Columbus can grow to be transit-friendly
I’ve often heard it said that Columbus is ordained to be a carcentric community. We have a culture here, the theory goes, in which people simply like to drive, whether it’s across town or across the street. Many believe to try to change this culture would be naïve and self-defeating.
I believe this is a narrow view. As a lifelong Columbus resident, I’ve seen a lot of changes in the way we move from place to place. More people today leave their automobiles at home by using bicycles, ride-share services and public transit than when I was growing up. I’ve seen many of our neighborhoods become more hospitable to pedestrians and bikes than to motor vehicles. I notice that many of my friends and colleagues care about living close to where they work.
And yet, most of us still travel to work and other destinations in our cars by ourselves. For some that’s a personal preference and for others a necessity. The problem is that it’s unsustainable.
The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) projects that central Ohio will grow by approximately 1 million people by the year 2050. Try to imagine even another 100,000 single-occupancy vehicles stuck in rush-hour traffic each morning, and you’ll understand why a car-centric community is no longer an option.
However, the will to change — which I know many of us already have — isn’t enough. Whether or not we have a car-centric culture, our community developed in a way that left the automobile as the easiest way to get around. For too many central Ohio residents, other modes of transportation are either inconvenient or unmanageable.
We need to do more than change our mobility habits. We need reimagine the design of our community.
That’s why I joined with community partners Thursday to announce the Regional Corridor Analysis. Joined by the city of Columbus, the Central Ohio Transit Authority, the Urban Land Institute, the Columbus Partnership and other central Ohio leaders, MORPC will lead a research initiative to assess the potential for compact development in our regional transit corridors and how high-capacity transit could serve those corridors. This effort will build on the momentum that has been created by MORPC’s Insight2050, COTA NextGen, Smart Columbus, and other initiatives that seek to advance mobility and public transportation in our city.
The analysis is expected to conclude around this time next year, and then we will implement a plan of action.
I will admit that the idea of a yearlong study doesn’t usually get me very excited. But this one does. The results of this exploration will provide us with a toolkit to concentrate growth along transit corridors to create accessible and inclusive neighborhoods. It will ensure that we have the right zoning requirements, incentives and transit options to encourage density over sprawl, which will tip the scales in the favor of transitoriented development.
Once we create these types of residential communities, high-capacity transportation options that seem farfetched in Columbus’ present layout can suddenly become quite realistic.
A community cannot revolutionize transit overnight and it certainly cannot do it alone. Columbus needs planning, vision, and buy-in from community stakeholders so that the entire process doesn’t get derailed in favor of less-expansive projects with less impact.
As Smart Columbus integrates technology with our current transportation system to better connect residents, it is critical we continue to pursue the knowledge and tools to foster equitable and transitoriented growth. These two efforts will together set much of the framework for the future of growth and transportation in Columbus.
We have a unique opportunity at this moment to choose what kind of community we want. And, given the trajectory of our population, it may be less of a choice and more of a necessity.
We know we need denser, more-equitable communities served by high-capacity transit. I’m excited to spend the months ahead working with our community partners to figure out how to get there.