Street View is a monthly column in which we’ll take a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.
Dorothy “Dot” Dobbins was a pioneering lawyer who advocated for victims of domestic violence. She spent years working for Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, helped create groups supporting female lawyers and drafted Tennessee’s first child-support laws. She was also instrumental in opening Nashville’s first domestic violence shelter.
When Dobbins was killed by a Chevy Silverado while crossing the intersection of Third Avenue North and Van Buren Street on June 7, her death sparked community action: vigils, shows of solidarity and calls for a safer intersection.
The Nashville Department of Transportation made some improvements, including adding flashing lights and “yield to pedestrian” signs and removing a tree blocking sight lines. NDOT has also promised some longer-term infrastructure changes as a result of a four- to six-month traffic study.
But on Aug. 16, a little more than two months after Dobbins’ death, another woman was struck in a hit-and-run while walking across the same crosswalk. She is currently recovering from her injuries, but the incident has caused some community members to raise the question: When an intersection is dangerous, what could empower the city to move more quickly to improve it?
Asked about this question, NDOT Vision Zero coordinator Valeria Martinez differentiates between short-term and long-term fixes.
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“After a fatal or serious injury crash, NDOT responds quickly to maintenance-style improvements such as new/refreshed street markings, new roadway signage, and lighting enhancements,” Martinez says via email.
But some of the more in-depth changes to roadways take time. “Roadway safety improvements that would make the greatest impact long term are road reconfigurations, new sidewalks, buffered bike lanes, and upgrading signals,” says Martinez. “These long-term advances usually require extensive analysis, complex design, large amounts of funding, and intensive construction timelines.”
As part of Nashville’s Vision Zero initiative and informed by long-term studies, NDOT focuses its efforts on areas with the highest concentration of crashes — areas they call “High Injury Networks.” Improvements on these networks are significant, like new signal timing, vehicle lane reconfiguration, bus stop relocation and raised medians.
“I think that goes to show that we really need to come up with a short-term rapid response model,” says Councilmember Jacob Kupin, who represents District 19, where the Third Avenue crosswalk incidents took place. Even before Dot Dobbins was killed, Kupin was meeting with NDOT to talk about improvements to that intersection.
“We were working on [improvements to the intersection],” says Kupin, “but it takes time to move through that governmental process, and in that time it took us to do that, someone got hit and killed.”
After Dobbins was killed, NDOT planned a HAWK signal (a traffic light activated by pedestrians pushing a button) for the intersection, Kupin says. “That was expected to go in by the end of the year — and in the meantime, someone else got hit and nearly killed.”
Kupin says that while the neighborhood waits for the HAWK signal, the Germantown and Salemtown neighborhood associations have advocated for stop signs, which NDOT has since installed. Still, he is concerned that improvements move so slowly.
Kupin tells the Scene he’s looking into “what a rapid response committee” to traffic issues would look like. “They could mobilize right in the moment that someone was hit and killed or injured, or if they are notified that there’s a near miss,” he says.
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But even with a committee, there’s still the question of funding: Budgets are another concern for both short- and long-term improvements.
NDOT added 10 streets to its Street Traffic Calming Program in August, despite finishing only 10 percent of last year’s planned programs. NDOT director Diana Alarcon told WSMV last month that funding and staffing shortages have slowed the program down.
Kupin says he’s looking for alternative sources of funding for pedestrian safety enhancements and has requested some specifics from NDOT about costs — what it would take for them to move more quickly or complete certain repairs.
While the two pedestrian incidents at Third and Van Buren are important, there are stretches of road that, according to the numbers, are even more dangerous. “We are focusing our efforts in areas that we know see the highest concentration of crashes and where the most vulnerable populations live,” says Martinez.
Martinez says the High Injury Network consists primarily of state routes or “pikes” — roads built like state highways, with higher speed limits and wider lanes. Since Nashville has become more densely populated, these pikes cut through what are now residential areas with many pedestrians.
“Some of the biggest safety enhancements are coming from complete streets efforts coordinated with the Choose How You Move team,” says Martinez, referring to multimodal transportation upgrades and safety enhancements as part of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit initiative.
But with limited funding, the department will have to prioritize more dangerous parts of town over areas like Third and Van Buren.
In the meantime, Germantown residents want more. “Safer Streets Now” protesters in the wake of Dobbins’ death and the recent hit-and-run said they wanted to see speed cushions before and after the crosswalk, creating 10-foot lane widths through restriping, a new streetlamp south of the greenway for better night visibility, protected bike lanes and long-term upgrades such as a raised crosswalk and a divided median.
For Germantown residents and many others, these issues are far from anonymous. “Dot spent 40 years in activism: fighting for the betterment of people, fighting for women in domestic situations and just making our city and community a better place,” says Kupin. “I like to think that even in death, she’s still helping people be safer.
“It’s important that everybody who is in this situation is elevated and focused on because these are life-and-death issues we’re talking about,” he continues. “We’ve got to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, but we can replace money. I can’t replace Dot.”
According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s most recently available statistics, 80 pedestrians and 11 cyclists were hit by vehicles in Davidson County between January and April 2025.
