Thoughts, opinions and ideas about life in Columbus, Ohio.
So… earlier this week I helped to launch a new business, TheMetropreneur.com. It’s a new local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Consider it a complimentary site to ColumbusUnderground, but with more of an eye on regional economic development and a more resource-heavy focus on assisting entrepreneurs.
Anyway, go check it out and let me know what you think!
Last week, someone started the following discussion on CU : When you drive, why do you do it instead of walking, cycling, or using COTA? My answer to the question was the following:
I walk when I’m going somewhere within a mile or so, and when the weather conditions are fairly optimal (ie: not raining, not freezing, not super hot when I’m headed to a professional meeting, etc).
I bus around the inner-city area if I’m headed for a mile or more in a direction, or if the weather is poor, or if I’m in a bigger hurry than walking (or feeling lazy about walking).
I drive when I need to go further, when the bus schedules aren’t as convenient (late night), when I need to transport cargo (not going to haul recyclables to the drop off bin on the bus or by foot) or when I’m going somewhere with additional passengers (family, kids, friends, etc) and the car is either more convenient for them, or makes more financial/ecological sense with multiple passengers.
I’ve never really measured how all of this stuff breaks down by total miles traveled, but I’m guessing it’s probably pretty close to 1/3 walk 1/3 bus 1/3 drive. I should measure my miles-traveled for a full week of regular activity and add it all up to see. I think the results would be pretty interesting if other folks might be willing to do the same thing.
So… following my initial curiosity, I decided to measure out a week’s worth of travel and see if my guess was accurate. I decided to wait until Memorial Day Weekend was over, as we had guests from out of town, and our travel routes were a bit out of the norm. But I think this past week, June 1st through the 7th ended up being a pretty accurate barometer for my average weekly transit requirements. My findings were as follows:
Tue June 1 – Summary : Went to work, three daytime meetings, went home.
4.7 Total Miles Traveled
2.7 by Bus 57%
2.0 by Foot 43%
Wed June 2 – Summary : Went to work, two daytime meetings, went home.
5.0 Total Miles Traveled
3.9 by Bus 78%
1.1 by Foot 22%
Thur June 3 – Summary : Went to work, three daytime meetings, went home.
5.0 Total Miles Traveled
3.1 by Bus 62%
1.9 by Foot 38%
Fri June 4 – Summary : Went to work, one daytime meeting, went home, walked to downtown Arts Festival, evening grocery store run.
13.5 Total Miles Traveled
5.7 by Bus 42%
2.6 by Foot 19%
5.2 by Car 39%
Sat June 5 – Summary : Rainy. Worked at home and hung out with family.
0.0 Total Miles Traveled
Sun June 6 – Summary : Went to visit friends on North side of town.
33.6 Total Miles Traveled
33.6 by Car 100%
Mon Jun 7 – Summary : Went to work, two daytime meetings, went home.
5.0 Total Miles Traveled
4.0 by Bus 80%
1.0 by Foot 20%
TOTAL FOR ONE WEEK
66.8 Total Miles Traveled
38.8 by Car 58%
19.4 by Bus 29%
8.6 by Foot 13%
* Note #1 – This information is my personal data only. I did not track my wife Anne who used the car a few times and walked to destinations in the past week.
* Note #2 – This information is for outdoor travel only. I did not wear a pedometer to track indoor walking at home, work, grocery store, etc.
I was pretty close in guesstimating the bus-travel portion being 33% of my weekly trips, but the automobile and foot travel ended up being way off. I found this really interesting because I only used the car for two trips throughout the span of a week, one of which was a 5-mile round-trip to the grocery store with 2 passengers and the other was the 33-mile round trip to visit friends with 4 passengers. Hardly wasteful usage of an automobile, but still a significant shift in my measurements as a result of something that few people think twice about. Driving 15-miles to a destination is a pretty commonplace activity for many people in Columbus, and yet it threw a huge curveball into my measurements, as there were many regular workdays in the past week where the car never left the driveway.
All in all, it was an interesting experiment, and hopefully one not too flawed, as I attempted to not try to alter my behaviors knowing that I was measuring what I was doing. Perhaps a different week might result in an extra driving trip to Target or to a restaurant, and during the winter I know I’m inclined to walk less often to work in the cold and I was able to take advantage of some warm weather this past week. I’d love to see this data tracked over the course of a full year but I don’t think I have the patience (or the OCD) to see that through.
