Listen to the
Transportation
Conversation
Moving Ohio
into a Prosperous
New World
December 2008
Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force – Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force
Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Listen to the Transportation Conversation and Imagine ............................................................................................... 4
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
The Task Force Charge .................................................................................................................................................... 5
Seven Guiding Principles ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Table of Contents
3
Listen to the Transportation Conversation and Imagine
Imagine a transportation system that is diverse and reduces congestion on Ohio’s
highway and rail systems.
“If every UPS drivers is delayed for five minutes each day, the cost to UPS would be
approximately $100 million per year.”
Kay Townsend, UPS Vice President & Task Force Member,
Economic Development subcommittee
Imagine a transportation system that gives Ohioans better and more affordable options
for getting where they want to go.
“People are making very tough decisions. People who are gainfully employed are
making decisions about whether to buy gasoline or groceries.”
Rick, Athens Regional Meeting, June 2008
Imagine expanding transportation services to better connect workers to the places
where they work, resulting in job creation, economic growth and prosperity.
“… appreciate how our transportation infrastructure contributes to job creation. The
investments we make are critical to generating long-term, living-wage jobs with
benefits.”
Mark, St. Clairsville Regional Meeting, June 2008
“Employers ask if a job candidate has transportation to the worksite; and if the answer
is no, the candidate is overlooked.”
Lynn, Workforce Development Officer, Economic Development
subcommittee meeting
Imagine a reliable transit system that allows people with disabilities or low incomes,
and senior citizens, to be independent, productive, contributing members of society.
“I am blind and couldn’t do anything without public transit. I would lose influence in
my job. People need transit to live.”
Marty, Cleveland Regional Meeting, June 2008
“I use Laketran for work, church and volunteering. I could do none of this without
Laketran. I live in a rural area, the only place I could use federal loans for housing, so I
can’t use any other types of transit. I can’t get people to drive to where I live to take care
of me because of the increase in gas prices. Public transit is vital.”
Maria, Cleveland Regional Meeting, June 2008.
Imagine creating the transportation system
Ohioans have been talking about!
Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force – Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Introduction
The Task Force Charge
At the 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force inaugural meeting, Governor Strickland sent a
clear message to the 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force members: “envision and
champion the optimum transportation system for Ohio’s future and recommend the resources and
financial tools needed to build and sustain it.” We were to be constrained only by the limits of our
imagination and by the power of our collective thinking to identify creative, innovative responses to
Ohio’s 21st-century transportation challenges.
Such a directive could hardly have been more appropriate because no single means of transportation
– no way of getting from here to there – is as reliable, as adaptable and as cost-effective as the fast
lane of human imagination The fundamental challenge we faced was how to “think big,” consider
the harsh realities of extensive transportation gaps and make recommendations for investing in what
matters while living with our means.
We believe we have met this challenge understanding that failure to think big and act boldly will
make the transportation of people and goods more difficult and costly in our state. Thinking and
acting small would restrict mobility and access to essential services, make Ohio less attractive as a
location for business investment and expansion, and diminish the quality of Ohioans’ lives. Clearly,
these outcomes simply are not acceptable for the citizens and businesses of our great state.
To get underway, we first assigned ourselves the task of understanding the state’s transportation
gaps, and the role transportation plays in moving Ohio’s economy forward. At the same time, we
reached out to the public, hosting seven public meetings throughout the state and seeking additional
feedback through web, phone and mail comments.
Our 61 members – transit agency leaders, travelers, transportation experts, business leaders, public
officials and laymen – spent six months listening and learning from Ohio’s citizens, examining our
assets and shortfalls, learning from other states and exploring how best to move forward. Our 61
members participated in dozens of subcommittee meetings and five full task force meetings. Over the
course of these six months, our vision emerged:
Moving Ohio into a prosperous new world
We recognized this as more than our transportation vision. Rather, it is Ohio’s destiny – but only if
we are able to muster, individually and collectively, the imagination, the energy and the will to
convert “what should be done” and “what could be done” into “what will be done!”
Introduction
5
Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force – Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
The Task Force used its vision as a springboard for establishing the goal for its work:
Make Ohio a leader in the national and global economies by creating a
fully-integrated, well-managed transportation system that drives business growth and
prosperity, creates good jobs, makes our communities places
people are proud to call home, and allows Ohioans to get where they
want to go safely and in an environmentally sound way.
During May and June 2008, Task Force members
conducted a series of public meeting across the state
and launched the “Transportation Conversation” via
our website. They heard from several thousand
Ohioans who made it clear that they want more than
highway solutions to their transportation needs. In
response, Task Force members pondered how
communities can be planned so Ohioans don’t need a
car to get around. How transportation investments
could be used to promote thriving communities and
healthy lifestyles. How new transportation choices will
help reduce our carbon footprint and dependence on
foreign oil.
Task Force members want Ohio’s leaders to connect
transportation with economic development initiatives,
and to make it easy to get the right transportation
projects done faster. They want to see more
coordination, more partnerships and more innovative
thinking. In addition, Task Force members want to see
more transportation choices for businesses and citizens
because it means more competitive transportation
costs and growth in industry as well as unfettered
access to jobs, education, health care and all of the
things they need to live and improve their lives.
Seven Guiding Principles
1. Keeping Ohio competitive in the global
and national economies must be Priority
Number One.
2. Transportation must be aligned with
economic development, environmental and
land use policies and practices.
3. Transportation planning and development
should be focused on “one system” – not
on the interests of a single mode or the
need for individual projects.
4. Transportation is a shared responsibility
for state government and local
communities, with synchronized public
policies and public-private collaboration.
5. Transportation policies should balance the
preservation and maintenance of existing
assets with strategic investments in new
capacity.
6. The mobility of all Ohioans, including
those who are transit dependent (e.g.,
senior citizens and persons with
disabilities,) needs to be improved.
7. Transportation funding must be reliable,
sustainable and adaptive to changing
environmental factors.
Through these and other conversations, Task Force
members discovered that Ohio has entered a whole
new world – that the 21st-century world is changing
rapidly and Ohio has to change with it – again, rapidly.
In The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman tell us that the
“flattening” of the globe requires that all of us must
run faster simply to stay in place. He writes “that the
world has gotten too small and too fast for people,
businesses and their political systems to adapt in traditional, stable ways.”
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Introduction
Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force – Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Introduction
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Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force – Moving Ohio into a Prosperous New World
Introduction
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