Rogers Anderson

Mayor of Williamson County, and current Chairman of Mayor's Caucus of Middle Tennessee

“Well one of the things is certainly using services like Hytch. Carpooling is another simple way that people often times don’t discuss as much as we can… I’m very fortunate that I don’t have to go into Nashville every single day but I go up a couple of times a week for different meetings and it’s always congestion. It’s always packed with cars. And of course, for some reason, in Middle Tennessee we don’t honor the HOV lane. We just think it’s another lane to drive in.

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Stephen Bland

President & CEO - Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA)

“Probably one of the challenges Nashville has is its design. We’re second only to Indianapolis in the number of interstate highways that basically intersect in the middle of the city. So you have these huge facilities dumping tens of thousands of cars every day into the same confined space and almost no matter what you do, if you do a widening of I-24 then it just pushes that problem farther down. It’s pretty simple with an app like Hytch or a service like the MTA. If we get more people into fewer vehicles, it’s going to help all of us. It’s going to help the environment. It’s going to help traffic. We will even make a few friends.

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Matthew Bourlakas

President & CEO - Goodwill

"There are many challenges with our clients with our employee population that something like Hytch fits beautifully into in terms of this shared ride to a common destination or a common location that both benefit. I'm going that way, I have a ride. You need to get to where I'm going, you don't have a ride. Let's figure out how these two things work together."

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Glen Casada

TN Representative and House Majority Leader

“[Hytch] is a good idea, Hytchin’ a ride. Any kind of sharing is going to help.”

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Karl Dean

Former Nashville Mayor

“I think we need to look at all forms of transit, which would include making the city more walkable, making it more bikeable. I think rideshare programs are a great idea. I think having, certainly looking at mass transit something we need to be doing and something we are doing.”

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Gary Gaston

Executive Director - Nashville Civic Design Center

“I don’t personally believe in one silver bullet that’s going to resolve all of our traffic issues and I think that’s why... we should be open to that. Thinking that technology is changing everyday, so how do we address those changes to help resolve the problems we have.”

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Mayor Rick Graham

Mayor, City of Spring Hill

"We're very excited about Hytch because we are looking at every different way that we can possibly reduce cars on the road...These are avenues we are looking at. I work with a lot of the other mayors in this region, which some of them you have already met and road around with and we are all in the same boat. It's only going to get worse. We can't widen enough lanes and even with mass transit and things like that we are looking at. So, we need a lot of choices and that's where you guys come in perfectly."

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Jimmy Granbery

President & CEO - HG Hill Realty Company

"We are trying everything. We're building sidewalks, we're trying to connect to the Greenways, we're building in urban environments, going vertical, adding density, Every tool in the tool box to try to help out. Building bus stops on our properties, adding B-cycle stations." "Build less parking. Parking is expensive. It is north of 20,000 for a parking space and that doesn't even include the land. If you can reduce that in some form or fashion, it just makes huge economic sense."

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Jo Ann Graves

President & CEO, Nashville Transit Alliance

“Nashville is now the ‘It’ city...Our population is increasing by 100 people a day in Nashville, and with those people come their vehicles and so, people all of a sudden are starting to go, ‘Where are all these cars coming from?’ Well it’s because we are the ‘It’ city and everybody wants to be here.”

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Erin Hafkenschiel

Director of Transportation & Sustainability - Office of the Mayor

“I think that Nashville is really booming right now and the statistic that we often use is that 80 new people move to Nashville a day...and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. The region is expected to grow by a million people by 2035. We actually are 3rd in the country in job growth and 8th in the country in population growth, which really says that’s it’s the jobs that are driving the growth. So, that’s great for Nashvillians but of course any time you try and fit more people into a finite amount of space, it’s going to lead to some congestion issues. So, we are getting really creative about how to better utilize our finite space that we have on our roads.”

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Carol Hudler

Executive Director, Cumberland Region Tomorrow

“We all realize it may start with Davidson County but we need to solve traffic and our transportation systems regionally and there’s a lot for other counties to be thinking about at this time. So while a lot of folks are focused on Davidson, in the other counties we’re out there having those discussions and having some great conversations,”

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Mayor Randall Hutto

Wilson Mayor

“Hytch is one of those things and if we can get the word out on the app, right, you know, that people can connect with because everybody today has a cell phone.”

