There’s an article in today’s Dispatch about the problems Pickerington residents are currently facing with several roads that haven’t grown to accommodate the sprawl in the area. It sounds like the folks quoted in the article simply want to simply widen the roads (which is more of a band-aid than a solution), but perhaps I can suggest something else.
How about an 18-mile light-rail line running from Downtown Columbus to the heart of Pickerington? It includes a few stops in between for other urban and suburban areas. These stops would be more than just park-n-rides and could include a mixed-use environment and spawn additional transit-oriented development.
Of course, this could just be one line in a part of a much greater system that could give Pickerington residents easy access to other parts of the Greater Columbus Metro Area including the Airport, the Fairgrounds, Crew Stadium, Easton, Polaris, etc. Imagine taking that 30-minute rush-hour commute and turning it into an 18-minute train ride. Or alternatively, imagine other people riding the train and freeing up the road for those who still prefer to drive? Sounds like a win-win to me.
Below is a homemade preliminary interactive map of what the alternative could be. You can zoom in and click on the objects for more details.
View Larger Map
18 miles would be about $770 million.
(Charlotte spent $427m on 10 miles)
…meant to add:
For comparison, one(!) exit ramp off of 315N to the OSU Hospital was $10 million.
Did they build new tracks? I’m talking about using existing lines. Much much much cheaper.
I like it Walker. Commuter rail would be even cheaper because you wouldn’t have to electrify the line. Does anyone know if freight traffic is currently active on the line?
Also, might I suggest that they get bus service (http://columbusbusplan.googlepages.com/no75.htm) before they get rail service? This would help to gauge the ridership demand before spending a few hundred mil.
As I recall, COTA had a Pickerington Express bus during I-70 construction a few years ago:
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/News/2001/4-02-01.htm
http://www.i-70.org/comments.htm
Supposedly, the route was very successful, but I heard COTA had to discontinue it because Pickerington is outside of the taxable service area.
FWIW, St. Louis’ light rail was $25million/mile (in ‘07 dollars)
Using that benchmark, a Picktown run of 18 miles = $450m
But I’d imagine there’d be federal funds for the bulk of a project like this?
…St Louis used existing tracks.
I would hope there would be federal funding for something like this to occur.
Really though, $450m for an 18 mile rail line isn’t too bad. ODOT just spent $134m on a single interchange at 161 & 270. I think 18 miles of rail transit would be a much better value.
Great map!
I would add a Three Creeks stop at Winchester Pike for the nature minded. To bad the rest of the neighborhood is carved up by limited access highways.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to get federal funding for such a project as you might think. The project must compete against other transit projects nationwide through the FTA New Starts process:
http://www.fta.dot.gov/index_5221.html
COTA previously judged the North Corridor to be their best bet and it didn’t meet federal cost guidelines based on the anticipated benefits. Without major policy change, they would have to try something other than light rail here.
Why not carpool to work. It relieves traffic congestion and helps the environment. In todays society we all want the expensive fix, but we all forget there is simple thinks we can do such as carpooling to work with another person. This would take 50% of the cars off the roadways, save individuals money, reduce our dependancy on fuel, and make are environment safer. At the same time not requiring millions of dollars to be spent, no federal funding required. Now I think that is something worth thinking about.
Carpooling is a great thing to do, but not a realistic solution for everybody. How could the practice realistically be encouraged to the point of having a significant impact?
And rail transit is hardly the “expensive fix” compared to automobile transit. Construction costs for highways are very pricey, require a lot of money for maintenance, and are also subsidized with federal dollars.