Around Ohio

Okay, I’m really getting tired of the negativity on establishing rail service between Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus.

First, Columbus is the largest city in America without passenger rail service.

Second, yes, many won’t use it, but many don’t use schools or airports or whatever.  They are still important.  And don’t forget there are people in Ohio that can’t drive for various reasons.

Third, I am sick of the “it has to make money” bit.  Why does transit always have to make money?  How much money does I-71 make?  It loses billions, not only on building and maintaining it, but on State Highway Patrol keeping it safe, ODOT mowing and plowing, people cleaning the restrooms, etc.

Yes you can buy a tank of gas for what a ticket will cost.  But gas is hardly the only expense in operating an automobile.  For example, last year I attended a conference in Cleveland.  My truck is old, so I rented a car for the trip.  (My conference was in Tower City, so trains would have been perfect.)

The cost?  Rental car fee plus tax plus gas plus exhorbitant parking fees put the cost well over $15o.  That $25 train ticket would have been a bargain.

And I would have loved riding a train.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

The Ohio Turnpike is to join the E-Z Pass system allowing drivers to pass a transponder that reads their vehicle information and bills them each month.

In a related story, kerosene lamps at the Statehouse are being replaced with electric lighting.

Why is Ohio always the last to do anything? Other states have had this for YEARS.   It reminds me of when a friend of mine was a truck driver.  He complained that all the other states had a credit card he could use to pay tolls and his trucking company would just pay the bill, but the Ohio Turnpike only took cash.  He had to spend his own money, get and keep track of receipts, and submit them for reimbursement.  This was 20 years ago!

Is it because we are such a conservative state? Dunno, but I sometimes find it embarrassing to admit I’m from Ohio.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

According to several sources, Ohio seems to be in the running for funding to create a high speed rail line. Gee, didn’t we create the Ohio High Speed Rail Commission about 25 years ago? What happened to that?

Anyway, ODOT’s Web site actually has a page devoted to the idea.

Now that COTA doesn’t suck and is expanding service, the logical next step is to provide some sort of transit service from Columbus to the rest of the state. This looks like a great idea to me.

Hmm….first COTA is actually adding service, now high speed rail? Wow, Ohio might actually have real transit sometime in the near future.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

From the DUH! file:  Cleveland City Council bans texting while driving.

I can’t believe we even need to pass such a law.

You can read more about it here.

Come on, folks–type on a keypad?!?!  While driving?!?!  What’s next, basketweaving while driving?  Use a little common sense, please.  (Although I’ve often wondered why they call it common sense as it sure isn’t very common.)

Texting while driving probably wouldn’t bother me as much if, say, something important were being texted. Like the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Or the cure for cancer. Or at least something more than:

r u my bff?

No, I’m not your bff, I’m your BFD!  Hang up and drive, will ya?!

Let’s hope for similar statewide laws.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia

For years I have asked, why is it that when I drive in other states, the speed limit is the speed limit, but in Ohio it has all that “Trucks 55 blah blah blah” after it?

Well, whatdya know, those days are finally gone.

Today, I-270 on the way to work just says SPEED LIMIT 65. For everybody.

This makes a lot of sense. Because speed doesn’t kill, SPEED VARIANCE kills. In other words, going 90 won’t kill you but hitting the stationary object will.

If everybody is going the same speed, things are safer.

The only dumb thing is, only interstates are included. So say, US 33 from Bellefontaine to Columbus, built the same as an interstate, still has the TRUCKS 55 thing. Dumb.

But maybe it will change, sooner or later.

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia

When I picked up the Columbus Dispatch and saw this:

Columbus Contemplates Roundabout, I about threw a fit! I HATE those things!

My wife and I have a timeshare in Florida, and a couple years back the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) proposed a roundabout at the intersection in front. Residents, me included, threw a fit. FDOT admitted they are not safer, THEY ARE CHEAPER. Traffic lights require electricity, maintenance, get knocked over in hurricanes and accidents. Roundabouts just sit there. Roundabouts are NOT safer, THEY ARE CHEAPER.

Guess what they put in instead?  A STOP SIGN.

And what are pedestrians supposed to do?  Traffic lights have walk signals.  On a roundabout, pedestrians are on their own. 

Roundabouts are awkward, confusing antiquities. Bag roundabouts and add turn lanes!

Your Buckeye, John Kazalia.

Originally planned for completion in 1975(!!) and delayed many times, the US 33 Nelsonville bypass is finally underway. You can read more about it at this
ODOT Web page.

It is hard to believe anyone could be in opposition to this project. But this Plain Dealer reporter thinks it is merely a political payoff from Governor Strickland. Really? Have you ever left Cleveland and driven this stretch of highway?

An entire four-lane highway grinds to a halt. Sometimes it takes half an hour to traverse a 3 mile stretch of 2-lane road. Backed up traffic and rear-end accidents are the order of the day. And this is a political payoff? Get real.

This project should have been completed DECADES ago. It may be one of the few things in Strickland’s legacy we can look back on as a good thing.