4th Annual Nashville Transportation Demand Management Summit
About this Event
Moving Beyond the Plan: Implementing TDM
How do communities move transportation plans from ideas to action?
Join Nashville Connector and the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure for the 4th Annual Nashville Transportation Demand Management Summit on Friday, September 18, 2026, at Nissan Stadium.
This year’s theme, Moving Beyond the Plan: Implementing TDM, will explore how partnerships, policy, infrastructure, programs, and innovation can turn transportation plans into meaningful improvements for commuters, employers, developments, major destinations, and communities.
Transportation Demand Management, commonly known as TDM, uses programs, policies, services, and incentives to expand transportation choices and help people travel more efficiently. TDM can increase access to transit, encourage carpooling and vanpooling, support walking and bicycling, improve the daily commute, reduce parking demand, and help communities make the most of their transportation investments.
The Summit will bring together transportation leaders, government agencies, employers, developers, venue operators, planners, nonprofit organizations, and community partners from Nashville and across the region.
What to Expect
Attendees will hear from transportation and community leaders working to:
- Turn regional and local transportation plans into action
- Expand reliable and convenient transportation choices
- Connect development decisions with transit access and ridership
- Improve daily commutes and employee transportation programs
- Manage transportation for stadiums, entertainment venues, and major events
- Balance access, operations, public safety, and neighborhood impacts
- Strengthen collaboration among public agencies, employers, developers, and community partners
- Advance Nashville’s forthcoming TDM Strategic Plan
The program will include a keynote address, leadership conversations, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and practical examples that attendees can apply within their organizations and communities.
Agenda
🕑: 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM
Breakfast, Registration and Networking
🕑: 09:00 AM - 09:15 AM
Welcome to the 4th Annual TDM Summit
Info: The opening session welcomes attendees and introduces this year’s theme, Moving Beyond the Plan: Implementing Transportation Demand Management. Speakers will set the stage for a day focused on turning transportation plans into action through leadership, collaboration and practical implementation. The session will also recognize TDM Week, connect the Summit’s focus to Nashville’s transportation priorities and welcome attendees to Nissan Stadium.
🕑: 09:15 AM - 09:50 AM
The Power of Choice: Moving TDM from Strategy to Standard Practice
Host: Jonathan Hopkins, TDM-CP, CEO, Smart Mobility Associates
Info: Communities cannot build their way out of every transportation challenge. Investments in transit, sidewalks, bikeways and other mobility infrastructure are essential, but infrastructure alone does not change how people travel. Transportation Demand Management helps communities maximize those investments by making transportation choices practical, understandable and attractive.
Jonathan Hopkins will explore how TDM is evolving from a collection of individual programs into a core component of transportation planning, policy and implementation. Attendees will learn how infrastructure, communications, incentives, supportive policies and cross-sector partnerships work together to influence travel behavior and expand access to opportunity.
🕑: 10:00 AM - 10:55 AM
From Approval to Action: A Conversation with Transportation Leaders
Host: Andy Aiello, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager
Info: Voter approval can provide the resources and public mandate needed to respond to changing transportation needs, but the most challenging work begins after the vote, when agencies must turn ambitious commitments into visible, reliable and lasting improvements.
Drawing on Cincinnati Metro’s implementation of Reinventing Metro and Nashville’s work to deliver Choose How You Move, panelists will discuss how leaders establish priorities, deliver early improvements, expand transit service, coordinate infrastructure investments and advance complex projects. The conversation will also examine organizational capacity, accountability, public confidence and the partnerships required to deliver a multiyear transportation program.
🕑: 11:05 AM - 11:50 AM
From Transit Access to Transit Use: Building Connections That Grow Ridership
Host: Brandy Jones, APR, Chief Communications & Marketing Offi
Info: Providing transit service is only the first step toward increasing ridership. People are more likely to use transit when service is reliable, destinations are easy to reach, transportation information is clear and employers, developers, venues and community leaders actively connect people with available options. Panelists will explore how development decisions, destination access, customer communications, employer- and property-based transportation programs, first- and last-mile connections and community partnerships can turn transit availability into actual transit use.
🕑: 01:10 PM - 01:50 PM
Leadership in Motion: A Fireside Chat with Ryan Lynch and Tanisha J. Hall
Host: Ryan Lynch, Director, Nashville Department of Transporta
Info: Implementing an ambitious transportation vision requires more than projects and funding. It requires strong leadership, organizational collaboration, public trust and an understanding of how transportation decisions affect people’s everyday lives. Tanisha J. Hall will sit down with NDOT Director Ryan Lynch to discuss his path to transportation leadership, vision for NDOT and priorities as Nashville implements Choose How You Move. The conversation will explore project delivery, cross-agency coordination, the role of TDM within NDOT’s broader strategy and the partnerships needed to provide safer, more connected and more practical transportation choices.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 02:50 PM
Moving People to Major Destinations: Balancing Access, Operations and Neighbor
Host: Andrea Runner, Director of Transportation & Parking, Ten
Info: Large entertainment venues and major events create economic and cultural opportunities, but they can also place significant demands on transportation systems and surrounding neighborhoods. Successfully moving thousands of people requires early planning, coordinated operations, clear communications, meaningful transportation choices and ongoing community engagement.
Bringing together perspectives from Nashville and Atlanta, this panel will examine how TDM can support access to stadiums, entertainment districts and other high-attendance destinations. Topics will include transit coordination, traffic and curb management, rideshare operations, walking and bicycling access, public safety, guest communications, neighborhood impacts and post-event evaluation.
🕑: 02:50 PM - 03:15 PM
From Plans to the Daily Commute: Making Transportation Choice Work
Host: Caitlin Okrzesik, Partnerships & Business Development Ma
Info: This closing conversation will bring the day’s ideas back to one of the most consistent transportation decisions people make: how they travel to and from work.
Speakers will discuss how employers can combine transit benefits, vanpooling, carpooling, active transportation, incentives and employee communications into commute programs employees understand and use. The conversation will also address workforce transportation needs, employee onboarding, participation and the measures that show whether travel behavior is changing. Attendees will leave with a practical understanding of how WeGo Ride, VanStar and Nashville Connector can work together to make sustainable commuting more accessible—and with one action they can take back to their organizations.
🕑: 03:15 PM - 03:45 PM
Nissan Stadium Tour
Info: Following the closing conversation, attendees are invited to participate in an optional tour of Nissan Stadium. Tour instructions and the gathering location will be announced at the conclusion of the program.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
