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COTA is at it again! Planners are already in the early phases of figuring out the best way to sell the citizens of Columbus on a Light Rail line running northward through the most densely populated (and still growing rapidly) area of Columbus. Again, it’s going to come down to whether or not we want to pay a portion of the bill to get this thing off the ground or not.
The new proposed line would stretch 13 miles from the Polaris area down to Hudson Street. What? Why not all the way downtown? Perhaps that would come in phase two of the project, or the light rail stop there could connect with the Mayor’s Streetcar project? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out. To read the rest of the crumbs from this news bit click here.
That sounds promising. It also makes me a little nervous that we could end up with a hodge-podged transit system consisting of non-COTA streetcars, light rail, busses, and COTA streetcars operating somewhat independantly of each other. Different modes of public transit has to fit together seamlessly, even if there are multiple parties building and operating them. You only get one crack at these things. Once they’re built, you’ve got to live with them.
It seems as though I’ve missed a good chunk of work the COTA has been doing on this…
Long Range Transit Plan
http://www.cota.com/COTA/Cotaweb/main.xml?EDID=147&Elist=0&EDetails=1&pid=,1
North Corridor Transit Website
http://www.cotanctp.com/
It all looks promising, but again, it all needs to be integrated into 1) the city’s streetcar proposal, 2) potential large downtown developments (RiverSouth, Jeffrey, Whittier Peninsula, and whatever is done with City Center), and 3) existing high density neighborhoods.
The whole point is it gets harder and harder to extend the closer you get to downtown. We never set aside land for this kind of thing. Who’re you going to kick out to make room?
I think we should just be using the land we already did set aside for this. Streetcars on High Street (as there were back in the day) and continue the light rail on existing tracks down to the Convention Center / Arena District. There’s room to set up a transfer station there between the two.
To me it sounds like a good plan, but there could be a number of things I’m not taking into consideration. :P
The best place for it is on 3rd/Summit and 4th, however if you use those streets exclusively, it makes it less convenient for people in the Short North, Victorian Village, and OSU. I think that’s why the proposed corridor is looking at using High St. up to OSU, then shifting over to Summit + 4th. I think it would be good to look at ways to push auto traffic off of High st and onto 3rd/Summit/4th anyway. The traffic lights could be timed for quicker travel since they are one-way.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Tim Doulin
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The latest attempt to bring light rail to central Ohio was laid to rest yesterday.
Citing an inability to qualify for federal funding, the Central Ohio Transit Authority board of trustees approved a resolution that effectively discontinues the project.
“COTA and central Ohio have been looking at a light-rail option for years and years and years,” said William Porter, board chairman.
“But the reality of any light-rail project is that it cannot go forward without federal funding.”
READ MORE
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
While it is encouraging to see The Dispatch endorse the levy request of the Central Ohio Transit Authority (“Time to move ahead,” editorial, Sept. 3), I would take issue with the contention that COTA’s light-rail plan was ill-conceived. If anything, the plan for a single light-rail line on the so-called North Corridor was not aggressive enough. If there is a fault to be laid at the doorstep of COTA and the community leaders, including The Dispatch, it is the fault of being far too timid at a time when Columbus and central Ohio need more than a buses-only transit system.
Is a 0.25 percent, 10-year COTA levy necessary? If public transportation in central Ohio is to survive, the answer is absolutely yes. And for saying so, The Dispatch is to be commended. But though I support the COTA levy, I would much rather see a plan with vision and the political courage to seek proper funding to carry it out.
Why not a three-quarter percent levy? Why not a plan for three or four light-rail lines in addition to better bus service? Why do our leaders in City Hall, the county and at The Dispatch seem to be so willing to settle for less? Why, indeed, at a time when gasoline prices have risen to $3 a gallon and the cost of filling up even the more fuel-efficient vehicles is taking a bigger bite from our budgets?
When the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show families spend an average 20 percent of their income on transportation, second only to housing at 33 percent, it is clear we need more than just a bus ride as an option.
READ MORE
amen. public transportation HAS to be our future. if they don’t get this going now, we will be screwed in the years to come trying to patch up a mess.
As a private citizen not electorally accountable to anyone, Mr. Nicholson has the luxury of being an idealist. The #1 reason and unfortunately (or fortunately, given the alternatives to the democratic process) the ultimate trump card of an answer to his question of “why not a three-quarter-percent levy” is “because it wouldn’t have a chance in Hell of passing.” I also refuse to accept that this is simply a failure of aggressive marketing by political leaders. If the soil for the idea were fertile, it would take root with the amount of publicity it’s already gotten.
