Public transportation brings freedom

“Not driving is socially isolating” said the Monday Dispatch editorial “Adapt cars and roads for seniors.” While I don’t disagree, the editorial is as limited in its vision as Ohio’s transportation policy. By our own state constitution, it is almost entirely “car-centric”: my way or the highway.

Motor-vehicle-tax revenues, by law, can be spent only on highways. It is an archaic concept given the advances we’re seeing in “smart transportation” modes and the fact that Ohio ranks in the bottom 10 in state funding support for public transportation.

Almost 9 percent of Ohioans either do not, cannot afford to or are physically unable to drive. If some of the rest of us don’t choose to drive, is that not “socially isolating?” That could be a senior citizen or a younger Ohioan, seeking to connect to education, a job, health care, or to go to an event in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton or Columbus. Ohio’s lack of fully developed and adequately funded public transportation within and between our cities also limits our ability to attract business and big events and the jobs and tax revenue they bring.

The fact that Amazon’s criteria for a new regional headquarters includes good public transportation is no accident. Cleveland’s hosting of the 2016 GOP National Convention was also, in part, due to having a full-fledged, if financially limited transit system and access to Amtrak.

As a senior citizen myself, as well as once having worked for both COTA and Ohio’s Rail Development Commission, I support a state policy that recognizes and expands transportation choices for all Ohioans. Mobility is the essence off a free society: to connect to that which we need and want every day. When our mobility is limited or obstructed, we are less free…. and socially isolated.