Our favorite week of the year is fast approaching.  The 4th Annual Transit Week is right around the corner and starts April 16.  This week is all about public outreach and events that are designed to encourage ridership and create awareness of transit in the greater Nashville area.  We hope you can make it out to one of these events or at the very least ride the bus!

Mon. April 16 – All A-Board with Mayor Karl Dean
Mayor Karl Dean will help officially kick off Transit Week with one of his regular “Mayor on Board” bus rides. Join in by taking transit to work, out to lunch or somewhere fun this day. Post photos of where you went and tell us how you got there on our Facebook Page.

Tues. April 17 – Catch the Circuit to the Market
Take the FREE Music City Circuit Blue Line to the Nashville Farmers’ Market between 11am-1pm this day & enjoy free giveaways for riders, music, special guests & more inside the Market House. See how fast & easy being green & supporting local businesses can be!

Wed. April 18 – Transit Means Business
Join us at 11:00 a.m. at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce for a discussion of the opportunities and benefits transit brings to your business and Nashville’s economic development overall, including Nashville’s future East-West Connector!

Thurs. April 19 – Music City Star Excursion
Join the Nashville Civic Design Center & take a ride on the Music City Star to Lebanon Station.  We’ll disembark & enjoy a tour of The Mill at Lebanon with food, libations, & more for only $10/person. Sign up ONLINE because space is limited, reservations required—train will be comin’ around the bend at 5:30PM and departing promptly at 5:45PM!  A bus will return you to Nashville by 8:00PM.

What:    Music City Star Excursion
When:   5:30-8 p.m. – April 19, 2012
Where:  Music City Star Station Riverfront

Fri. April 20 – Put the Music in Music City Circuit
Take the FREE Music City Circuit Green Line to the Gulch or Downtown from 6-7pm & enjoy live local music while you ride to dine! Featured Restaurant Partners will be offering Transit Week specials all evening for you this night. Please check www.transitnownashville.org/events for participating restaurants.

Sat. April 21 – Live Green & Healthy – Take Transit to Earth Day!
Take the bus to Earth Day at Centennial Park on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Route # 3 runs on West End) and swing by the Transit Now Nashville booth for giveaways and to learn more about transit. See www.nashvilleearthday.org for more info.

Sun. April 22, 2012 – LIVE IT UP! Downtown Home Tour
Ever wanted to peek into those gorgeous looking downtown lofts & homes?  Catch a glimpse of urban life & enjoy easy access to all types of transit at the LIVE IT UP! Downtown Home Tour.  Visit the DownTown Partnership for tickets & more info!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – March 5, 2012– Transit Now Nashville announces its receipt of a $5,000 grant from the American Public Transit Association (APTA) in support of a new education initiative, Transit Camp—a pilot program designed to develop a core curriculum surrounding public transit options in the Nashville area.

Through this initiative, Transit Now Nashville plans to work with its initial partners to develop a core curriculum focused on how to incorporate public transportation into daily routines as a component of the workplace and living a healthy lifestyle.

Currently designed as a series of five work sessions, Transit Camp will target local businesses that already provide supplemental or full coverage of transit costs for its employees and incoming college freshmen at various Nashville-based higher education institutions.

“With all the recent progress surrounding bus rapid transit on the West End corridor, this is an exciting time for public transit in Nashville. To keep the momentum going, our community needs to embrace existing transit options so that investments into public transit upgrades will continue to occur,” said Betsy Clapsaddle, board member for Transit Now Nashville.

Transit Now Nashville has created the Transit Camp brand to educate the public, increase local ridership and advance public transportation advocacy at the local and regional levels. To learn more about Transit Now Nashville, visit www.transitnownashville.org.

It’s not even

Image via Wikipedia

10:30 AM and I’m already excited at BarCamp because my name got pulled out of the hat for Nancy VanReece’s Social Media Strategy session.  I had a lot of ideas and a buzzer to beat.  Should we strategize for Transit Camp, Transit Week, dedicated funding, or the Transit App.  We went with the app because there were app developers in the audience.  No brainer!  .

So who do we want to target?  Since all of my friends are following us on Facebook, I went with strangers.  We need to reach new people who are already transit users and advocates but haven’t found a place to gather, and those who don’t ride but need to because we can’t sustain our sprawling growth.

So here are some ideas….

• QR Code on stickers at transit stops
• FourSquare set up with popular transit stops
• Develop both an iPhone and an Android platform apps because Android is on cheaper phones and would expand our universe
• Set up a social media plan and use HootSuite to schedule posts/tweets around the more popular times when people check their accounts
• Before the plan, research analytics of your social media pages to find the optimized time to post
• Retweet and reshare something at least once a day
• Create videos to share

More later.  Thanks Nancy and Stacey!

http://nashvitality.org/active/building-active-places/health-impact-assessment.aspx

Report says Nashville lacks enough transportation for seniors
Bridgit Bowden
Nashville Public Radio
June 14, 2011
http://wpln.org/?p=28044

Study shows mass transit lacking in Nashville
Mark Bellinger
News Channel 5
June 14, 2011
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14907767/study-shows-mass-transit-lacking-in-nashville-area

Seniors will face poor transit options in Nashville, study finds
Nashville Business Journal
June 14, 2011
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2011/06/14/seniors-will-face-poor-public-transit.html

Study shows that 150,000 senior citizens in Nashville lack access to transit by 2015
Associated Press
June 14, 2011
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/441ec0875c984ed5aca451c9c198993e/TN–Elderly-Transportation/
Note: also printed in the Tennessean

Report: By 2015, 85 percent of Nashville-area seniors will lack adequate access to mass transit
The City Paper
June 14, 2011
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/report-2015-85-percent-nashville-area-seniors-will-lack-adequate-access-mass-trans