Katherine McDonell

Guest columnist

Katherine McDonell is a neurologist at Vanderbilt.

As a physician and a parent, I was devastated to hear that Brady Gaulke was killed riding a scooter on Demonbreun Street last month.

Mayor David Briley is absolutely right that this tragedy calls for immediate action, but banning scooters is the wrong response.

That strategy only doubles down on our extraordinarily dangerous status quo built around cars and SUVs. Rather than blaming the victim or his mode of transportation, we need to fix our deadly infrastructure and provide space for all people to get around safely.

More:Nashville likely to see fewer electric scooters before selection process — or complete ban

A dangerous intersection

I know the intersection where Gaulke was killed very well. I commute by bicycle on Demonbreun daily and was hit by a careless driver at this same intersection while bicycling home from work two years ago.

Many of us who rely on this route have been urging Metro for years to make safety improvements that would protect everyone who uses this street – simple changes that could have prevented Gaulke’s death.

Over 100 crashes have occurred in the last two years within a two-block radius of Demonbreun and 14th Avenue, but unfortunately, nothing has been fixed and this street remains dangerous by design.

Building infrastructure for scooters, just like bicycles, makes our streets safer for everyone. A recent study based on 13 years of data in 12 cities showed that building protected bike lanes — those with physical separation from traffic — resulted in 44% fewer fatalities for all road users – bicyclists, pedestrians, and drivers alike.

There is an indisputable demand for more transportation options in Nashville. Since the introduction of scooters last May, over 1.8 million trips have been taken, with an average distance of over 1 mile. Yes, some of those people are tourists, but they are also commuters going to the office, construction workers traveling to job sites and people using them to connect with transit and parking lots all over the urban core. Some 500 trips are taken every morning during peak commute hours between 7 and 9 a.m.

Only 15% of trips take place after 9 p.m. With rapidly worsening traffic, skyrocketing parking prices and WeGo transit service cuts, Nashville should make it as easy and as safe as possible for all people in this city to get around without driving alone.

Plan needs implementation

Currently, there are no protected bicycle lanes downtown, where the most bicyclists, scooter riders and pedestrians use our streets. Nashville has had a comprehensive plan in place since 2017 to improve infrastructure for walking and bicycling in Nashville, including a core network of physically separated and protected downtown bike lanes.

However, implementation of these projects keeps getting rejected, and the city has failed to make any tangible progress on bicycle infrastructure since the WalknBike plan was enacted two years ago.

This must change if we are serious about saving lives. I have written a petition to call on Briley and Metro Public Works to start by releasing a plan of action to make Demonbreun safe for all road users in the next 30 days.

Our best hope for preventing another death like Gaulke’s is not to ban one of the few transportation options we have in Nashville, but to design our streets so that everyone can get around safely, no matter what type of vehicle they choose to ride.

Katherine McDonell is a neurologist at Vanderbilt.