Weeks ago, the city started to crack down on Nashville locals' worst nightmare - "transpotatinment". That's right. Pedal taverns, beware...the Nashville government has decided that it's had enough.
The first step was announcing that no new party vehicles would receive their business license. The second step, apparently, is to get rid of some of the ones on the road.
Three Nashville transpo-tainment vehicles will not have their business licenses renewed by the city - the Nashville Tractor, Honky Tonk Party Express, and Upstage Party Bus.
While no reasons were given for these specific vehicles to be banished, it appears to be the goal of the city to regulate the transpotainment industry in terms of size, routes, and rules. What that looks like in the future, no one's super clear. This all stems from an incident in July when a 22-year old tourist fell off a party bus and was subsequently run over by the vehicle. The city seeks to create universal standards and regulations for usage of party vehicles, minimize alcohol consumption, and hopefully cure some of the traffic problems on Broadway that are partially caused by the large volume of novelty vehicles.
There's certainly an economic impact to the city's decisions. Along with jobs that may be cut or affected by these changes, the transpotainment industry is also part of a tourism economy that has been booming again since the summer. Do you agree with the decision to regulate party vehicles? Or are they just part of what the "new Nashville" has become?
Metro Council will start outlining any governance of party vehicles in the coming weeks, starting with tonight's meeting.