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Bill Ketron

Tennessee State Senator - Candidate for Rutherford County Mayor

"Well, my concern right now is that we need to identify either one or two ways, either we go down the middle of the interstate with some type of monorail system or lightrail over on the CSX current rail line coming in at 32 miles from Rutherford County, because it is the busiest corridor in the state of Tennessee. The concern that I have, let's go ahead and identify it because, once you identify it, you have to locate, what I call land ports, or parking areas along the way and all that property is just being bought up. The growth is so tremendous here. People are coming in and buying all that property and if we don't have that, we are just going to be stuck with just a point A to point B, as opposed to having ways to get off and get on along that 32 mile corridor.

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Michelle Lacewell

Deputy Director of the Greater Nashville Regional Council

"Well there are a lot of things that are either under way or will be under way soon. One is sitting here in Hytch right? Taking addition cars off the road, whether that's because you have made the effort to coordinate your commute in the morning and the evening with someone else to share a car, or it's because you've decided to bike or walk to work if you are lucky enough to live that close to your office or your place of employment. There's also just improving how we use our roadways."

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Matt Largen

President - WIlliamson Inc.

“Hytch is such a powerful tool to help alleviate this traffic challenge that we have in Williamson County and Middle Tennessee. And I think it’s one of those apps that won’t have a linear progression of users. It will just be exponential as more people use it and they get comfortable and start to meet their neighbors, their friends, their colleagues or people in the same office complex. I think more and more people will adopt this and this is one of the very cheap ways that we can get out of this traffic problem we have in Nashville. In all seriousness too, one of the other challenges from traffic especially in Williamson County, we promote this as a very family friendly city. And I know this as a parent of two young kids, time you miss out with your kids is time you’ll never get back. This Hytch app can definitely play a role in improving family life here in Williamson County.”

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Mayor Corey Napier

Mayor of the City of Thompson Station

"It's pretty rough these days and it's not getting any better for the foreseeable future, due to infrastructure constraints, and we really are a transit hub today, but we will be even more so in fhe future. People are moving here because they get the proximity to the amenities, but they still want the rural vibe, the small town feel."

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Toks Omishakin

Chief of Environment & Planning - TDOT

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Lee Rucks

President - Leadership Middle TN

“I love the carpool idea, obviously, any type of mass transit. I know people that live in Wilson County take the train, the Music City Star. So, that’s one option or several options.”

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Ralph Schulz

President & CEO - Nashville Chamber of Commerce

“I think Nashvillians just need to have alternatives. Ride bikes when you can ride bikes. Walk when you can walk. Hytch rides with other people when you can Hytch rides with other people. I mean there’s no question, the more people you put into a vehicle, the better off we’re all going to be. So, you know, you just got to use the alternatives to get around and be patient. Growth is good but it brings a lot of traffic with it.”

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Mike Sparks

Tennessee State Representative - Smyrna Area

“My sister works downtown and I called her yesterday and called her last week when I was leaving--she doesn’t utilize the bus system here in Davidson county. We’re going to Rutherford County. But, ironically, the bus, believe it or not, beat us back home…”

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Eric Stuckey

Franklin City Administrator

"Well, I don't think they are respected very much, doesn't seem like it...We made a trip to Denver recently with the Williamson County Chamber, Williamson, Inc., and one of the things we saw there was HOV lanes are serious. They really enforce them and it's used as a way to manage dynamics of traffic at higher peak times, etcertera. So, I think we might be able to take some lessons there and get serious about it as a way to encourage the carpooling and the high efficiency vehicles and some of the other things that might help."

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Amy Wilhite

Former Executive Director - AEGIS Foundation

"Hytch has been awesome. I love the concept of commuting. People just don't do that anymore and it's so simple, but it's just something we should all think more of and do. My husband works in Nashville and we've even "Hytched" together. You don't really think about all the traffic around you because you've got someone to sit there and talk to. I think that's a huge way to start off the day and really alleviate stress."

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