Two25 17 Story High Rise Proposed for SE Columbus Commons

[ShakoParticipant]

I’m not a “roads” guy, but they are what we already have and have already paid to develop. I don’t necessarily disagree with your reasoning that alternatives might be useful– but to challenge the status quo, the onus is on the challenger to present a compelling case for change. Getting outwardly frustrated over the fact that others may initially have a different position will probably be a non starter if your objective is to win them over to your way of thinking.

As for cul de sacs– aren’t those paid for by the local municipalities and their residents? Inefficient or not, isn’t it their own money to waste?

[Walker EvansKeymaster]

Shako wrote:

As for cul de sacs– aren’t those paid for by the local municipalities and their residents? Inefficient or not, isn’t it their own money to waste?

A resident of Columbus, my taxes do go to pay for cul de sacs all over the city that I have never used, nor will ever use. Same could be said for all the other things my tax dollars fund that don’t benefit me directly… sidewalks on streets I never visit, fire trucks that go to houses that aren’t my own, etc.

So that (poor) argument swings both ways.

[dcariensParticipant]

Thanks–always like rude. Just a reminder.

[Mike88Participant]

CB_downtowner wrote:

Many Central Ohioans also complain about sharing roads with bikes and not being able to drive 50 miles per hour in what should be a walkable stretch of downtown.

My guess is most didn’t anticipate the demand for the Cbus. The reason Central Ohioans don’t use public transportation is because we haven’t been creative about how to get them to use it.

jbcmh81 wrote:

The public isn’t exactly voting on every new road project that it is insisted be the case for every transit issue, like funding buses. People drive because, in most cases, the tiny bit of alternatives are not practical.

why does society owe you a road in which you don’t actually pay for, or only pay for partially? The “civic process” in regards to roads is that there is none. There is an automatic expectation that they get built, expanded and maintained at any cost. It is not transit advocates that are smugly milking an inefficient system for personal gain and then bemoaning alternatives that are already held to significantly higher standards of success.

To me these points highlight almost all of the difficulty around this issue.

1. A feeling of entitlement of those who exclusively travel by car in spaces not exclusively reserved for them.
2. A public transport system has been historically very poor and that created, for a long time, it’s own destiny of failure.
3. Roads viewed as a given, public transport viewed more like a private business

There are local examples of overcoming these hurdles but shifting people away from the 66 years of thinking 1 person to car is the only way to commute or get around is going to be hard.

I do have a very genuine question to ask the group though, and this isn’t meant to be douchey, smug or rhetorical…

Cleveland’s commuter rail system seems to work great and see plenty of ridership. It is simple, connects key neighborhoods and doesn’t feature street cars. Once you get to a neighborhood you travel by foot, bus or cab. Why would a similar system not work here?

Do we not have key neighborhoods with biz districts? (Westerville, Dublin, Easton, Airport, Grandview, UA, Short North, Downtown, Clintonville, Campus, GV/Brewerydistrict, Old Towne, Bexley, Franklinton, etc)
Do we not have Cbus, Uber, Car2go, CoGo for when you get to a destination?
Do we not have plenty of non-rush hour events? (Clippers, Jackets, Crew, Bucks football/bball games, Festivals, Concerts etc)

I mean that very Genuinely, why would a system like that not be effective for this city both as it stands right now, and as a prompt for development around the railline stops?

[Author]

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