Nashville is one of the best places to live, but the success of “It City” brings traffic. Our average commute is 49 minutes. A typical long distance commute takes almost an hour and a half during a rush hour that lasts three hours.

When 350,000 cars plow into Davidson County each and every morning, there are few parking spots left for anyone. Beat traffic early or get a parking migraine late.

Some think the solution is mass transit, and there is a vision proposed for a $6B investment over 25 years. Great! What will we do between now and then?

The cause of our headache is the source of our pain: about 98% of these 350,000 cars have one person in them, taking up one parking spot. How painful does it have to get before we change behavior?

I think the solution is long distance ride sharing. Good old fashioned carpooling where driver and rider negotiate a price, even if it’s free. Hytch has developed a smartphone app that makes it easy to build your group of carpool pals.

From Murfreesboro, 38,000 people hit the road every day. City Mayor Shane McFarland shared his thoughts about the transportation strategy to beat gridlock traffic. He sees 100,000 empty seats in those cars as an opportunity. So do I.

Let’s bring our Southern Hospitality into the car, get social and come together to solve the problem and share the ride.