Yes, the way that states have transformed license plates into places to display artwork promoting their state is just gross. Keep it simple.

 

It's politics on most of them.  Stroking the egos of small time legislators.  If they can come up with designs and have their fingers on things it allows their heads to continue inflating. 

Yes, the way that states have transformed license plates into places to display artwork promoting their state is just gross. Keep it simple.

 

And yet the State of Ohio continues to use promotional artwork and slogans that you could only see by being three inches away.

And none of it solves everyday transportation deficiencies that keep poor people locked into poverty and the elderly kept under house arrest.

^Children too

Anyone who lives or works in the Greater Cincinnati area: Please take a moment and complete OKI's transportation priorities survey. We will not get better transportation policy in Greater Cincinnati until OKI repeatedly hears from the public that we support better transit, complete streets, and maintenance and safety improvements for our existing highway infrastructure rather than endless road and highway expansion.

 

http://2040.oki.org/

Yes, the way that states have transformed license plates into places to display artwork promoting their state is just gross. Keep it simple.

 

It's politics on most of them.  Stroking the egos of small time legislators.  If they can come up with designs and have their fingers on things it allows their heads to continue inflating. 

 

The widely mocked "Farmville" plates were supposedly the creation of Mrs. Strickland.

I like the "Beautiful" plates Mrs. Strickland designed. They were by far the least boring standard plate we've ever had.

^Really? I hated those. I like the current “designer monogramesque" plates we have now. As well as the “Heart of it all” plates .

Wow, taestell[/member] provides an opportunity for citizens to change transportation policy and you guys want to talk about Farmville license plates?? Ugh. Welcome to Ohio....

What else is there to say other than "go take the survey" KJP? There's room enough for multiple conversations here.

Just having a little fun ragging on youse guys :)

taestell[/member] will be be happy to know that the ODOT expansion of the past has come to an end. There is a major, yet to be announced, policy shift that will completely change the way ODOT prioritizes projects. And this includes no more capacity adding projects.

 

The last capacity addition jobs will be completed in appx 2019 (after the final sale of Turnpike bonds), and after that ALL funding will be appropriated to rehabilitation projects.

Hopefully what you're saying is correct, but I am skeptical that ODOT and the former asphalt lobbyist would support an approach that doesn't include never-ending growth of our highways. I'd also be curious to know whether the currently-proposed, super-sized Brent Spence Bridge project will make it through before such a shift is made.

If its any consolation, the asphalt guys make basically the same on a rehab project as they do on new construction given the same amount of square footage.

It is true...its be announced publicly shortly I believe. But the above its also correct, because a complete rebuild of the road is considered a major rehabilitation as long as no lanes are added.

 

And my guess is that Brent Spence will still be happening. One way or another that brings needs to be rebuilt.  But also because the bridge is owned by KYTC, it is in somewhat of a gray area within the new policy.

Too bad this new policy didn't go into affect before that mammoth Scioto County thing broke ground. I still can't believe the state is committing itself to a $B+ tab to reinvigorate the gas station and fast food industry down there.

Agreed. Besides the mammoth price tag (should the State's largest ever project really be in Sciotio County?), Portsmouth was already in trouble. This doesn't help any of those people...only "commerce."

^That money could have went to I-74/I-73 but noooo.

The Portsmouth Bypass *is* the old circa-1991 I-73/74 plan.  The plan that Voinovich ordered the Turnpike Commission to study completely independent of ODOT.  The whole things appears to have fallen through when West Virginia decided to let the coal companies build its section of I-73/74.  They're 10 years into it and have only built about 20-30 miles of it.   

Too bad this new policy didn't go into affect before that mammoth Scioto County thing broke ground. I still can't believe the state is committing itself to a $B+ tab to reinvigorate the gas station and fast food industry down there.

 

It won't do that either. As I've postulated before, these rural bypasses and new freeways don't get new development on them (see OH-32 and US-35 through Appalachia, Industrial Parkway near Ashland KY and US-35 near Xenia). This one is especially doomed for development since all of the townships the Portsmouth Bypass runs through are dry. They are also in hilly terrain which is much more expensive to develop. What it does do is take the fast food money out of Portsmouth and gives it to Waverly, Ironton and Huntington.

Yeah I'm curious to see what condition DT and Lancaster and Nelsonville are in these days after the 33 bypasses opened about 5-8 years ago.   

Lancaster is fine and improving honestly. Nelsonville has lost several gas stations and convenience stores. I don't have a good frame of reference for DT Nelsonville since I hadn't been there for 15 years before this year. A lot of Nelsonville's economy revolves around dirt bikes and hunting now.

Lancaster is fine and improving honestly. Nelsonville has lost several gas stations and convenience stores. I don't have a good frame of reference for DT Nelsonville since I hadn't been there for 15 years before this year. A lot of Nelsonville's economy revolves around dirt bikes and hunting now.

 

Wow, it really is a different world out there in the wilderness.

