NDOT presents final designs for Cumberland Avenue traffic calming; residents ask for extra measures near Bixler Avenue

NASHVILLE — The Nashville Department of Transportation on Sept. 17 presented final plans for traffic calming on Cumberland Avenue, including four modular speed cushions, continuous edge-line narrowing to create two 9-foot travel lanes, and an online ballot that must win at least 66% approval from eligible property owners to move the project into construction.

The designs are intended to reduce vehicle speeds on the corridor, which NDOT staff said records speeds at the high end of neighborhood-street ranges. David Greaves, an engineer with the Nashville Department of Transportation, told residents the project is part of NDOT’s traffic calming program and is designed to support the department’s Vision Zero goal that “nobody should have to be killed or seriously injured on our public streets.”

NDOT described the primary treatments as modular rubber speed cushions, each 6 feet wide and bolted to the pavement, with intentionally spaced gaps to allow larger emergency vehicles to straddle the cushions. Greaves said the city’s limited before-and-after study from 2023 on six projects showed average speeds falling from 31 mph to 22 mph and the 80th-percentile speed falling from 37 mph to 25 mph after cushions…