🚦 Talking traffic signals

Good morning and happy Monday.

• Fall is here and so is another week of news.
• Today's weather: Mostly sunny, high of 91 with thunderstorms possible later in the day.

🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Nashville member Connie Harvey!

Today's newsletter is 778 words — a 3-minute read.

If Nashville's traffic signals were described in terms of cell phone technology, a top city engineer says they're working with about an iPhone 6.

Why it matters: That's, of course, kind of bad news since Apple now offers the iPhone 16.

• Mayor Freddie O'Connell is pitching an overhaul of the city's traffic signal system as a foundational piece of his $3.1 billion transportation plan.
• Modernizing traffic signals is so important to the plan, the pro-transportation political group uses a green light signal as a campaign logo.

State of play: Derek Hagerty, assistant chief for transportation systems management for Metro, says the current system works "like setting a watch."

• Based on factors like the time of day, typical rush hour traffic and the speed limit, the city can time its lights to try to give motorists as many green lights as possible.
• "If you're not at max congestion, if there's not a crash in front of you that's throwing things off, you should be able to hit green (light) bands and go through a handful of signals before you have to stop," he says.
• The system can "drift" the same way a wristwatch can lose time, requiring updates every three to five years, Hagerty says. "With the way Nashville grows, there can be a lot of drift" over that time, he says.

Yes, but: This is where the iPhone metaphor comes into play. The system Hagerty described above is a rather crude tool by today's technological standards. Hagerty says that if the transportation ballot measure is approved by voters, it would allow the city to install "smart signals," which are the equivalent of an iPhone 16.

• O'Connell's plan earmarks $158.36 million to upgrade 592 of its approximately 900 signals over 15 years.

By the numbers: Hagerty says national data indicates that improving traffic signal systems improves travel time by about 10%.

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Hagerty says the modernized signals would "see," "talk" and "think" using upgraded technology.

👀 See: Upgrading to "smart signals," as they're called, would provide traffic managers with new detection tools such as video, radar and laser-based lidar technology to sense where congestion occurs.

• "Not only can they see vehicles that are there, but they can see upstream what's coming. They can also detect bicycles, pedestrians and find different types of vehicles (like buses)."

📣 Talk: Hagerty says the city needs to build out its fiber infrastructure so that it can push traffic data to a centralized command center in real time.

• Currently, the city uses outdated cellular-based and old-school phone lines on most of its roads to share traffic data. "We have hard times pushing video and other data. It's not always in real time like we need."

🧠 Think: Hagerty says the city needs to update its software management system for its signals, and utilize artificial intelligence to analyze traffic patterns.

The other side: Emily Evans, a former councilmember who helps lead a grassroots group that opposes the transportation plan, says the issue is not that upgrading traffic signals is a bad idea.

• She says raising the sales tax by a half-percent disproportionately affects poor people, and argues the city should be paying for such upgrades out of its annual capital improvement budget.
• "It's not that all of these things are bad ideas. It's that using a regressive tax to pay for something that we should be doing within our regular budgeting process is a problem," she says.

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🍕 The long-running 12South pizza joint MAFIAoZAs announced it is closing, citing high rent as the reason. (News Channel 5)

💲 Mayor O'Connell announced the hiring of Jenneen Kaufman Reed to serve as the city's finance director. Reed will replace interim director Kevin Crumbo in 2025. (Tennessean)

Tennessee's vaccination rate for kindergarteners is slipping. (WPLN)

Instagram is launching Teen Accounts in September, with built-in protections limiting who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.

The impact: More protections for teens, and peace of mind for parents.

Learn more.

California apparently struck a chord with with Axios Nashville readers.

• After we shared a Music Monday playlist inspired by the Sunshine State, readers shared several songs they wanted to added.

So we're turning our gaze out west for a second week.

• Thank you to readers Brad O., Thomas O., Ryan M., Adam S., Jerry B., Mark M. and Dennis G. for their suggestions.
• Be sure to follow our playlist on Spotify and reply to this email with any ideas for a future Music Monday theme.

Will Levis turned the ball over three times, including a costly pick-6, as the Titans fell to the Packers 30-14 at Nissan Stadium yesterday.

• The loss wasn't all on Levis, as the Titans' offensive line surrendered eight sacks.

Zoom in: The Titans had to suffer the indignity of Packers fans shouting their trademark "Go Pack go!" chant for much of the fourth quarter.

Starting in September, Instagram Teen Accounts have automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Plus, only parents can approve safety setting changes for teens under 16.

What this means: Built-in protections for teens, and peace of mind for parents.

Learn more.

Hooray for readers Deborah D., Jimmie Lynn R., JaVida J., Elizabeth S. and Ben P. for correctly answering our Axios Nashville-themed quiz questions from last week.

Our picks:

🧀 Nate is wearing a piece of styrofoam cheese on his head in celebration of the Packers' scintillating win yesterday.

🤘 Adam is scrappin' and ballin' and livin' it up in Colorado for a few days.

This newsletter was edited by Jen Ashley.