Area transportation at the crossroads

New projects, services prepare for growth

When city leaders once said “Columbus is on the move,” they meant skyscrapers and condos were rising, employers were moving in, the arts were thriving and professional sports, conventioneers and tourists had come.

Today, “Columbus is on the move” defines this city’s progress more literally: Transportion is playing a driving force in shaping the city’s future.

The city is undertaking a $417 million “Smart Cities” project, aimed at developing and testing futuristic ways of moving people from place to place — and from poverty to opportunity. Only $50 million of that figure is from prevailing over other cities in a federal contest, which also brings innovation dollars from Vulcan Inc. The rest is from local government, Ohio State University, the Columbus Partnership and businesses that glean that this investment could help position their company as a future technologies leader.

Partners are jumping aboard “Smart Columbus” with a fever. Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther foresees raising $1 billion in resources as Columbus becomes the testing ground for intelligent-transportation systems. This could mean driverless shuttles to employment centers, emergency vehicles that interact with traffic signals, streetlights that act as wireless Internet hubs, and more electric-vehicle charging stations, to name a few of the ideas.

Who’d have ever guessed that urban transportation projects, which once meant orange cones, could be exciting?

Central Ohio’s transportation future is at crossroads. Transformational projects are in the works and we are seeing a changing of the guard. Elaine Roberts, the longtime president and CEO of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority will retire by year’s end. Also retiring is Curtis Stitt, the president and CEO of the Central Ohio Transit Authority.

The loss of both, announced last week, means losing regional leaders with institutional knowledge of the airport and the city bus system. Both have positioned their authorities for central Ohio’s future growth.

Roberts, who came to Columbus in 2000, has overseen the merger of the old Port Columbus and Rickenbacker cargo airport under their modern authority, along with an $80 million terminal renovation and the renaming of the city’s airport after a late astronaut and senator. In 2016, John Glenn Columbus International was named most improved airport in North America by the trade organization Airports Council International. A once cramped and unremarkable terminal is now sleek and comfortable, with local restaurant fare and modern amenities, such as free high-speed Wi-Fi and colorful furniture.

Stitt is to leave this fall, giving him time to iron out any kinks in a massive redesign of COTA bus routes that is to begin today. Bus routes will no longer follow old streetcar patterns, but reflect changing urban migration patterns; suburbs, now cities in their own right, have become major employment centers and routes needed to shift to get employees to jobs, speed buses and serve more riders.

Stitt, CEO for five years, maintained the integrity of COTA’s budget and operations, earning the begrudging respect of a union that tested him with an early strike, and modernized the system.

Central Ohio’s publictransit system and its airports are vital to its ability to move people and commerce, attract and retain business and jobs, and maintain this region’s competitive quality of life.

As transportation in central Ohio becomes a force for change in its own right, rather than a reaction to development, we are seeing a shift in leadership and vision. It could be quite a ride.