The greater Nashville metro area is turning into the epitome of urban sprawl. After touring the proposed track area yesterday, it was easy to see that the investors and developers will soon be circling the Almaville/840 area like a flock of buzzards.
That’s why I’m not sure where the case against increased traffic for bicyclist comes in here. If not the track, what? Subdivisions, strip malls, warehouses, or the worst traffic offenders: mega schools. I frequently have to ride through all that in my Joe B. Jackson & Hwy 41 neck of the woods.
I don’t like the idea of a track either and wouldn't want to live anywhere near it with the light, noise, and shooting. But I come at it from a different perspective; it’s an environmental disaster. Just when we need to be turning the corner on the fossil fuel fantasy, they want to erect a shrine to it.
With the current policy of growth at any cost from our short sighted national, state, and local leaders, do you really think they are going to let a few pesky bicyclists stand in their way? They're all salivating at the thought of the track builders $30+ million investment pool to feed their tax base.
Look, my point here is that if we don’t want endless congestion and environmental degradation, we as a society need to look much deeper and start making wise, sustainable choices. We need to start looking forward 50, 100, 250 years out Instead of 1, 5, or 20. We need to look beyond our families, our club, and our communities and realize how our actions affect the world. Do you think we are all not culpable for the western fires, the gulf coast storms, or the melting of sea ice? The science is in, if we drive, heat/cool our homes we are. Where do you imagine all the climate/covid-19 refugees are going to want to locate? Probably the mid United States.
If the track does become reality it could eventually wither due to a lack of, or expense of fuel - If we make the correct environmental policy choices that render fossil fuels obsolete. Maybe then the county could commandeer it for a bike track, greenway, or nature park.
Why should I care? I don’t have any kids. But I do care. I care for the kids present and future, the ones that I’ll never meet, here and on the other side of the world. I’d like them to grow up on a planet that has as much beauty and diversity as the one I inhabited.
We need to demand smarter transportation, housing, and long term thinking from our leaders. We need to make smarter personal choices ourselves. It will probably cause us to relinquish some of our material desires and automotive freedoms but that seems like a reasonable tradeoff for the future of our planet.
The world will still be here turning 500 years from now. Whether humans are on it and what their quality of life will be, that’s another matter.