I’ve already commented on the split before, but ODOT just keeps doing more to prove that they’re a villain and are hostile towards the revitalization of our urban core and all the hard work that is being done.

The main point that ODOT keeps making to justify re-doing the split, and it is important, is that the amount of traffic it was meant to carry is now way over that limit. The other point is that as a result we have a high accident rate. The reason why the number of vehicles using the split is so important is because it shows, somewhat counter-intuitively, that it doesn’t need to be fixed, as least not in the way ODOT wishes. Their plan is to do what they’ve always done and that is supposedly what will solve the now $1.69 billion problem that such thinking created in the first place.

Here are some amusing quotes from one of many articles archived on ODOT’s website  that deal with the split. This is an article by the Columbus Messenger. Here’s an example of the creative, pure genius of the organization as shown by ODOT spokesperson Michelle May, but before we get to that, here is an email exchange a few years back with Ms. May where I suggested converting the entire split into a street-level boulevard like Milwaukee had done and had previously sent a copy of  study by Jill Kruse from the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP), Remove It and They will Disappear, which demonstrates how removing lanes leads to less traffic and cites NYC ’s West Side Highway as an example .

“In 1973, one section of the highway collapsed, resulting in the closure of most of the route. NYDOT did a study in 1976 of the remaining portion of highway, in which traffic counts taken three years before the closure and two years after revealed that, overall, 53 percent of the trips disappeared, and of those trips, 93 percent did not reappear elsewhere–only seven percent of the lost traffic was diverted onto parallel roads.”

And the response I got :

Keith,

Funny you should mention that, but our project manager visited Milwaukee and is familiar with this project.

However,  he said the modified highway was more akin to an I-670, which has about a third of the traffic volume of I-70/71.  They are currently undergoing an $800+ million improvement to their “through” interstates in the Marquette area that does not include boulevards.

Again, we appreciate your thoughts.

Michelle

OK, maybe my idea isn’t the best. I can accept that. So, what’s a better solution?

“”We don’t have a wide, grassy median where we can add lanes,” said May.”

Adding lanes is still their preferred go-to solution? Sure is. In fact, out of the eight “solutions” that ODOT had concocted only two did not include adding more lanes in their description. Those were: rerouting traffic to SR 104 and leaving the split as is. Wow, who would have thought ODOT had evolved so progressively from a 1960’s mentality! Hey ODOT, are beehives still in style?

“With such a complicated problem, ODOT and the advisory committee are looking to the entire metropolitan area for suggestions now-not halfway through the project.

“ODOT has come out and said, “We’re going to do something radical here. We’re going to have citizen input from the very beginning,” said Michael Rankin, chairman of the South Innerbelt Corridor Study’s Advisory Committee and general counsel at American Electric Power. “I’ve been so impressed by this project.”"

Wow, having citizen input on where our $1.69 billion (then $500 million) should be spent. We should be so grateful that they listen to our concerns that they’re just going to ignore anyway. Impressive!

Here’s another quote from another ODOT spokesvillain, err, spokesperson:

“We do want to fix this corridor and be a good neighbor, and we want to know what that means to you,” said McDonald.”

Apparently, what it means to be a good neighbor is knocking down what little of Parsons that has been revitalized in Olde Towne East. Now when you want to go to a bar on this tiny stretch of Parsons, which is going to be even tinier if you don’t contact ODOT (the city is probably better, more info later), the options won’t be Carabar and AWOL; it’ll just be AWOL. And if you’re uneasy around aggressive bears, then you might wish you had said something so that you could instead be listening to some free live music at Carabar instead being shown how to chalk up your pole in AWOL. We need Carabar to stay put; trust me on this.

Isn’t it amazing how little has changed in 7 years (damn that was fast)?

Now here is the simple reason why the caps are rather worthless even if they do materialize. The caps are going to be isolated on either side by feeder streets. Lester Dr will be converted to resemble one of the many one-ways Downtown while a new one will be built on the other side, requiring more devastation of Parsons, as if it didn’t already have a rough handful of decades after the first split was built. These caps are not going to seamlessly blend Downtown and bordering neighborhoods together like there were at one time, and in better shape overall.

