Nashville Department of Transportation staff and consultants presented a final design for traffic calming on Enchanted Circle Drive and said property owners within the project limits will be mailed a six-week ballot to decide whether the project proceeds.

NDOT consultant David Greaves, an engineer working on the project for the consulting firm Gimli Horn on behalf of NDOT, said the Enchanted Circle design relies mainly on speed cushions and signage to reduce speeds and improve safety. "There are 3 E's in traffic calming. Those are education, enforcement, and engineering," Greaves said, adding that engineering is the agency's primary tool to change roadway behavior.

The design presented to the neighborhood calls for clusters of speed cushions at multiple locations along Enchanted Circle Drive. Greaves said the southern end would get one set of cushions between Hidesdale Lane and Drakes Branch Road; a series of cushions is proposed around the main curve and hill (two before Drakes Hill Drive, one on the climb, one at the crest and one on the descent), and two cushions north of Kings Lane before Golden Hill Drive. At each location NDOT proposes three cushion modules across the travel lane where the roadway is at least 24 feet wide.

NDOT cited a 2023 before-and-after study it uses for the program showing average speeds falling from 31 mph to 22 mph and the 80th-percentile speed dropping from 37 mph to 25 mph at sites with speed cushions. The presentation also referenced Federal Highway Administration crash-survivability data noting an 89 percent chance of pedestrian survival at 25 mph compared with much lower survival at higher speeds.

Why it matters: NDOT staff framed the project as part of a broader Vision 0-style safety effort for Nashville. Residents at the meeting said speeding on the hill and around the curve has damaged mailboxes and created safety concerns for families and pedestrians. One resident who identified themselves as having lived on Enchanted Circle for decades said, "We are very much in favor of slowing down the traffic that comes through." Another caller told the meeting, "This plan here doesn't make any sense to me at all," voicing concern about cushions on or near the hill.

Process and ballot: Greaves said the project began after four neighbors applied for traffic calming and NDOT conducted counts and a crash-history review. NDOT will mail ballots to owners of parcels that intersect the project limits. "If the ballot is successful, that means two thirds of those who respond vote yes, then it'll be entered into the construction queue and 8 to 10 months later, the project will be built," Greaves said. He added that the voting window will be six weeks and that results will be published on NDOT's website. Greaves also provided an email contact for questions: n.trafficcalming@nashville.gov.

What the project does not include: NDOT staff emphasized that sidewalks are not part of this quick-build traffic calming project. "Sidewalks are a little more involved ... they often turn into stormwater projects as well, and it's just a different amount of budget and construction time than a project like this," Greaves said, and directed residents wanting sidewalks to Hub Nashville and NDOT's separate sidewalk program.

Technical clarifications and constraints: Greaves said cushions are 6 feet wide so larger emergency vehicles can straddle them, and that NDOT avoids placing vertical measures on steep grades. On spacing he said, "We shoot for between 305 hundred feet" (as stated in the presentation). He also said NDOT measured the roadway at each proposed cushion location to confirm both width and grade are within installation limits.

Residents' concerns and next steps: Attendees repeatedly pressed NDOT on the exact project limits, the number and placement of cushions, accident history for Enchanted Circle (Greaves said crash and pedestrian-incident counts could be provided after the meeting), and whether the ballot would be mailed publicly. Greaves said he would re-check the original application to confirm the limits requested by applicants and that if the ballot fails the current NDOT policy generally allows reapplication after about three years.

The meeting closed with staff reminding attendees that the ballot will be mailed to property owners that intersect the project and that NDOT will post the recorded meeting and the ballot results on Metro Nashville's/NDOT's web channels. Residents wishing to confirm they will receive a ballot were asked to contact NDOT via the traffic calming email address provided.

Ending note: No formal decision was made at the meeting; the next formal step is the six-week ballot to property owners in the project area. If the required two-thirds approval threshold is reached among respondents, NDOT intends to schedule construction in the department's queue.