Eigth and State

Nice touch on the Ohio map in the background. :-)

In case anyone missed this one from a few years ago:

I worked out a similar route years ago. Mine crossed the river a little farther west, and made up some of the elevation by climbing a long ramp on the Ohio Side to a high bridge which itself was sloped. I found that a route crossing the river a little west of Anderson Ferry was an entire mile shorter than a route through Covington. I was thinking more along the lines of a rapid transit, with stops downtown and at the airport, and continuing south to Florence. Incidentally, this is nearly the same route that Cincinnati Water Works took to build a water main to Florence. (yes, CWW serves Florence!) Of course, airport traffic has declined, and probably will continue to decline, so a route from downtown to the airport isn't as important as it was once thought to be.

Mammoth Cave National Park. Be mindful of construction traffic south of Louisville. Speaking of Louisville, try Falls of the Ohio State Park across the river in Indiana. Other Indiana state parks: Spring Mill, McCormick's Creek, etc.

Even better than shared poles is attaching wires, lights, traffic signals, etc., directly to buildings. Granted, many of our buildings are old, and there are many vacant lots, and issues with private property rights, and a host of other challenges. Nevertheless, I saw this done in Europe and it really reduced the street clutter.

If I remember correctly, those houses were pre-manufactured, and came in on trucks. The foundations were built on site, and a crane stacked the "boxes." If nothing else, it was an interesting construction method.

+1 for me.

^I have to wonder if Kroger is even capable of making a profitable small store. It seems that Walgreens, CVS, etc., already have that market covered.

An older woman who grew up on Fourth Street downtown was telling me how nice downtown used to be before all of the businesses left. I asked her where she did her grocery shopping. She said that they drove to the suburbs, and then she almost broke into tears. So, even back then, 1950's or 1960's or so, she felt the need to drive to the suburbs to find a decent grocery store.

The 1946 version of the logo as well as the current one both remind me of Bugs Bunny, with that same wide grin. According to Wikipedia, Bugs made his first appearance in 1940, though a rabbit appeared a few years earlier. So, I guess it's possible that Chief Wahoo was influenced by Bugs, who is one of the most popular animated characters ever.

I thought that the stadium contract says that the Bengals get the parking revenue. Is it in their interest to encourage people not to drive?

The "Liberty Tire" building with the mural of the Indian at Spring Grove and Elmore was coming down when I passed by the other day.

True, but Blue Ash is possibly a shorter commute for more drivers. Blue Ash has interstates leading in 6 directions: I-75 north and south, I-71 north and south, and I-275 east and west.

I was at The Banks the other day. We all know that the streets are elevated on top of a parking garage. I noticed that some of the expansion joints in the street are much wider and deeper than the streetcar rails. The expansion joints are at right angles to the street, though.

^Be careful what you wish for. They could earmark the profits for transportation, and then use it to widen I-75.

I disagree. Pedestrians are very sensitive to distance, especially if the route is uncomfortable. Crossing Jefferson is probably the equivalent of several hundred feet of walking on a walking path.

I wouldn't even say "never in a hundred years. Who knows what could happen in that time? All but a handful of automobiles eliminated, due to depletion of petroleum? Breakdown of the entire automobile culture? Mass abandonment in the suburbs? Breakdown of our political system and replacement with something completely different? Even the sale of Eden Park? Maybe a war or two? Look at photos from 1914 and compare to today. A lot of things can change in a hundred years. Just sayin'.

The first thing I thought of when viewing this topic was utilities. Streets are not just for moving people and vehicles; they are also corridors for all kinds of utilities, which need access and maintenance. What happens when the water company needs to replace a water main under one of these solar surfaces? Do they need to rebuild the whole street? How about placement of manholes, water valves, an so on? Can these solar streets be designed in complicated shapes for drainage? Street design is anything but simple, and solar pavements introduce a new level of complexity. There are good reasons why asphalt pavement is so popular.

Beware of hillside slippage. Cincinnati hills are notorious for moving. Don't be surprised if the alignment requires deep foundations, or retaining walls, which will obviously add cost compared to simple grading. It's probably still less expensive than dealing with the utilities in Vine Street, though.

Since you mention Bank Street, I have a question about these bike lanes. Bank Street has two new bike lanes, one on each side of the street, marked with pavement markings. There are also parking lanes. The other day I was driving east on Bank Street, and passed a bicycle riding west, in the lane on the south side of Bank Street. To me, this seems dangerous for a bicycle to ride on the wrong side of the street, against trafiic, especially between a driving lane and a parking lane. It brings to mind another time on another street where two bicycles passed each other in opposite directions in a bike lane. So, what it the rule about direction of traffic? Ohio law says that bicycles are supposed to ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, and furthermore, are supposed to ride as far right as possible, to allow faster traffic to pass (although bicycles are permitted to take the center of the lane if they can maintain the same speed). Yet, the separate lane, marked for bicycles only, implies that it's for bicycles exclusivel

Add to that LRT in new tunnel from the Mohawk area to U.C and beyond. Expensive, but very fast! The Exclusive Guideway Plan of 1976 showed a new line from the subway along MLK drive through UC and on to Norwood.

Flooding was only one of many factors that led to the demolition of the West End, which was lower than all of the other places you mentioned except perhaps California. Northside was affected by the 1937 flood, but it isn't affected by the river every time it gets to 50 feet. The west end was at a very low elevation relative to the river. I think much of it today has been built up since then.

Eminent domain is much more difficult to administer now. If the property owner agrees to sell, then it's not too bad. If the property owner decides to fight it, it can take two years to work it out in court. They don't actually fight in court for two years; they don't even schedule the court case for two years! Another thing is the complicated system of land ownership. There are sometimes multiple layers of mortgages, foreclosures, probate cases, and all kinds of complicated things that add administrative cost. Sometimes a narrow strip of land needed for something like a road widening costs $50,000 in administrative costs while the property owner only gets $1000 for the land. In the case of the circle proposed in this thread, the owners of Rookwood absolutely have to be on board with the idea. They might end up losing one of their buildings - they may be able to build a new one in a better arrangement though - but it's definitely going to affect them in a big way. If the project also results in a rail stop at the Rookwood shopping center, they may be for it.

The Mill Creek Barrier Dam keeps the streets dry, but not all of the basements. They only close the barrier dam when the river gets close to flood stage, but there were still lots of basements that flooded before the river reached flood stage.

I like the idea of a roundabout there but I don't think it will be so easy. First, anytime that a property has to be taken for a public use, expect a fight, or at least a very expensive project. If the property owners support it, then it's not so bad. Second, I think the circle is going to have to be much larger than it is shown on the graphic, making the property acquisition issue even worse, and the redevelopment potential smaller. I agree that making the center of the roundabout at the intersection of Madison and Edwards is the only practical way to make it work. I would also suggest relocating the entrance to Rookwood to the opposite side of the circle, for a 6-way intersection with each leg at nearly the sixth points. Probably 90% of the traffic is locals who will get used to it. American drivers are gradually getting used to roundabouts as more and more of them are built. Is there any data that shows a higher accident rate at roundabouts? I thought that in general, the most accident-prone areas are signalized intersections. Furthermore, the accidents at signalized intersections tend to be more severe because of the large number of collisions at an angle. The beauty of the roundabout is that it minimizes the potential angle conflict points. The drawback of the roundabout, at least in the United States, is that it is rare to be able to fit them into existing streets. It's much easier to construct a new one on a new street than it is to retrofit an existing street.