I would love nothing more than to see light rail lines running all the way from Marysville to Lancaster, from Delaware to Circleville, and from Newark to London, as well as running parallel to every interstate and U.S. route in the Columbus area. Unfortunately, that simply isn’t in the cards at the moment, culturally or financially.
However, that doesn’t mean that we need to be pessimistic; it’s not necessarily true to say that “if they don’t get this going now, we’ll be screwed” trying to patch it up later. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston were all massive cities before they got their public transportation networks. London likewise, and their public transit network is still growing, with surface train lines spreading out farther along the Thames. We’re obviously not in their league yet, of course, but I bring them up just to point out that there’s no such thing as “too big to get started,” whereas too small to get started does in fact exist. We’re not too small geographically, but in terms of population, we’d be very near the small end of metro areas with serious public transit, which, combined with the fact that we’re much less “vertical” than many more land-poor cities, means that we might well have sufficiently severe problems with ridership that the entire enterprise would be discredited as a political failure and economic disaster.
Don’t just think of how things can go right. Think of how things can go wrong. Then you’ll understand why City Council isn’t willing to bet the farm on something like this.
I think people won’t ride a train (or any form of public transportation) untill it is more convenient and a lot cheaper to do so. Right now it’s not even close, you can get to downtown from Dublin or Westerville in less than 30 minutes most days.
That being said, I do appreciate the spirit with which this letter was written. I think a line to Polaris and a line to the airport would be good starting places. Maybe even some sort of express line to Lancaster.
Also, at least at my work, I am shocked by the number of people who commute from pretty far away places. Zanesville, London, Newark, Sunbury, Utica, the list goes on.
I have to agree that starting smaller would probably be a better way to go. The streetcars would be a great start on mass-transit in my opinion. If they do well it could be enough to help encourage people to want more transit. If the streetcars can cause a boom in development along routes it means more money, more jobs, and more amenities for central Ohio. Then maybe we can give light rail another shot. Perhaps by then COTA will be able to get their act together enough to pull their name out of the mud and give people a little more confidance in them. I think that was one of the big factors hurting light rail… nobody has any faith in COTA right now.
I agree with honavary that a light rail line from downtown running north would be the way to start. It’s along the most populous corridor and would make the most sense. The light rail should be a longer/faster line with fewer stops and once people get downtown they can switch to the streetcars to manuver around.
You’d have to have a forward thinking plan so that the light rail and streetcars are integrated. If you can’t access one from the other, that would be a major problem. The streetcars should be build with the mindset that future rail will need to have accesibility to them.
You can’t plan for integration this early when light rail is just a pipe dream, and we don’t know where, when, or how much of it we might have. I’m all for keeping the light rail possibility in the back of our minds, but realistically, this one time where focusing on the long term might be unwise because making the short term work would be bad enough.
You want the streetcar system to get complete attention right now; only if it succeeds spectacularly will we get the kind of viable middle-class high-density development that could make a light rail system viable. We can take stock of the situation and work from there if Stage 1 actually succeeds.
It should be fairly easy to integrate the two at a later date. The Convention Center, City Center, and the Capital should provide some good opportunities for the systems to cross paths.
Yeah, I don’t think it would be hard to have them meet up at least at one stop. If they were to lay them out according to the plans shown currently for the streetcars and the north corridor line on COTA’s fast trax site then they’d meet up. 8)
I attended a presentation the other night, and the COTA spokesman summed light-rail up like this: “I don’t think central Ohio will have a light-rail system in my lifetime.”
I anticipate that the presenter has another 20-30 years of life. Buying up railroad rights-of-way is part of their budget, however, so light rail is coming. Hybrid electric buses, too. Just don’t hold your breath.
By the way, if you’re curious at how far Columbus is from receiving federal funding for light rail, the funding guidelines specify that you must meet or be below a cost-benefit ratio of $23 per person. Columbus light rail currently has a cost-benefit ratio of $60 per person.
Not even close.
Not even close.
All that means to me is that they need to change the federal funding guidelines and allocate more money to mass transit development. We’ve got a public transit system that Bulgaria would be ashamed of, and is probably funded at the same levels.
The hurdle rates are so high because there are more cities who want systems than the programs are set up to fund.
I’d settle for non-COTA streetcars at this point. If they can take me around downtown I can go pretty much anywhere I typically want to go. The light rail line could carry me up to Polaris from downtown, but I have little use for that.
Just from a personal stance…. I’d rather see the streetcar program take off first.