Commute Options – Memphis Flyer

Jackson McNeil, a self-described “transportation nerd,” was named the new Transportation and Mobility Director for Commute Options, a division of Innovate Memphis, last month.

McNeil succeeds Sylvia Crum in the role. Crum, known for advocating for bicycle-friendly attitudes and infrastructure, now works in Seattle for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The role in Memphis encourages system-wide improvements to transit and mobility here with a focus on promoting alternative transportation (i.e. other than cars).

Originally from Jonesboro, Arkansas, McNeil moved to Memphis in 2012. Here, he focused on Urban Studies for his undergraduate work at Rhodes College and earned a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from the University of Memphis. He then moved to New York City, working for the city’s Department of Transportation. He returned to Memphis more than a year ago.

We caught up with him as he begins his work here to see what might be on the horizon for Memphis transportation. — Toby Sells

Memphis Flyer: What opportunities do you see here? What challenges do you see in Memphis?

Jackson McNeil: Memphis has been designed in such a way that driving a car is often the most convenient — and sometimes physically the only way — to get around our city. The city’s over 300 square miles and, of course, Shelby County is even bigger. We know that a lot of employment centers and major employment hubs are not necessarily located in super convenient places.

The average Memphian spends about $13,000 a year to own, maintain, and gas up a car to get around. So, in a in a city with high poverty rates, that’s not a good equation.

At Commute Options and Innovate Memphis, we really see transportation as one of the key solutions to a lot of the problems that our city faces. Whether that is inequality, or economic opportunity, safety, or improving the environment, these are things that folks care about and I think that oftentimes transportation isn’t clearly connected to those.

What’s an opportunity — a good change — we can make pretty quickly here?

JM: A moral imperative for our city is the issue of pedestrian safety. We’re consistently in the top five most dangerous cities in the country for pedestrians. That’s due in part to the way that our city has been designed.

I think that making our city more walkable not only increases safety, but it makes our communities more desirable. It helps people have more pride in their neighborhoods and get to know their neighbors. That’s a big piece of the transportation puzzle that we have to work on here.

Transit is also a really high priority. We got to see some big wins for [the Memphis Area Transit Authority — MATA] last year getting dedicated funding from the city and county. But we still have a long way to go to see our transit system adequately funded to provide effective service for all Memphians.

Are there any solutions or examples of things that you saw in New York City that we could implement here?

JM: New York City does a lot of things when it comes to promoting other forms of transportation, partly because they don’t really have a choice. There’s only so much room for cars.

New York City also has a really, really strong transportation advocacy scene. They have a lot of folks that are really passionate about it that help raise it to the forefront to local elected officials.

Another thing is that a lot of the neighborhoods there really take pride and ownership in their city streets. A lot of times Memphians see streets just as things for cars to get around.

I really think that there’s an opportunity to learn from cities like New York to show folks that [streets are] one of the largest public spaces in our city. It’s not just for cars, it’s for people. Streets should, ultimately, serve people and shouldn’t be relegated [just for cars].

CHOICES’ Comprehensive Care Center

As the Biden Administration begins the long process of unifying the country, local nonprofits are gearing up for the work that needs to be done.

“We’re cautiously hopeful, you know,” says Commute Options program manager Sylvia Crum.

“I don’t know how long it’ll take for it to really start becoming apparent of what impact we will get to see right here in Memphis, but I’m really pleased that the administration is putting climate change on the forefront and saying, ‘We’ve got to do something to address this.’”

Commute Options, a nonprofit that works to promote alternative commuting methods within the city of Memphis, launched a bike commuting training program late last year. The program, which teaches Memphians how to commute through the city using biking or public transportation, is the first of many planned moves by the organization in 2021.

“We’ve been gathering a very lovely group of volunteers who are so excited to think about how we could help — in a safe and socially distanced way — encourage people who might want to try bicycling for transportation and show off the ability to do that.”

The nonprofit health advocate CHOICES has also begun the year strong. Its new comprehensive care center, which opened last fall, has been accepting patients throughout the pandemic, increasing volume in the latter half of 2020. The new center has allowed the group to expand to prenatal care and birth, something that director of external affairs Katy Leopard calls the “last piece of the puzzle”.

“As CHOICES, we wanted to be able to help people no matter what their choices were around a pregnancy. And so, it really makes sense that people needed to have more autonomy and how they give birth and the birth process,” says Leopard. “Having an out-of-hospital birth center environment that’s led by midwives, where people giving birth have more autonomy and choice, was really important to us. It wasn’t available in Memphis or anywhere near us, so we really felt like our community needed that.”

Just City executive director Josh Spickler says that while not much has changed for the organization with the new administration, they are still feeling the effects of the Trump administration.

“For the most part, our issues are pretty local,” he says. “A couple of exceptions would be that at the end of the last administration, there was a rush to execute five or six people. Federal executions had been on hold for years and years, and the Trump administration brought them back knowing that the Biden administration was going to have to work to stop them again.”

“I would hope that the death penalty becomes an issue, at the congressional level,” he adds. “We just don’t have the resources locally, but that’s one thing that I would hope would change because the state of Tennessee has really shown no interest in doing anything.”