National Transportation Leaders Support Acceleration for Nashville's Choose How You Move Program

Note: Please contact Rachael Dussuau at [email protected] or Alesia Howard at [email protected] about this Press Release.

This week, AmericaFWD's Project Delivery Accelerator Lab conducted a three-day technical assistance convening with the Choose How You Move transportation improvement program, Nashville's voter-approved plan to modernize transportation and give everyone safer, more reliable ways to get around.

More than 30 Nashville officials and program leaders convened across key project delivery topics including planning, design, procurement, construction, right of way, and key stakeholder engagement to build a comprehensive understanding of the strategies, benchmarks, and coordination structures needed to move sidewalk, signal, and Complete Streets projects from planning to delivery.

On Wednesday, AmericaFWD presented its findings and recommendations directly to Nashville's program leadership, delivering recommendations designed to accelerate the projects.

Key AmericaFWD recommendations include:

• Capitalize on the Mandate for Change: Leverage the public mandate to implement bold, systemic infrastructure updates.
• Scale Internal Project Management Capacity: Build up internal staffing to match increasing project volumes.
• Structure Delivery in Increments: Establish a phased delivery strategy broken into predictable increments to manage the multi-billion-dollar project pipeline efficiently and maintain steady construction momentum.
• Embed Advanced Program Technology: Incorporate modern technological systems early into the planning and design processes to accelerate project delivery timelines and improve long-term system coordination.
• Enhance Community Engagement Plans: Develop targeted outreach that is embedded in full life of projects.

"Nashville voters asked us to fundamentally change how this city moves, and we take that seriously," said Choose How You Move Chief Program Officer, Sabrina Sussman. "Bringing AmericaFWD here to work side by side with our partner agencies means their recommendations are grounded in our real challenges, our real partnerships, and our real timelines. The expertise they bring and the national perspective they carry will sharpen how we deliver and strengthen how we coordinate. We're grateful AmericaFWD invested three days in Nashville, and we're committed to making the most of our learnings."

"What we witnessed over the last three days is the hard work of aligning procurement, utility, and engineering teams who respect the complexity of this work and are focused on execution," said Director of AmericaFWD's Project Delivery Accelerator Lab and former Washington State Secretary of Transportation, Roger Millar. "Collaboration with partner agencies, utilities, the business community, and the public is also at the forefront. AmericaFWD's role is to inject hard-won national lessons and concrete delivery expertise into Nashville's strategy, helping the city avoid typical delivery pitfalls, maximize federal matching dollars, and accelerate project timelines. The commitment to residents is clear, and Nashville has the leadership, the partnership, and the technical foundation to deliver on its promise."

Roger Millar and Sabrina Sussman are available for interviews. Please contact Rachael Dussuau at [email protected] or Alesia Howard at [email protected] to arrange availability.

About Choose How You Move

Choose How You Move is Nashville's voter-approved transportation improvement program, supported by 66% of voters in 2024 and funded by a dedicated half-cent sales surcharge. As the largest capital program in Nashville's history, the $3.1 billion initiative delivers critical upgrades across all of Davidson County: smart signals at nearly 600 intersections, 54 miles of high-capacity transit with 24/7/365 service, 86 miles of new sidewalks, and safety improvements across 78 miles of the Vision Zero High-Injury Network. Whether you walk, roll, ride, bike, or drive, Choose How You Move is building a Nashville that's safer and easier to get around. For more information, visit nashville.gov/transit.

About AmericaFWD

AmericaFWD is a national movement powered by community voices to fix the broken infrastructure fueling America's affordability crisis within one generation. Visit www.AmericaFWD.org to join us! And be sure to read our 2025 State of Play, where we outline the strategy to turn federal potential into community power that bridges the gap between policymakers, community voices, and the leaders who get things done.