Why we need a TMA.
In Downtown Memphis, there are two very different camps. One group that believes that it is easy to get around Downtown, that you can bike to nearly anywhere, that parking can be fun (and simple), there are plenty of places you can walk to, and in general that we’re doing just fine. The other group will tell you that traffic Downtown is a headache, you will never find a place to park, it is not safe to bike or walk, and good luck trying to get anywhere on a bus or trolley!
Depending on the day, time, or season, you might identify with both of these perspectives.
Both groups are right! Downtown Memphis is safe, accessible, easy to reach by bike, transit, or car, and is the most walkable neighborhood in the city. But it can be hard to plan your trip by bus, or scary to bike if you’re uncertain about your route; additionally, there are sidewalks that need repair, and sometimes the closest available parking is a few blocks from your destination.
We know that getting around in Downtown and the nearby neighborhoods isn’t always easy or as simple as it should be.
This is why the Core TMA convened as a collaborative group of planners, city officials, community representatives, and advocates - to put their minds and efforts together to promote and expand transportation access and mobility options that are already available in Memphis (and to add a few new tools to the toolbox).
Previous brainstorming and critical thinking put us on the path to creating a TMA. In the mid 2010s, our partners were looking for ways to support the growing needs of increasingly new developments, residents, and businesses in Downtown without spending all of the finite land and resource budgets on building more and more parking. The 2019 Downtown Parking Study was commissioned to solve for these concerns and offer direct recommendations on how to meet the rising demand for transportation solutions without turning Downtown into one big parking lot.
The Downtown Parking Study gave us three main recommendations: to reimagine the Downtown Parking Authority as a new Downtown Mobility Authority; to build any new parking sparingly and strategically; and to expand our toolbox to include more mobility tools. Rather than continuing to build more new parking as a knee-jerk solution for transportation demand, we learned to prioritize using what we already have and to add ways to reduce the need for more cars and more parking Downtown, while adding improvements for biking and walking.
Enter the Core TMA! As a group, we work to identify changing mobility trends, locally and nationally, to forecast what our needs will look like in the future, and build programs and strategies that solve not just for where to put cars but, even better, how to move people in the most efficient, equitable, and sustainable ways possible.
Read more about what a TMA is and why we need one here.
We believe that a great Downtown should be bustling with people, should look and feel alive, and should encourage you to interact with your environment and with each other. That’s not really possible in a car. So whether you bike, walk, bus, scoot, roll or even drive Downtown, once you get here we want you to have choices.
