A union of Nashville rideshare and taxi drivers said some of its members are being targeted disproportionately — and even racially profiled — by two Nashville Department of Transportation traffic officers.
The Tennessee Drivers Union, consisting of roughly 300 card-carrying Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers working and living in Nashville, has been circulating a petition highlighting those concerns and others about traffic enforcement around Lower Broadway.
The petition urges NDOT to remove and reassign two traffic enforcement officers from the Lower Broadway area, citing multiple “observed and documented” instances when “enforcement actions appear to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with fairness, professionalism and the intended purpose of traffic regulations.”
Both officers are identified by name in the petition, but neither responded to requests from The Tennessean for comment.
“We believe this action is necessary to restore trust and professionalism within the transportation ecosystem serving Nashville’s residents and visitors,” the petition reads.
The union’s president, Joseph Hill, said one of the traffic officers has been “specifically targeting” Arab, Asian, Latino and African drivers, in effect “carrying out a campaign of harassment and racial discrimination.”
“We’ve surveyed both White and non-White drivers, and hundreds of drivers agree that he is the main problem right now,” Hill said. “We’re calling on the city to immediately fire him because of this massive harassment campaign that he’s been conducting.”
NDOT officials pushed back in a statement, saying none of the allegations against the two parking enforcement officers have been substantiated. But the statement also noted that NDOT plans to “address the matter swiftly” in accordance with Nashville’s civil service rules and policies if any of the union’s complaints are determined to be true.
“To our knowledge, parking enforcement officers have been following all applicable laws and regulations in their enforcement efforts,” NDOT’s statement reads. “Officers are issuing citations to taxicabs that are parked, standing or soliciting rides with doors open in the active loading zone or other areas not intended for loading and unloading, which is against the law.”
In its petition, the union said that it has video recordings and other supporting evidence indicating that a “significant number of citations issued (by) both NDOT officers have lacked merit,” and that in some cases those citations have been dismissed in the courtroom. An NDOT spokesperson said the department hadn't received any evidence from the group.
Along with their allegations of racial profiling and disproportionate targeting of certain drivers, the union said NDOT is issuing tickets unfairly, including to drivers who were actively loading or unloading passengers, and “displaying a consistently hostile and disrespectful attitude toward taxi drivers.”
Nashville’s Traffic and Parking Commission earlier this year approved the Downtown Rideshare Program, which created about two dozen rideshare pickup and drop-off zones within existing loading zones and metered parking areas throughout downtown.
They operate on limited hours, just Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m., and offer rideshare drivers a maximum of three minutes to wait before they must leave a rideshare zone.
Hill, the Tennessee Drivers Union president, said it’s a start.
He and others in Nashville’s rideshare industry have been having conversations with Metro Nashville Council members and Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office about how to curb what the drivers call “the harassment we’ve been facing downtown” since 2024.
The rideshare zones have been helpful, Hill said, but he claimed there's been a “massive increase” in how much drivers are being ticketed in 2026. Hill said in some cases, drivers report having received five tickets per week, some of which can clock in at more than $100.
“Hundreds of us agree that we will continue to organize until we see this change,” Hill said. “We put forward our demands, and now we just have to see what happens. If not, we’ll continue putting our pressure.”
Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him with questions, tips and story ideas at ahornbostel@tennessean.com.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Rideshare union says 2 NDOT officers racially target drivers
