Amy Birch, a transportation engineer and consultant working with the Department of Transportation (NDOT), told a neighborhood meeting that NDOT selected Lynnwood Boulevard (Harding Place to Tyne Boulevard) for its 2025 neighborhood street traffic calming program and is proposing a series of six speed cushions as the preliminary design.

The draft plan matters because NDOT's traffic-calming program is intended to reduce vehicle speeds and improve pedestrian safety on residential streets; Lynnwood's measured 85th-percentile speed was 36 mph on a 25 mph posted limit, and weekday two‑way traffic volume was about 1,600 vehicles per day, data Birch said factored into the street's selection.

NDOT uses a data-driven prioritization system that weights measured speed (45%), volume (25%), non-driver accommodations such as sidewalks and bus stops (15%), crash history over 10 years (10%) and proximity to trip destinations like schools (5%). Birch said the city received more than 600 requests and selected 25 streets in the 2025 round. "We recorded these meetings so that we can share them afterwards for anyone that misses the meeting," Birch said, introducing the session and the project's public-engagement steps.

The draft concept shown to residents uses modular rubberized speed cushions, spaced roughly 300–600 feet apart where driveway and intersection placement allow, with warning signage and flexible delineator posts when appropriate. Birch said cushions are NDOT's preferred tool because they create gaps that emergency vehicles can straddle, limiting impacts to response times. She said cushions are typically 3 inches at their highest and come in several standard lengths (including 14-foot and 10.5-foot modules); speed tables are an alternative but are used less frequently because they cover the full travel lane.

Residents and meeting participants discussed alternatives. Tom Druffel, a resident, recommended speed tables in some cases, saying, "Speed tables, I found, to be more compatible with a lot of people's interest on Jackson between Harding and Bellemeade." Sandy Ewing, another participant, asked whether tables are rubberized; Birch replied, "They are rubberized." Several residents said cushions have been effective on nearby streets and expressed preference for any measure that reduces speed. One resident at 924 Lynnwood said, "We almost get hit by a car every day trying to walk our dog," describing why speed reduction is important to neighbors.

NDOT outlined next steps and the ballot process: staff will use meeting feedback to produce a detailed design (about two months), then open a six-week online/postcard ballot. Ballots are mailed to property owners listed in Metro's parcel records; only abutting residential properties (and churches or schools, if present) get one vote each, owners with multiple properties get one vote total, and vacant properties and businesses are not eligible. Birch said, "If 66% or more of the votes received are favorable in favor of the project, then it moves forward into the construction phase," and she estimated the current construction queue at eight to ten months, with installation likely within about a year after a favorable vote.

Meeting participants raised communication concerns; several attendees said they did not receive the mailed postcard notice. NDOT acknowledged vendor mailing limitations and agreed to work with neighborhood contacts and council members to improve outreach before ballots are sent. A neighbor volunteer provided an email list to help distribute notice and NDOT provided a project email (n.trafficcalming@nashville.gov) and the consultant's address (amybirch@birchtransportation.com).

No formal council or board vote took place at the meeting. Participants and NDOT staff agreed to move forward with cushions as the preferred device and to proceed directly to balloting after NDOT completes the detailed design; the ballot outcome will determine whether the project is scheduled for construction.

Residents were advised they can review the posted plans on NDOT's traffic calming website (trafficcalming.nashville.gov) when the ballot is live and that NDOT will post aggregate ballot results online after the vote closes.