NDOT shows preliminary traffic-calming plan for Winthorn Drive; residents push for fewer speed cushions

David Greaves, an engineer with Nashville’s Department of Transportation (NDOT), presented a preliminary traffic-calming plan for Winthorn Drive at a virtual neighborhood meeting on Aug. 27, 2025, saying the design is a draft for discussion and will be revised after community feedback.

The session matters because NDOT designs aim to reduce vehicle speeds to lower the risk of serious injury and death under Nashville’s Vision Zero goals. Residents reported frequent high-speed driving on Winthorn, including unreported incidents, and pushed for fewer, better‑placed vertical calming devices and safeguards for emergency vehicles and drainage.

Greaves said the project segment runs between Glen Park Drive and the Bridal Parkway bridge, measured an 85th‑percentile speed of 30 mph, counted 938 vehicles on the study day (as reported in the meeting), recorded roadway widths of about 19–22 feet, and found two crashes involving a pedestrian or cyclist in the past 10 years. He described the traffic‑calming toolkit (speed cushions, speed tables/raised crossings, radar feedback signs, pavement narrowing, bulb-outs, chicanes and mini‑roundabouts) and explained design tradeoffs such as cost, emergency‑vehicle impact and drainage.

"The reason that they have those gaps ... is to reduce the impact to emergency response vehicles," Greaves said, explaining that speed cushions are typically modular rubber sections about 3 inches tall that are bolted to…