The answer depends entirely on what kind of trip you’re taking and where you’re staying. For a tourist spending three days on Broadway, in The Gulch, and maybe Germantown, you can manage without one. For anyone staying longer, venturing to East Nashville, visiting the Grand Ole Opry, or doing a day trip to Franklin, a car stops being optional and becomes the obvious choice.
Nashville was built around the car. It does not have a subway. Its bus system works but is not optimized for tourist itineraries. The city is physically spread out in a way that no amount of walkability boosterism can paper over.
The Case for Going Car-Free (Narrow but Real)
If you’re staying downtown and your list of priorities runs: Broadway, Ryman, Country Music Hall of Fame, honky-tonks, and maybe The Gulch, you can do all of that on foot. Downtown Nashville’s tourist core is genuinely compact. The Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman, and Broadway are all within a ten-minute walk of each other.
For anything beyond that footprint, rideshares fill the gap. An Uber across town averages around $18 for a typical city ride. For a weekend where you’re drinking anyway, not dealing with parking while paying surge pricing is sometimes the smarter call financially.
The Music City Circuit, a free downtown bus loop operated by WeGo, connects several key stops within the core. For general bus travel, WeGo charges $2 for a two-hour pass. The system is real and usable, but planning a tourist day around bus schedules requires patience that most visitors are not on vacation to exercise.
Why a Car Usually Wins
Nashville ranked 11th worst for traffic congestion in the United States in 2024, according to INRIX’s Traffic Scorecard. The average driver in Nashville lost 63 hours to congestion in 2024, a 13 percent increase from the year before, at a personal cost of roughly $1,128. Those numbers are for commuters, not tourists, but the infrastructure reality underlying them does not disappear when you’re trying to get to the Bluebird Cafe on a Friday night.
The Bluebird Cafe is in Green Hills, about five miles from Broadway. The Grand Ole Opry is in the Opryland area, eight miles out. Radnor Lake, the best hiking within city limits, has no reasonable transit option. If any of those are on your list, you need a car or you need to budget for round-trip Ubers, which will cost you $25 to $40 each way depending on time of day and surge pricing.
The city’s spread also means that the “just Uber everywhere” strategy adds up fast. A weekend of Ubers that includes airport transfers, two cross-town restaurant trips, a late night back from East Nashville, and a trip to the Opry can easily run $200 or more in ride costs alone.
The Parking Reality
Downtown parking is manageable if you know where to look. Metro-owned garages run from $5 to $20 for all-day parking. The Metro Courthouse Garage on James Robertson Parkway charges $5 on evenings and weekends. The Music City Center Garage, Nashville’s largest covered downtown lot, charges $15 for up to five hours and $20 for up to nine. Street meters in the Central Business District run 24/7 at $2.00 per hour for the first two hours, rising to $5 and then $6 per hour for longer stays. Event nights near Bridgestone Arena drive private lot prices higher, sometimes significantly.
The Library Garage at 151 6th Ave N is a reliable central option that locals use regularly. If you’re staying downtown at a hotel, factor in $20 to $30 per night for hotel valet or self-park, which can quietly add $60 to $90 to a three-night trip.
The Honest Breakdown
For a weekend trip staying downtown: Car optional. Rideshares and walking can handle a 48-hour Broadway-focused itinerary. Skip the rental, save the parking fees, and Uber to anything that requires leaving the core.
For a 3-plus day trip or any trip that includes East Nashville, 12 South, the Opry area, Cheekwood, day trips to Franklin or the distilleries: rent a car. The freedom is worth the cost once you’re spending more than two days here.
For people moving to Nashville: A car is not optional. Nashville’s public transit serves a commuting function for those who do not drive, but it is not a lifestyle replacement for a vehicle. Even longtime locals who do not own cars are a small minority navigating a city that was never designed for them.
The city’s traffic problem is structural. Nashville ranks 27th worst globally for congestion, according to the same 2024 INRIX data, despite being only the 21st largest city in the U.S. by population. The mismatch between city size and traffic burden comes from a road network that was not built to scale with 20 years of aggressive growth.
None of that means you cannot enjoy Nashville without a car. It means you need to be clear-eyed about what you’re trading. Convenience costs money in Uber fees. Freedom costs money in parking. Pick your poison, or rent a car for the days you need range and ditch it when you’re staying local.
Sources
- INRIX 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard, via WSMV Nashville (January 2025): nashville.wsmv.com
- INRIX 2024 Traffic Scorecard Report, WKRN Nashville (January 2025): wkrn.com
- Hughes & Coleman, “Report: Nashville Traffic is Among Worst in the Country” (February 2025): hughesandcoleman.com
- Metro Nashville Paid Parking rates: nashville.gov/departments/transportation/traffic-and-parking/parking/paid-parking
- Nashville Downtown Partnership, $5 and $10 parking options: nashvilledowntown.com/get-around/nashville-parking/5-and-10-parking-options
- Music City Center Parking rates (effective June 2025): nashvillemcc.com/maps-and-parking
- Lonely Planet, “How to Get Around Nashville” (January 2025): lonelyplanet.com/articles/how-to-get-around-nashville
- GoodNight Stay, “How to Get Around Nashville Without a Car” (February 2025): goodnightstay.com