT, and Nashville Public Works accountable for the racial and economic disparities that plague our public transit system and pedestrian infrastructure. As a group led by everyday bus riders, and primarily Black women, we know how crucial dependable transit is. We know that cuts in bus routes or frequency could make the difference between a job that pays a living wage and one that leaves our families in poverty. We know crosswalks and basic safety measures are the only things protecting our children and loved ones from the daily instances of cars hitting pedestrians and biweekly occurrence of people being struck and killed while crossing the street. We know that poor and working-class communities - especially in Black and Brown neighborhoods - are affected by historical, structural under-funding by city government.
Bus Route Report Card
In January 2019, we released Nashville’s first ever Bus Route Report Card, based on interviews with over 600 bus riders about their experiences across routes. Riders graded route frequency, hours, and pedestrian safety infrastructure in working-class Brown and Black neighborhoods significantly lower than their wealthier and whiter counterparts. The experts had spoken, and their grades matched the data.
From that report card, we have developed a list of demands to begin reducing the widening equity gap in our city. We know what we need:
Metro Council
We call on Metro Council to dedicate funding to expansion of bus service, leading to 24-hour service, and increased frequency on weekends to working-class communities. Restore funding that was slashed.
WeGo
We call on WeGo to build benches and shelters at every stop, beginning with the most frequent stops in working-class communities.
Nashville Public Works & TDOT
We call on Nashville Public Works and TDOT to build protected crosswalks at every major bus stop, with priority on working-class neighborhoods as a first step toward the Vision Zero goal of ending needless pedestrian deaths.
For the 2019 local election cycle, we partnered with a dozen other community organizations to create and release the Nashville Community Transportation Platform. 35 Mayoral and Metro Council candidates signed on in support of the platform, which included all of MCRU’s demands and more.
Bus riders lost a hard-fought campaign to stop Mayor Briley and Metro Council from chopping public transit by 10% in 2019. We lost by just 1 vote in Metro Council. This has only fueled more action by bus riders who again are asking: Why are we still at the back of the bus?
Meanwhile, as most of our members struggle to keep a roof over their head in our rapidly gentrifying city, MCRU has played a major role in the People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment, especially in raising the demand to urgently build 31,000 Affordable Homes by 2025.
