Great Neighborhoods for a Great Community
Rethinking Transportation
Status Strategy Summary Comments
Initial Stage 2.6.1

Lobby the Tennessee Legislature to establish a dedicated funding source (such as a statewide gas tax) for better urban public transit and, until then, MATA should be funded by county government and all municipal governments on a sliding scale.

This strategy has not been implemented to date. Recent referendums for a local sales tax to fund public transportation failed.

In Progress 2.6.2

Develop a Regional Transit Plan recommending strategies for creating a world-class public transit system throughout the greater Memphis region.

As part of a larger regional planning effort with the Greenprint Plan, the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability is looking at how accessible our employment areas are to the population in the Bus Transit to Workplace study. The project will examine how the region’s employment is distributed geographically and how well employment areas are served by transportation, including bus routes, bike lanes, and walking paths.

Completed 2.6.3

Encourage MATA to acquire and implement technology to measure service performance such as Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Automatic People Counters (APC) Devices.

In 2012, MATA equipped buses with GPS and Automatic People Counters.

Completed 2.6.4

Provide rapid bus service between residential areas and urban and suburban employment centers to serve as an intermediate step in the planning of a bus rapid transit system and future light rail.

MATA provides Bus Rapid Transit on their "Whitehaven Flyer" line running between Downtown and Whitehaven. Read more here.

Initial Stage 2.6.5

Evaluate the existing trolley service and address barriers that prevent them from providing regular, reliable, and on-time trolley service, and work toward the goal of offering free service.

This strategy has not been addressed to date.