ODOT Provides Clean and Green Buses for Local Transit

Using federal money that was allocated in the last transportation budget, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced Wednesday that it will direct $15 million to local transit authorities across the state to purchase 41 clean fuel buses. ODOT Director Jolene M. Molitoris made the announcement during a rain-soaked press conference at the department's Columbus headquarters that featured one of the buses already purchased by the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA). She said she hopes it will be just the first investment in cleaner technology by the department.

COTA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Lhota said the two buses purchased with ODOT funds will join with $2.1 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program funds to bring the transit authority's fleet up to six hybrid diesel buses. The hybrid buses featured a battery-powered electric motor and a diesel-fueled combustion engine. The 40-foot bus seats up to 39 passengers or up to 83 with standees. At a cost of $573,620 each, they are more expensive than the standard low-sulfur diesel buses that cost $341,141 each. Lhota said the hybrids are expected to last about 12 years, the same amount of time as a regular bus.

Still, Lhota and Pat Stephens, the vice president of operations, said that they will run the hybrid buses on heavily traveled routes with numerous stops along with the regular diesel buses and collect data on the performance of the vehicles to demonstrate what kind of benefit the buses have for COTA. ODOT said it received nearly $33 million in applications from local and regional transit authorities across the state.

Receiving funds are: • Akron Regional Transit Authority ($2 million) - four hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Central Ohio Transit Authority ($1.2 million) - two hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Clermont Transportation Connection ($750,000) - two diesel 40 ft. buses • Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority ($2.3 million) - four hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Miami County Public Transit ($150,000) - two diesel light transit vehicles • Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority ($375,000) - five diesel light transit vehicles • Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority ($1.9 million) - three hybrid electric/diesel 40 ft. buses • Springfield City Area Transit ($684,320) - four hybrid electric/diesel 30 ft. buses • Stark Area Regional Transit Authority ($2.3 million) - six biodiesel 30-35 ft. buses • Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority ($3.3 million) - eight biodiesel 30-35 ft. buses • Washington County/CABL ($75,000) - one diesel 30 ft. bus

New Greater Ohio White Paper Released

Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Canton and Youngstown have been the drivers of Ohio's economy for most of the 20th century. Today, however, these "Big Eight" cities are experiencing sustained, long-term population loss, turning them into Ohio’s “shrinking cities” and prompting city and state officials to ask: How will they reshape and reinvent themselves? Ohio’s Cities At A Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward attempts to answer just that question.  The white paper released today by the Greater Ohio Policy Center and the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program lists 10 policy recommendations to guide leaders as the cities undergo a physical transformation.  Lavea Brachman, co-director for Greater Ohio and a non-resident senior fellow for the Brookings Institution, co-authored the paper along with Alan Mallach, non-resident senior fellow for the Brookings Institution.

According to the white paper, the following seven premises must frame any vision for recreating the physical footprint of Ohio’s largest cities:

  • These cities contain significant assets for future rebuilding.
  • These cities will not regain their peak population.
  • These cities have a surplus of housing.
  • These cities have far more vacant land than can be absorbed by redevelopment.
  • Impoverishment threatens the viability of these cities more than population loss.
  • Local resources are severely limited.
  • The fate of cities and their metropolitan areas are inextricably inter-connected.

Specific recommendations from Ohio’s Cities At A Turning Point include the call for joint regional planning and economical development; targeted, strategic investment of resources; prioritization of state funding to cities adopting proactive plans that address their population loss and need for land reconfiguration; and local government consolidation where appropriate.

We are proud to release this white paper, whose research also helped inform the Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy Report released in February.

The State of Metropolitan America

Yesterday, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program released a new report entitled, The State of Metropolitan America. The report tracks the social and demographic trends of nation’s metropolitan areas that have taken place during the first decade of the new millennium using data collected from the Census Bureau and the American Community Survey.

Over the last several years, Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program has been a close partner of Greater Ohio and a co-authored our Restoring Prosperity report; Brookings’ latest effort provides valuable data that supplements the figures found in Restoring Prosperity and is a useful resource for anyone interesting in learning more about the metropolitan areas leading Ohio and the nation into the next economy.