Image from ODOT

Also something that most people, especially OTE residents, don’t appreciate is how huge of a blow the removal of Carabar and ET Paul is going to be for the area (the former in particular). Ask yourself what brings you here often and you’re answer is likely to be one bars/restaurants, of which there aren’t many. Take one of those away and there goes around 25% of the vitality that existed, make that 50% or gone more after 5. Most visitors appear to be patrons of Carabar, so removing the most popular business will be nothing less than devastating to this strip of Parsons. That’s a simple fact. Also affected are the businesses spared from the wrecking ball which are going to have to deal with plenty of construction and receive no benefits afterward like Voda Salon, which according to the owner who was interviewed in this Dispatch article on the split said he may not renew his lease because of this. So basically, business streets nearby the construction are  going to fall back into decline, which is not acceptable at any level. Now take a look at this map. Can anyone really argue that there isn’t enough room to construct level ground for a road? Obviously, there is, but ODOT doesn’t want to spend more and it wouldn’t be ODOT if more urban buildings weren’t going to get smashed to bits.


View Larger Map

(It’s clickable)

Also worth keeping in mind is the budding revitalization of Long St. in King-Lincoln after decades of decay. Now what largely contributed to that decay? Oh yes, years of  construction for the original split which forced businesses to move elsewhere and emptied over half of the neighborhood’s population and now we’re going to allow that to happen again and expect current businesses to remain unscathed?

Here’s more that will be lost including 2.5 acres of athletic fields of Columbus Africentric School. I’m sure it’s just pure coincidence that a black school is being singled out, but that on top of ODOT previously ruining Columbus’ main black neighborhood, King-Lincoln, this just doesn’t look good especially when they’re about to do that again.

The real fix here is to reduce the number of users and stop encouraging so many people from being car-dependent. I’ve seen day after day at Gay & 4th that the vast majority of cars only have one person each. It’s not the split that needs to be fixed and more buildings torn down, but our insistence on every person being able to drive one car per person that needs to be fixed. Once you start multiplying the amount of room each person takes up with their respective car it’s easy to see how congested our roads can get, especially at rush hour.

Here’s a sensible letter from the Dispatch and criticism from X-ing Columbus on ODOT’s reluctance to now have trees along the new feeder streets. Quoted from the Dispatch article in question:

“Officials designing the project told the crowd that many trees were eliminated for safety reasons, with a concern that cars might hit them.”

So, not only are these feeders going to be 5 lanes wide as shown by ODOT’s renderings (three for traffic two for on street parking) and render caps useless. This is what you get when you have engineers who have no knowledge whatsoever, and have to need for it, to design our city streets. They only know how to plan roads for maximum capacity and speed during rush hour and that’s it. Incidentally, that also means that some drivers are bound to end up on the sidewalk, but let’s not have trees lining the sidewalk because that would result in damaged cars. Keep the sidewalks tree-free so that they can plow into a whole group of unprotected pedestrians. Who cares about the safety of peoples’ lives when a car’s paint job is at stake? Bonus points if you hit five or more a la Carmageddon.

ODOT is not doing anything to reduce the number of vehicles on this stretch which is the one, single problem here and is only going to increase the number of users by encouraging more of the same behavior and soon enough this will again be over capacity. In case you didn’t check the earlier article about OTE businesses here’s food for thought:

“The highway opened in the 1970s and by 1986, traffic had exceeded capacity.”

Image from ODOT

Notice that it doesn’t say what year in the 70s, but the split was around for a decade, give or take a couple of years, before capacity had gone higher than what it could handle. Clearly, the changes being made to the split are not going to keep traffic under the new heightened capacity that is planned for long (ODOT hasn’t shared that number yet). Not shown on the chart is that after the year 2000 the number of average daily traffic jumped from 160,000 to 180,000 in just three years. There seems to be no information on where that number is now in relation to the new proposed capacity and the projected number of average daily traffic in years to come.

ODOT really has no business having all control over our city and in the face of negative public reaction the city leaders of Columbus should now take a stand to require ODOT to consult with urban planners and architects (an ODOT review committee) where their proposals must receive approval before going forward. Why the city of Columbus is going to let the state decide what is good for us just doesn’t make sense. We do know better than they do. Let the mayor know that.

mac@columbus.gov

And remember that on Mondays you can speak before City Council at 90 W. Broad on the 2nd floor. Just fill out a slip before 5. You don’t have to sit through the whole meeting, but you’ll want to be there towards the end when it’s your turn (you have 3 minutes).