There's Hope

Tonight our family had the privilege of being invited to a community meeting sponsored in part by MTA and the Metro Planning Organization (MPO) designed to inform and discuss Metro Government’s initiatives to improve public transit. Included in those initiatives are plans to expand public transportation routes, improve walking and bike riding options, and to create additional alternatives to vehicle congestion on streets and highways. There were several reasons mentioned why these initiatives are so imperative for Nashville and surrounding counties, but a few of them were the population increase we can expect in the near future, as well as the financial incentives and health benefits of using alternative transportation. Statistics show that families spend almost 20% of their income on transportation costs, and these costs can be significantly reduced by using some sort of public or alternative transportation at least some of the time. It was also mentioned that Tennessee ranks very high in adult and childhood obesity; the savings in our health care costs alone would make a huge impact on our economy if more people walked, biked or bused to their destinations.

I had the opportunity to express to the group the monetary savings we have experienced as a family in addition to the health benefits of walking and bike riding. I was also able to make a shameless plug for this blog, and for those of you that were at the meeting and reading this for the first time, it was a pleasure to meet you. It was great to meet some of the upper management of MTA and others who are considering or using public transportation more frequently. We were very encouraged by the turnout at the meeting, at how many Nashville residents are thinking and talking about transportation alternatives. The comments were insightful and the prospects for public transportation exciting. We all received a little chuckle at my comment noting that the location for the meeting about public transportation and walking alternatives was at a site almost half a mile from the bus stop on a street without sidewalks! So our family walked in the street or sloshed through the muddy grass along the way to attend the meeting, but it was well worth it.

To top of our evening, on the bus ride home we had an unfamiliar occurrence. On our bus route into East Nashville, there are usually one or more young men who must think that whoever uses the most profanity in each sentence (or every other word) wins a trophy. However, this evening the voice that rose above everyone else’s was that of one young man who was reading (very loudly) from a youth Bible. He was reading Psalms, at first hesitant and labored, but as the message got stronger, his courage and volume increased. I waited to hear some other young tough guy tell him to be quiet, but instead everyone respectfully listened. One of the other young men in the group even complimented him. As we were getting off at our stop, I thanked him for sharing his refreshing, positive words with us and encouraged him to keep it up. Today we were refreshed by community initiatives and a young man’s brave persistence. There is hope…