For more information see the report: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0509_metro_america.aspx

Community Design Supports Good Health

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrates the importance of considering public-health factors, such as physical activity, respiratory and mental health, water quality, social equity, healthy aging, and social capital, when creating the built environment.  The report is the latest product of CDC’s Healthy Community Design Initiative, aimed at combating soaring rates of asthma, diabetes, and obesity by improving the way communities are designed. Greater Ohio Policy Center applauds these efforts.  As a place- based organization that emphasizes the importance of vibrant, walkable, bikable quality places, Greater Ohio agrees that the built environment is the cornerstone of healthy communities.  In our Restoring Prosperity to Ohio report, we list several recommendations to strengthen our quality places and build on our assets.  Not only do these quality places drive economic development, but they also impact the health of their inhabitants as well.

For more information on the report and CDC’s Healthy Community Initiative, contact Charles Green at 770-488-0626 or clg8@cdc.gov. You can also subscribe to the Healthy Community Design News Listserv.

MORPC Announces New Complete Streets Policy

Greater Ohio Policy Center congratulates the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission who last week approved a Complete Streets Policy requiring that every roadway project that receives MORPC-attributable federal funding provide accommodations for motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, transit users, and other users of all ages and abilities on the same road.  With this announcement, MORPC becomes the largest MPO in the country to adopt this comprehensive complete streets approach to its projects. MORPC’s announcement follows up on a national movement by the National Complete Streets Coalition, which urges transportation agencies to change their orientation toward building primarily for cars but rather urges transportation planners and engineers to consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

Greater Ohio urges other MPOs across Ohio to look at MORPC’s innovative policy and consider adopting comprehensive Complete Streets policies to ensure the transportation needs of all Ohioans are being met.

Moving Ahead 2010

Greater Ohio Policy Center has been pleased to be involved in planning the upcoming Ohio State University/Clean Fuels Ohio Moving Ahead 2010 Conference on May 2 – 4, 2010, which will bring together transportation and energy leaders from industry, research, government, non-profit organizations and education to continue the conversations and build momentum that will foster the actions we need for our transportation future. Whether you are interested in electronic vehicle technology or developing sustainable communities there are sessions and national experts to challenge and educate you.  Speakers include representatives from Smart Growth America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology and the Urban Land Institute as well as representatives from charging companies like AeroVironment, Better Place, and Plug Smart, and energy companies such as ITC, Duke, and AEP.  Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Bright Automotive and other auto companies will also be on hand to talk about their plans to plug in America’s drivers.

Because of our involvement, we are able to offer you a special 50% discount to attend the conference, which will bring the price of registration down to $100.  To receive the discount, visit the Moving Ahead 2010 registration page.  Once you chose an option on the next page, it will show the shopping cart at the top and the regular registration fee. Simply enter the code TOP50 (all caps) in the “Discount Code” box and click on “Update Cart.”  Your registration fee will update at that point, and you can proceed with the rest of the registration process.

Greater Ohio, as part of our recently report Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy, recommended a host of state policy changes around developing more comprehensive transportation options and planning to ensure that both people and goods are moved efficiently while recognizing its impacts on the global challenge of climate change. We look forward to addressing these issues as well as learning from national experts as part of this conference.

The Banks of Cincinnati, Best New Urban Park

Check out this piece from The Infrastructurist entitled The Best New Urban Parks in the U.S., which lists six of the United States' newest and most exciting urban parks.  In the piece, Cincinnati's The Banks was listed as the best up and coming urban park, and like The Infrastructurist and Cincinnati community leaders, Greater Ohio Policy Center is excited about The Banks' potential to revitalize Cincinnati's riverfront from its old industrial past to a new beginning that capitalizes on this true community asset. The Banks is an $800 million mixed-use development on the Ohio River in downtwon Cincinnati that once completed will become a true "live-work-play" riverfront neighborhood.  The project includes the new construction of roughly 2.8 million square feet of mixed use space, including one million square feet of office space, 1,800 housing units, 200 hotel rooms, 300,000 square feet of retail and a 45-acres park.  The first phase of the project, which includes the development's first apartments and storefronts, the public park and an underground parking garage, is expected to be completed in the Spring of 2011.

Greater Ohio applauds Cincinnati and other Ohio communities, from Toledo to Marietta and Youngstown to Dayton, that are redeveloping their waterways to provide quality of life enhancements that will draw people and ultimately jobs back to these communities.  In fact, in our recently released Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio Communities for the Next Economy, we call for the state to create a "Walkable Waterfront Initiative" to support local efforts, such as the Banks, to revitalize urban riverways and lakefronts.  This initiative could build on existing Ohio programs such as the Clean Ohio Fund and the Job Ready Sites Program targeting these funds in a deliberate place-based manner that is aligned with local efforts.  To learn more about this recommendation check out our report.

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