The Metro Nashville Council will soon begin considering a bill that would ban right turns at red traffic lights in Nashville’s urban core.
The bill, filed by District 30 council member Sandra Sepulveda July 28, would eliminate right turns on red at intersections throughout Nashville’s dense Urban Services District, which covers nearly 200 square miles of Davidson County.
“Every person should be able to walk or bike across the street without fearing for their life,” Sepulveda said in a statement about the bill on her social media pages. “Yet Nashville continues to see pedestrians killed while crossing our roads. No turn on red is a straightforward, proven step that can help prevent these tragedies. We’ve studied the issue long enough. It’s time
to act.”
The bill has accumulated a dozen members of the 40-member council as co-sponsors thus far. Along with Sepulveda, that includes Ginny Welsch, Quin Evans-Segall, Emily Benedict, Zulfat Suara, Brenda Gadd, Sandy Ewing, Rollin Horton, Delishia Porterfield, Terry Vo, Sean Parker and Russ Bradford. It’ll be on the agenda for its first reading at the council’s Aug. 4 meeting.
The bill would require the Nashville Department of Transportation to place signs that state “No Turns On Red” at all signalized intersections within the Urban Services District, with emergency vehicles exempted.
If it’s passed, the bill gives NDOT 90 days to identify all signalized intersections within the Urban Services District, develop an implementation schedule, install or modify traffic control devices as necessary and identify any intersections where turning right on red should remain permitted.
It also requires the city to conduct a public education campaign before full implementation begins. After that, the bill requests that law enforcement officers issue only warnings for violations during the first 90 days post-implementation, “unless the violation contributes to a collision or creates an immediate danger to another roadway user.”
Under the legislation, NDOT would be allowed to designate intersections where right turns on red are permitted, but only after completing an engineering and safety study “demonstrating that such movement will not materially increase risk to pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users or other roadway users.”
The bill comes amid a rash of pedestrian deaths on Nashville roads this year. So far, there have been 28, with Gallatin Pike, Dickerson Pike, Nolensville Pike and Murfreesboro Pike particularly unsafe for pedestrians.
One of the latest occurred just days after the bill was filed, when an 87-year-old driver, Thomas Cahill, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, ran a red light at the intersection of Broadway and Fourth Avenue in the early afternoon Aug. 1. He struck multiple pedestrians who were using the crosswalk, one of them fatally — Timothy Wedlock, 58, a prominent Australian insurance broker based in Sydney. Three others were injured.
Sepulveda notes that this isn’t a new idea. NDOT's Connect Downtown action plan for transportation improvement in Nashville’s urban core from April 2024 suggested limiting or outright eliminating right turns on red in key areas.
The plan didn't, however, call for a blanket ban across the entire Urban Services District.
“Limiting or eliminating right turns on red in a congested area like downtown Nashville can significantly improve safety for people crossing an intersection,” the plan reads. “Connect Downtown recommends consideration of right-turn restrictions at intersections with the highest volumes of pedestrians.”
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: Nashville Council to weigh banning right turns at red traffic lights
