One Year of Choose How You Move: Mayor O'connell Marks Year of Progress by Joining Community to Cut Ribbon on Latest Improvements

On the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Choose How You Move transportation improvement program, Mayor Freddie O'Connell cut the ribbon on a new queue jump lane for public transit on Murfreesboro Road and announced the first-of-its-kind Journey Pass program that allows qualifying Nashvillians to ride WeGo at no cost to them.

"A year ago, we were seeing our traffic worsen and our infrastructure fall farther behind. But here we stand one year later with a plan for generational change that listened to the 66,000 pieces of feedback Nashvillians gave us, and we've moved from referendum to ribbon cuttings," Mayor Freddie O'Connell said. "This is government that works. This is putting our dollars to work in a way that improves all of our lives and brings down the average cost of transportation for Nashville households."

In the first year of the Choose How You Move program, Metro has moved to implement $163 million in projects that will serve as the foundation for all the changes still to come.
Chief Program Officer Sabrina Sussman said, "We are prioritizing projects that directly touch Nashvillians lives. With a mix of short-, medium-, and long-term investments, we are modernizing outdated technology, making roads safer regardless of how you use them, and caring for our fixed and low-income neighbors with programs like Journey Pass."

Journey Pass

Today celebrates the official launch of Nashville's first-ever income-based free fare program for eligible Davidson County residents. Journey Pass makes no-cost access to public transit available to Nashvillians already enrolled in Metro social service programs. The program's next phase, enabling income-based eligibility, will start in 2026.

To date, 2,500 Nashvillians have already enrolled in the Journey Pass, and have taken more than 10,000 transit trips. Early registration events were cohosted by WeGo and Metro agencies including Metro Development and Housing Agency, Metro Action Commission, and Metro Public Health Department.

To ease the financial burden created by the ongoing lapse in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits due to the federal government shutdown, WeGo, the Mayor's Office, and Metro departments have added additional Journey Pass signup opportunities for current SNAP benefit recipients, the full list of opportunities is available at Nashville.gov/Food.

To see future sign-up events for Journey Pass and the growing list of Metro agencies participating in the first phase of the program, head to the WeGo resource page.

Watch a video about the Edge O Lake queue jump

To help move traffic more efficiently, Mayor O'Connell joined the Choose How You Move team, WeGo, and Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT) teams to cut the ribbon on the city's first Choose How You Move queue jump project. The Murfreesboro Pike, Edge O Lake queue jump creates a right-hand lane for buses to use to pass backlogged vehicle traffic. When the bus arrives at the intersection of Murfreesboro Road and Edge O Lake, a special signal will allow the bus to pass through the intersection 5-7 seconds before other vehicle traffic. That bypass opportunity saves up to 4 minutes of travel time by allowing buses to bypass 1,400 feet of queued traffic.

Moving buses more efficiently and safely through intersections is a benefit to all road users. Data repeatedly shows that when buses run on time, conveniently, and reliably, more people choose to ride, lightening individual car traffic on the roadway.

The Murfreesboro Road Route 55 bus route had the highest system-wide ridership in Q3 of 2025, so WeGo and the Choose How You Move team put early emphasis on improving reliability of service on that corridor. Overall, WeGo ridership is up 4% year to date.

One Year of Choose How You Move

The day after 66% of voters approved of Choose How You Move, Mayor O'Connell listed three preliminary priorities: setting up a new transportation advisory committee, hiring a Chief Program Officer, and holding information sessions for venders interested in working on the program.

Within the first four months, Metro Council approved a supplemental budget request that funded work on 11 foundational projects. This funding also unlocked WeGo's first major service expansion giving riders more hours and more options.

The Metro FY26 operating budget passed in June funded Choose How You Move operations and improvements, like 29 officers for Nashville's first Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) transit safety division. Just last month, Choose How You Move announced the latest $104 million in capital projects that represent the next steps toward a better transportation future for all Nashvillians. Those projects prioritized Nolensville Pike and Gallatin Pike, as well as key downtown routes as our first All-Access Corridors to see significant movement.

WeGo Ride Partnerships

With an eye toward improving transportation options for more residents, Mayor O'Connell also announced 19 new partnerships in the WeGo Ride program since November 2024. The WeGo Ride program allows schools, businesses, and other organizations the chance to offer their employees or students the opportunity to ride at no cost to them.

The program predates Choose How You Move, but it is an important tool for increasing ridership, giving daily commuters more options, and decreasing congestion in key portions of the city.

Since the beginning of the year, WeGo has added the following partners to the WeGo Ride program:

• 97 Wallace LLC
• Crossroads Campus
• Amazon
• NICE
• Alliance Berstein
• Aimbridge Hospitality
• A. Marshall Hospitality
• Barge Design Solutions Inc
• Fifth and Broadway
• Grand Hyatt Nashville
• Hilton Nashville Downtown
• Nashville Predators/Bridgestone
• Renaissance Nashville Hotel
• The Hermitage Hotel
• The Westin Nashville
• Union Station Hotel
• Room In the Inn
• The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)
• Nashville Symphony

In all, there are 60 WeGo Ride partners.