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Stimulus Watch Columbus Projects

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Started 3 years ago by jodyNcolumbus
Latest reply from my medium is dying

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byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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[url=http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_city/Columbus/OH ]Stimulus Watch[/url] is a wiki, so we can add project details. Plus it has a way to vote for the importance of the project. Right now Light rail needs some help.

Projects in Columbus, Ohio:

Below are the "shovel-ready" projects for which this city has requested federal stimulus funding. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not.

The total cost of all the projects submitted by Columbus is $334,500,000
Nationwide Children's Hospital infrastructure improvements
Downtown/River South Road and park improvments
Town Street Bridge Demolition/Rich Street Bridge construction
John Glenn Avenue Reconstruction
Alum Creek Bikeway Trail
West Bank Park/Greenway Connector
Emerald Parkway/Sterling Commerce improvements
Lockbourne/Rickenbacker Subtrunk
5th Avenue Dam removal
NetJets Apron Expansion and Taxiway at Port Columbus
Old Police Building Renovations and Park
CNG Fueling Stations and CNG Refuse Trucks
Central Safety Building and City Hall energy efficiencies
North Corridor Light Rail System

Posted 3 years ago #
joev
Merion Village
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This may not be exactly the right place to post this, but hot damn - I love our moderate senators. Note to Democrats and Republicans alike - do not try to pick them off - we need them do get things done correctly. Consider me an Olympia Snowe/Ben Nelson/Susan Collins/Arlen Spectre fanboy.

Posted 3 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
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I don't know anything about the Alum Creek Bikeway, but if it's an alternate route to where that guy got run over, let's build it.

Posted 3 years ago #
garrettbe
Iuka
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Someone needs to fix this:

North Corridor Light Rail System

$200,000,000.00 - 11000 jobs - Transit Program

28% voted critical - 72% voted not critical - 188 votes cast
Yes

No

Wiki Description
[edit] General Description

Please help improve this project page by replacing this text with a description and other factual information about the project. Don't know much about the project? Call your local government and ask for details.
[edit] Points in Favor
[edit] Points Against

A total waste of money hearkening back to the early days of mass transit with all the attendant corruption and folly, a developer's wet dream. Columbus is one of the more easily navigated "big" cities and this proposal would do little to improve that. The "power elite" have been after this little plum for MORE THAN 10 YEARS. Our central core is now bereft of shopping after 10+ years of unchecked development in the suburbs and beyond. If the folks that stand to benefit most from making the downtown more accessible want to pay for this THEMSELVES, go for it. As a former downtown worker, my goal (finally realized with retirement) was to get out and never go back.

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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Alum Creek Trail

In it's conception, it will eventually connect Westerville through Easton, down towards ODU, through the east end of OTE/west end of Bexley (St Charles)and down through Groveport. If you are speaking of the area Tracey Corbin was killed, it may not be a perfect alternative, but COTA has moved the bus stops further south around the area where he was hit.

The Blacklick trail is a newer trail, still in progress, that would connect Three Creeks to Canal Winchester (Pickerington Ponds) then out to Blacklick Park and into Reynoldsburg.

Probably the best thing about the Alum Creek Trail will be a real alternative to travel to Easton and some of those parts north where riding gets tricky. Morse Road isn't fun on a bike, even at 2 am.

The bike paths are a great investment and really a great bang for the buck when you look at the miles covered. Metro Parks is pretty good about clearing the trails. I think the Alum Creek has been better then some roads this past week.

Posted 3 years ago #
JonMyers
HCMC ✈
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Jody great idea on the wiki. Is there anyway to speculate on the potential economic impact of the proposed shovel ready projects on the wiki?

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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garrettbe wrote >>
Someone needs to fix this:

North Corridor Light Rail System
$200,000,000.00 - 11000 jobs - Transit Program
28% voted critical - 72% voted not critical - 188 votes cast
Yes
No
Wiki Description
[edit] General Description
Please help improve this project page by replacing this text with a description and other factual information about the project. Don't know much about the project? Call your local government and ask for details.
[edit] Points in Favor
[edit] Points Against
A total waste of money hearkening back to the early days of mass transit with all the attendant corruption and folly, a developer's wet dream. Columbus is one of the more easily navigated "big" cities and this proposal would do little to improve that. The "power elite" have been after this little plum for MORE THAN 10 YEARS. Our central core is now bereft of shopping after 10+ years of unchecked development in the suburbs and beyond. If the folks that stand to benefit most from making the downtown more accessible want to pay for this THEMSELVES, go for it. As a former downtown worker, my goal (finally realized with retirement) was to get out and never go back.

Maybe John could give us a hand? I added my comment, but I am not knowledgeable enough to add anything substantial.

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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Coremodels wrote >>
I don't know anything about the Alum Creek Bikeway, but if it's an alternate route to where that guy got run over, let's build it.

Well if the republicans get their way, we may not see this done.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced an amendment last night that would prohibit funding of Ã¢â‚¬Å“bicycle routesÃ¢â‚¬Â and paths from the economic stimulus package thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s working its way through Capitol Hill right now.