Anyway, I’d be interested to see anyone else’s results if this inspires anyone else to track their transit for a week. It was fairly easy to do using the “driving/walking directions” function of google maps and just remembering to jot down where I had been at the end of each day.
Anyone care to try it out and share your results?
Yes yes… I’ve been neglecting my blog. Having a new baby and some exciting new projects has caused me to not have the time to post here much. I’ve been thinking about changing up the format and the focus of this blog for awhile, so perhaps I’ll get around to that sometime soon.
Anyway… just a quick shoutout to the Central Ohio 2015 Documentary that airs tonight on WBNS 10-TV at 8pm! Tune in! I’m in it!
So, it’s not any sort of “official” WOSU day, but it may as well be for me.
I’ve been invited to return as a guest on All Sides with Ann Fisher this morning at 11am. This will actually be her first “on site” show, and seeing as the topic du jour is The Short North, the broadcast will be set up at the MoJoe Lounge on the I-670 Cap. Feel free to tune online HERE if you’re not near a “snail radio” at 11am today.
The reason for the focus on the Short North is due to today’s public premiere of the WOSU Columbus Neighborhoods documentary series at 8PM. Be sure to tune in at home, or… if you’re in the mood for some camaraderie while watching, we’re hosting an official Columbus Underground Viewing Party in the back room at the Surly Girl Saloon. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood and check it out!
And again… Happy WOSU Day!
During the week of March 8th – March 14th, Dine Originals restaurants will feature a special fixed price menu for either $10.10, $20.10 or $30.10. This is a great opportunity to enjoy a new restaurant or revisit a favorite!
More information can be found here: Dine Originals Week
I’ve been tinkering around with Google Buzz a little bit over the past few days. Not sure if I’m sold on it yet or not. Always fun to play around with new toys though regardless, eh?
The first of three Downtown Strategic Plan Public Meetings was scheduled to be held tonight (the snow canceled it, and it should be rescheduled soon) but I can’t help but think that yesterday’s Dispatch article about the North Market by Robert Vitale was timed intentionally for this event.
The article starts off by looking back 20 years to compare the opening of City Center with the move of the North Market into their current location. Both were large projects taking place at the same time, but each has seen a much different fate. The City Center is being torn down, while the small business community in the North Market is doing better than ever… despite the current economic recession. Additionally, the article points out that the The North Market is now fully self sustaining and hasn’t received city subsidies since 2007.
Furthermore, the North Market has successfully served the city as a small business incubator. Several businesses that have started there have grown outside the market either physically or with a stronger online/shipping sales component. Jeni’s Ice Creams, Nida’s, Lac Viet and CaJohn’s are just a few examples of that type of growth. These are new businesses that are generating new tax dollars for the city, and providing new jobs to Central Ohioans. Granted, their numbers may be small, but it’s probably not too far fetched to imagine Jeni’s quickly becoming the next type of Wendy’s-sized local employer with hundreds of Central Ohio jobs headquartered here.
It’s my belief that Vitale wants the readers of his article to consider the North Market as an example of a successful publicly-funded project, and focus our attention on similar types of business incubators for the future. There are a variety of business sectors that could benefit from increased small business support: food services, technology, creative design, architecture, medical, biotech, and so on and so forth. In some instances there are existing incubators that could benefit from additional/public funding, such as Sandbox or the Kitchen Incubator program at ECDI. In other instances there may be room for new a public-private partnership between existing entities such as Battelle, OSU, COSI, OhioHealth, TechColumbus and other businesses.
Just imagine what Columbus could look like in another 20 years if we had a dozen other North Market type facilities in the heart of the city, each churning out new jobs, businesses, ideas, and innovation, each in a different field. That’s the type of creative city that I want to live in.
Nice work, Mr. Vitale.
The commercial aired tonight during the SuperBowl. Impressed that it’s already on Youtube:
This has been available on OhioChannel.org for quite awhile now, but I forgot to post up a video link to it. So here it is. If you’d like to reminisce about the state of Downtown Housing back in June 2009, then click on the image below to watch.
Walker Evans from Palestra Creative on Vimeo.
The guys at Palestra Creative put this video interview together during an event I attended a few weeks ago. They did an amazing job, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Check them out at palestracreative.com.