Memphis, explained
Driving in Memphis means dealing with a spread-out, low-density city built around a handful of interstates and two Mississippi River bridges, a compact downtown grid with one-way streets and metered parking, and a road network that a car genuinely helps navigate, since public transit covers only part of it. Most residents drive; most visitors end … Read more
Two interstate bridges carry cars across the Mississippi River at Memphis — the Hernando de Soto Bridge (I-40) and the Memphis & Arkansas Memorial Bridge (I-55) — and a third, older bridge carries a dedicated walking and cycling path called the Big River Crossing. There is no scheduled transit line into Arkansas. Across the water … Read more
Cycling in Memphis works well for recreation and reasonably well for short trips within a few central neighborhoods, but poorly as a citywide substitute for driving. The terrain is flat, a long rail-trail and a converted rail bridge give genuine long-distance routes, and a bike-share network covers the core — but connected, protected on-street lanes … Read more
Memphis is walkable in sections, not as a connected whole. A handful of districts — Downtown, South Main, parts of Midtown — are dense enough to cover on foot for a day or two. Between those districts, and across most of the rest of the city, distances and road design make a car or transit … Read more
There is no train or subway line into Memphis from its airport. The practical options are rideshare or taxi from the terminal curb, a MATA city bus that connects to the downtown transit network, or a rental car onto I-240 — a drive of roughly ten miles that typically runs fifteen to twenty-five minutes depending … Read more
Memphis International Airport (airport code MEM) is a commercial airport in southwest Memphis that serves passenger flights, but it is best known as the global superhub of FedEx Express. It is a freight hub because FedEx built its central sorting operation there in 1973 and has expanded it ever since, making MEM one of the … Read more
Parking downtown means a mix of metered on-street spaces, city- and privately-run garages, and surface lots, priced and enforced most heavily on weekdays and event nights. Rates and hours are set by the operator, not fixed citywide, so the practical answer is to check the specific garage or the city’s own parking services page before … Read more
MATA — the Memphis Area Transit Authority — is the public agency that runs Memphis’s fixed-route buses, the Main Street Trolley, and a paratransit service called MATAplus. Its bus network covers most of the city on a map, but frequency on many routes is low, a gap tied to a funding shortfall that MATA’s own … Read more
The Main Street Trolley is a heritage rail line in Downtown Memphis, operated by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA). Vintage and replica streetcars run on fixed rail down Main Street, and on lines that have not always been fully staffed or running, along the riverfront and out Madison Avenue toward the Medical District. It … Read more
Yes, for most practical purposes. Memphis has a public bus network and a Downtown trolley, both run by the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA), but the metro area is built for driving: neighborhoods, museums and daily errands are spread across Shelby County at distances that transit was not designed to close quickly. A visitor staying … Read more
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