That's why I go down there a lot now; to ride and race quads. I definitely have way  more conversations about bikes with people in our Lancaster store than I did at our old one near Grandview.

 

The Rocky boot factory is still a major part of the economy in Nelsonville as well.

EXCLUSIVE: ODOT Expected to Announce Major Shift to ‘Fix-it-First’ Policy

 

By Randy A. Simes ― January 18, 2016

 

While Ohio’s gas taxes and population have remained flat over the past decade, the Ohio Department of Transportation has continued to add capacity to roadways across the state – in some cases even building entirely new roadways to add to the state’s existing infrastructure. This may all soon be ready to change in what is being called a “major” policy shift in Columbus.

 

According to employees at ODOT who were briefed at an internal meeting on the matter recently, the nation’s seventh-largest state is poised to announce in the coming months that the days of roadway expansion are over. Instead they say that ODOT will embrace a future focused on maintenance and preservation of its existing network of more than 43,000 miles of roads and 14,000 bridges.

 

The rebuild and expansion of I-75 may be the last of its kind in Ohio [Jake Mecklenborg]

While officials say the move is economically driven, it also comes at a time as activists around the country – including numerous cities throughout Ohio – are increasingly calling for governments to embrace a “fix-it-first” policy.

 

An increasing number of states have been adopting such policies, with Michigan being one of the first when it enacted its Preserve First program in 2003, and California being the largest when it joined the fray last year.

 

The forthcoming announcement from ODOT, however, goes a step further than that.

 

In addition to focusing funds on maintenance and preservation, ODOT officials also say that they will abandon their “worst first” approach to fixing existing roadways. In doing so they say that the new program, called the Transportation Asset Management Plan, can save the state an estimated $300 million over the next six years – money that can then be redirected to other preservation activities like cleaning, sweeping, sealing and micro-surfacing.

 

The idea here, similar to healthcare or household maintenance, is that it is often much more economical to make steady improvements rather than waiting to make repairs until the asset is too far gone.

 

“It’s finally sinking in that we cannot continue on this unsustainable pace of highway expansion,” said an ODOT employee who spoke to UrbanCincy on the conditions of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

 

[read more]

http://www.urbancincy.com/2016/01/exclusive-odot-expected-to-announce-major-shift-to-fix-it-first-policy/

 

Yes! @NOACA Official Calling for Ohio to Send More Fuel Tax Dollars to Urban Counties http://www.ideastream.org/news/send-more-fuel-tax-dollars-to-urban-counties-transportation-planner-says

Transit must be included!

 

Lawmakers Ponder Raising #Ohio's #Gas #Tax & Other Measures to Rebuild #Infrastructure https://t.co/E04W7Luw3x

Out running last night my I started thinking about transit in Ohio and some of our collective frustrations, particularly in lack of funding.  It then occurred to me that Ohio has a unique problem in that we have three large metropolitan areas(Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati) and several other large areas (Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Canton, Youngstown) that are all clamoring for funding.  What other state has multiple large urban areas competing with each other for funding?  For my argument, I throw out California, Texas, and Florida as their economies and populations practically make them their own countries.  But think of the following city/states; Denver/CO, Seattle/WA, Portland/OR, Phoenix/AZ, Salt Lake City/UT, Chicago/IL, Louisville/KY, Atlanta/GA, Indianapolis/IN, Detroit/MI, Boston/MA, what cities are they really competing with in their respective states? They are the major population centers and mass transit gets the attention from their state capitals accordingly.  In Ohio, lawmakers from every corner of the state are clamoring for the state to give them money for their city or area.  While its nice to have so many great cities, I also see it as somewhat cannibalistic in terms of funding and focus.  This is just my opinion and observation, but I think this is a real problem for Ohio and the only real way to solve it is with an influx of residents.  That, or taxing the heck out of us residents.  Any thoughts on this, or where I might be misguided in my musings?

You hinted at something that also leads people to mistakenly think Ohio is a small state in terms of population. There isn't one region that dominates the population then a handful of smaller ones. There are three that are more or less identical in population numbers, distribution of population between the core and the suburbs, etc. No other state has that. Every other states (with the exception of North Carolina with Raleigh and Charlotte and Texas with DFW and Houston) has one main metropolitan area then generally one or two that are around half as large. Ohio's situation is fairly unique.

In Ohio, lawmakers from every corner of the state are clamoring for the state to give them money for their city or area.  While its nice to have so many great cities, I also see it as somewhat cannibalistic in terms of funding and focus.  This is just my opinion and observation, but I think this is a real problem for Ohio and the only real way to solve it is with an influx of residents.  That, or taxing the heck out of us residents.  Any thoughts on this, or where I might be misguided in my musings?

