Can You Bike Around Nashville?

February 19, 2026

You can bike around parts of Nashville, and those parts are genuinely good. The honest answer is that Nashville is a city in the middle of a transition from car-dominated to multimodal, and right now it’s somewhere in between. Where the infrastructure exists, cycling is excellent. Where it doesn’t, you’re taking your life in your hands on roads built for cars moving fast.

Where Biking Works

Nashville’s greenway network is the best reason to bike here. Davidson County has nearly 100 miles of paved greenway trails, and they’re well-maintained. The major corridors:

Shelby Bottoms Greenway: 9 miles in East Nashville along the Cumberland River, accessible via the Shelby Street Bridge (pedestrian and bike only) that connects directly to downtown. Flat, paved, low-traffic. This is the most popular urban cycling corridor in the city.

Stones River Greenway: 10.2 miles winding through rolling terrain from Two Rivers Park to Percy Priest Dam. More varied elevation than Shelby Bottoms, good for cyclists who want a workout.

Richland Creek Greenway: In West Nashville, connects several parks and neighborhoods.

The Shelby Street Bridge connection between East Nashville and downtown is particularly good. You can ride from Five Points in East Nashville to the heart of downtown in about 20 to 25 minutes without touching a single car lane.

The On-Road Reality

Off the greenways, Nashville’s cycling infrastructure is improving but still fragmentary. The city has over 200 designated bike lanes, but they’re scattered across the system rather than forming a continuous network. Riding from neighborhood to neighborhood often means leaving protected infrastructure and merging into traffic on roads designed for cars doing 40 mph.

A 2022 study ranked Nashville fourth-worst out of 50 major U.S. cities for bikeability, with a well-below-average score compared to the national mean. A 2023 Forbes ranking called Nashville the worst commuting city in America, a ranking that factored in low bike scores alongside poor transit and high car-dependence.

The problem isn’t terrain or weather, though Nashville advocates hear those excuses constantly. It’s infrastructure gaps. Streets like West End Avenue and Gallatin Pike have heavy car traffic with inconsistent bike accommodations. Downtown streets have painted lanes in places but no physical protection.

NDOT’s 2022 WalknBike Plan set targets for closing these gaps. Projects are underway on Shelby Avenue, Cahal Avenue, and other corridors. New Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who rode his bike to advocacy meetings before becoming mayor, has made multimodal transportation a genuine priority. Chief Development Officer Bob Mendes commutes by bike. The political will exists in a way it hasn’t before. But infrastructure takes years to build.

Getting a Bike in Nashville

Nashville BCycle is the city’s e-bike share program, operating about 200 electric pedal-assist bikes at roughly 36 docked stations primarily concentrated downtown and in nearby neighborhoods. The bikes use a Bosch assist system that tops out at 17 mph. Rates run from $5 for 30 minutes to $120 for an annual unlimited pass. Nashville Public Library cardholders can check out a BCycle fob for free, getting unlimited 2-hour trips for one week.

BCycle went through a contract dispute with the city in mid-2025 after the city cited lost federal funding and failed to renew its operator contract. As of late 2025, BCycle was continuing to operate while a new procurement process was underway. The city stated it did not expect a disruption in service, but riders should check nashville.bcycle.com for current station availability before relying on the system.

For dockless options, Bird and Lime operate e-bikes and e-scooters throughout Davidson County. The May 2024 Transportation Licensing Commission decision to deploy e-bikes at a 4-to-1 ratio over scooters (175 e-bikes per company) expanded e-bike availability significantly. Scooters and e-bikes can now operate county-wide, not just in pilot zones.

The Bottom Line

Nashville is a good place to bike if you’re using the greenways for recreation or the Shelby Bottoms corridor for commuting between East Nashville and downtown. It’s a mediocre place to bike if you need to cross town on roads. It’s improving, with real money and political will behind the improvements, but the gaps are still substantial enough that most people default to cars or rideshare for anything not served by greenway.

For tourists who want to ride: the Shelby Street Bridge to Shelby Bottoms loop is a legitimate highlight of the city.

Sources

  • Greenways for Nashville: greenwaysfornashville.org
  • Nashville.gov, Bikeways Planning: nashville.gov/departments/transportation/projects/bikeways
  • Nashville.gov, Shared Bike and Scooter Program: nashville.gov/departments/transportation/transportation-licensing/shared-bike-and-scooter-program
  • The Contributor, “A New Mayor and the Path to Bicycle-Friendly Streets” (January 2024): thecontributor.org
  • Planetizen, “Nashville Doesn’t Renew Bike Share Contract” (May 2025): planetizen.com
  • Walk Bike Nashville, “Nashville’s Bikeshare Program Faces an Uncertain Future”: walkbikenashville.org
  • Nashville Public Library BCycle Pass: library.nashville.gov/services/npl-bcycle-pass

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