According to staffers in Representative Earl BlumenauerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s office who are following the bill closely, Sen. DeMintÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s amendment was supported in a speech by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)

From Bike Portland

Posted 3 years ago #
Columbusite
Minneapolis
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Ignore those comments. They're just blathering nonsensical opinions about things they have no knowledge about. I don't have much to say about topics where I have paltry to no foundation to give an informed viewpoint and these people should shut their mouths and do a good deal of reading first.

Posted 3 years ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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lifeontwowheels wrote >>

garrettbe wrote >>
Someone needs to fix this:

North Corridor Light Rail System
$200,000,000.00 - 11000 jobs - Transit Program
28% voted critical - 72% voted not critical - 188 votes cast
Yes
No
Wiki Description
[edit] General Description
Please help improve this project page by replacing this text with a description and other factual information about the project. Don't know much about the project? Call your local government and ask for details.
[edit] Points in Favor
[edit] Points Against
A total waste of money hearkening back to the early days of mass transit with all the attendant corruption and folly, a developer's wet dream. Columbus is one of the more easily navigated "big" cities and this proposal would do little to improve that. The "power elite" have been after this little plum for MORE THAN 10 YEARS. Our central core is now bereft of shopping after 10+ years of unchecked development in the suburbs and beyond. If the folks that stand to benefit most from making the downtown more accessible want to pay for this THEMSELVES, go for it. As a former downtown worker, my goal (finally realized with retirement) was to get out and never go back.

Maybe John could give us a hand? I added my comment, but I am not knowledgeable enough to add anything substantial.

I think you need someone from COTA to dig up the old Alternatives Analysis to get good project-specific information.

You might find this link interesting though:
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/tables/columbus.pdf

Every year the Texas Transportation Institute publishes a "mobility report" with congestion data for all major cities in the country. The 2007 report has data from 1982 to 2005. It shows the significant congestion growth in the region, the cost of the congestion, the wasted fuel, the estimated delay per peak hour traveler, transit ridership, etc...

Here's some general benefits of transit from the APTA:
http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/economic_importance.cfm

And this link describes the processes of estimating the economic impacts of transit projects:
http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_35.pdf

Posted 3 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Well, I'd obviously welcome more professional insights there, but I'm glad to see a site like StimulusWatch exists (at least for the moment--of course, it's probably come into existence too late to really accomplish much), and I went ahead and threw in some basic facts just using what I could Google and find permalinks for, even if they're only secondary sources.

Better than just leaving that one guy's rant up there as "information" about the project with nothing else to dilute it.

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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I wondered who did that...

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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You might find this link interesting though:
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ums/congestion_data/tables/columbus.pdf

Did find that interesting glancing through. Especially the transit numbers between the 80s and now. Anyone care to speculate?

It would seem to cast aside some of the claims that we aren't a transit town or there is no use. Obviously there was greater use in the past, how do we reclaim that?

Posted 3 years ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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I care to speculate:
1. National Trend - Transit ridership across the country pretty much declined after WWII until the late 1990s or early 2000s. Columbus numbers seem to have continued to decline in the early 2000s though.
2. Low Gas Prices - The inflation adjusted price of gas declined after the energy crisis in the 70s.
3. Shifting Population/Jobs - The only place in Columbus that is very well-served by transit has always been downtown. So as jobs and residents leave downtown, transit ridership declines. Now the total number of jobs downtown probably hasn't actually declined, but new job centers have popped up around the Outerbelt. The jobs that remain downtown are generally good white collar finance, legal, and government-type jobs, but the wealthy people who work those downtown jobs have moved further away. So transit is less of an option for them now. They are also more likely to choose to work at the new job centers at Dublin, Tuttle, Polaris, Easton, etc... The population that remains living in central Columbus, within an easy transit commute of downtown, are now largely the people that are less likely to be working those high-paying downtown jobs.
4. Fewer Non-Work Trips - I'm going to blame the decline of City Center :) I'm mostly kidding, but loss of retail destinations is still a loss of destinations.

How do we get that back? I suspect gas prices will go back up. Funding for COTA is higher than its ever been, so that will help too. But I think we have to create a regional policy to locate as many jobs as possible in the most central, transit-accessible location - downtown. This is what cities in Australia have done. If that's not possible, then we should try to make downtown a more desirable location because it has better transportation options. I think that means better regional trains, not more parking garages.

Posted 3 years ago #
byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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Wow LifeonTwoWheels thanks for populating all the great background on the wiki!

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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I can't take credit for the NC. I think that was Gram.

I added my stuff to the Alum Creek project.

Posted 3 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Hah! I think Walker ought to send StimulusWatch a bill for sending more traffic their way. The vote count on that project has skyrocketed since this afternoon (and, as one might expect, it's been overwhelmingly negative; were it otherwise, rail levies might have actually been able to pass in this neighborhood sometime in the past decade-plus).

Compare the 211 votes cast there with the 5-10 you'll find in your typical project in Philadelphia--a city with a population immensely larger than ours.

Posted 3 years ago #
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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Maybe an invoice as well to the local media for the amount of stories that have been CU exclusive...

Posted 3 years ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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Not sure CU wants to open that can. Most of the news content here is generated by the Dispatch.

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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I'm counting 7 of the past 50 front page stories being links from the Dispatch. Not quite sure how that counts as "most"?

Posted 3 years ago #