 

I'd say it's all about priorities. Ohio as a state is happy to spend gobs of money on roads (see Portsmouth bypass) in every part of the state. What about Pennsylvania with Philly and Pittsburgh, and then Erie, Scranton, Reading, and a couple others? If anything, I'd assume that the larger the portion of a state's population that resided in "urban" areas would make the state more inclined to support mass transit. Ohio seems to have tied itself to rabid suburban and exurban interests, though.

What's worse is that Ohio's legislative leaders (be it committees or the managing leadership of each house) is typically been from rural or suburban areas. This was true even when Democrats ruled the Ohio House or Senate. Longtime House Speaker Vern Riffe was from New Boston, a small town east of Portsmouth. Yet most of our population is in the eight metro areas, and especially the 3Cs. Despite this, Ohio is an urban state run as though it is rural.

 

But another factor is that Ohio is a "home rule" state. So the state government hasn't bothered with providing resources or other help to the cities because, in the state's eyes, the cities can take care of themselves. Instead, the state helps the villages and townships that can't take care of themselves. This is especially true of transportation. Villages and townships don't levy local taxes for streets or transit. ODOT patches potholes and plows snow on the state and federal routes outside of the municipalities. And it provides transit operating funds to rural and small-town transit agencies.

 

So on a per-capita basis, Ohioans in urban counties spend more state taxes to support transportation than they get back in transportation spending. It has been understood with simple math for a long time, but a recent, detailed NOACA study revealed the disparity.

There's also New York, where upstate politicians routinely demand "parity" in transportation spending between the City and everything north of around Poughkeepsie. As if $2 billion in New York and $2 billion in Buffalo were even remotely the same thing.

And when they demand parity, it usually means more city-killing highway projects in a no-growth Upstate NY (or most of Ohio) where more funding is needed instead to clean/clear old industrial sites to draw new employers to existing transit routes, or to extend some transit to existing job concentrations.

ODOT plans for Northeast Ohio:  finish the bridge, add lanes, Opportunity, Akron interstates --

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20160329/NEWS/160329757/innerbelt-bridge-completion-among-2016-odot-construction-plans

 

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/04/06/democrats-call-for-investigation-into-alleged-partisan-teen-hiring-practices.html

 

Okay, this is slightly illegal.

oops wrong thread

Looks like the sound barrier walls in Bratenhal are being replaced AGAIN.  That has to be at least 2-3 times in the last 10 years ODOT has torn them out and put in new? 

 

And people say transit is expensive.....

Planned obsolescence is a great way for contractors to make more money. :(

I think those are the original walls that were put up when the last rehab of the road was done, circa 1999. Salt was able to get into microcracks in the concrete panels and cause the cracks to expand and contract - causing the panels to fail. It could be because the panels are so close to the road in many instances or defective construction.

Article is actually about all Ohio transit systems seeking state funding...

 

Laketran seeks future funding from Ohio legislature

http://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20160426/laketran-seeks-future-funding-from-ohio-legislature

http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/divided-highway-odot-study-finds-minority-businesses-have-gotten-less-than-fair-share-of-contracts

Minority-owned firms can be tough to find in that field; you might see some minority-owned construction companies, but say minority-owned highway engineering firms are rather uncommon. That's why the number of Indian subcontient decedent-owned firms are disproportionately over-represented.

Many times the minorities in the first are mere figureheads, placed only to win minority/DB contracts.

This was a problem down in Kentucky and West Virginia, too. There is a lack of minority-owned firms in both states, and those that did submit bids often had packages that were well over that of any competitor. In the interest of the taxpayers, and because the bid packages were over a certain percentage, the minority-owned firms were not chosen.

Ohio may OK #transit $$ boost 1st time this century. SB315 vote at 1pm today @ http://OhioChannel.org  click "House" in upper-right corner.

How much money are we talking here? The $1 million that was originally proposed in Kasich's budget?

Ohio may OK #transit $$ boost 1st time this century. SB315 vote at 1pm today @ http://OhioChannel.org  click "House" in upper-right corner.

 

And the verdict?

Ohio may OK #transit $$ boost 1st time this century. SB315 vote at 1pm today @ http://OhioChannel.org  click "House" in upper-right corner.

 

And the verdict?

 

Passed 93-1

How much money are we talking here? The $1 million that was originally proposed in Kasich's budget?

 

$8 million added. Better still, a conversation among lawmakers on a more aggressive approach to funding public transportation has begun. Rep. Stephanie Howse (D-Cleveland) offered an amendment to take $97 million from new federal highway funds and spend  them instead on public transit. The amendment was tabled on a mostly party line vote. The R's effectively swatted down the D amendment, pointing out that 1) the turnpike $ in the Bill cannot be spent on public transit. I don't think that is true, but it couldn't be refuted at the last minute. Secondly, the feds have yet to promulgate rules on how to flex the other source of funds available in the bill. And so it would be premature to start to spend those funds on transit if the feds ruled that would not be available. To be fair, the amendment was sprung on the GOP at the last minute.

The R's would explode if they saw any increase in Turnpike money that got used for transit. Is any used now? I forget.