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Focus Areas

Arts & Culture History & Bicentennial Diverse People Downtown Revitalization Green Community Growth Through Learning Health & Human Services Jobs & Technology Image & Marketing Neighborhoods & Life Safety Sports & Recreation Moving People

• 
  Moving People Focus Group Orientation Binder
• Ten Input Ideas for Moving People Thousands of ideas were generated and all will be considered by the Focus Group.
  
  1  Xavier - Arts Festival.
  Keep expanding bike paths and the areas they reach. More bike racks on buses . . . especially High St. buses. When I lived in California, public buses were used for Junior High and High School students. This eliminated a large pool of dedicated school buses, helped bolster public bus system, and promoted the use of alternative transportation (teach them at a younger age to use and accept public transportation alternative).
  2  Theodore - Arts Festival.
  Develop a mass transit system that will connect other areas of the city to the downtown area; Provide alternative modes of transportation like light rail, train stations, and encourage carpool lanes; Increase the tax on gas to move people to public transit.
  3  Pami - Gay Pride Festival.
  Have more mini-buses through neighborhoods that connect with the major lines that run frequently and efficiently down corridors focused on bus transit. If someone can ride a bus and it is more convenient while also being less expensive, they will ride it.
  4  Pierce - Arts Festival.
  Give tax breaks to those buying bus passes. Make the roads more bike and pedestrian friendly. Create a car pool lane on the highways. Make it an agenda to run ads on TV and radio promoting these ideas. This would definitely encourage action. I like the streetcar proposal too.
  5  Arooj - College Symposium.
  We need high speed rail connecting Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
  6  JB - Latino Festival.
  Increase the hours and the schedule of busses while stressing COTA’s reliability and safety; encourage a cab culture that arrives as scheduled (when they show up at all) and make them more visible so that they can be hailed on the street; offer discount programs through employers and community organizations.
  7  Joe - Juneteenth.
  Better Public Transportation. Half the people that work in Columbus are traveling from the outer cities to come work here. Increasing the public transportation will decrease traffic and clean the air. Among all those other benefits...
  8  Clintonville - Neighborhood Survey.
  All Columbus neighborhoods need viable walkable business districts with businesses pulled up to the street. There should also be a path for cyclists and no billboards.
  9  Michael - Riverfest.
  Provide transportation choice: light-rail, streetcar, bus lanes, HOV lanes and more opportunities for bicycling around the city. There should be multi-modal transportation wherever possible.
  10 Kharna - Gallery Hop.
  The city should invest in its public transportation infrastructure and focus its efforts on inner city and densely populated areas most in need of transit rather than accommodating the needs of suburban locals which have low ridership figures and are unprofitable. The city should also invest in bike lanes for commuters throughout the city by creating DEDICATED bikeways along side major streets in which no cars are allowed.

Moving People

Focus Area Members:

Member	Organization
Chester Jourdan  (Chair)	MORPC
Jerry Rampelt  (Chair)	Ohio To Erie Executive Director
Bill Beyers	Nationwide Children's Hospital
Bill Lhota	COTA
Charles Pace	Columbus Outdoor Pursuit
Dawn Tyler-Lee	OSU
Dean Ringle	Franklin County Engineer's Office
Elaine Roberts	Columbus Regional Airport Authority
Ken Cookson	Discovery District
Lou Jannazo	Ohio Rail Development Comm
Marilyn Baker	1000 Friends
Matt Young	Battelle Memorial Institute
Nancy Burton	ODOT
Rhonda Border-Boose	Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Midwest Office
Steve Tugend	Columbus Chamber of Commerce
Stu Nicholson	Ohio Rail Development Comm
Susan Wyant	PB World Inc
Tom Wester	ODOT

Meetings:	Work Session 1 - Notes
	Work Session 2 - Notes
	Work Session 3 - Notes

Focus Area Description: A successful city is one that offers a fully set of transportation choices within a multi-modal system. This focus group will build upon recent work and address such broad issues as transportation infrastructure, transit systems and streetcars, walkability, biking, traffic calming, and complete streets.

Key Question: How can Columbus encourage alternative modes of transportation?

Public Input about the Focus Area: This focus group asked citizens how to improve transportation options throughout the city. Many respondents focused on public transportation suggestions like improving the current bus system or building a rail based transit system. Other respondents focused their comments on improving walkability and bicycle options. Still others focused on ways to decrease automobile use. Many of the moving people responses crossed multiple categories and were suggestions that came from other focus group questions like health and human services, green community, downtown revitalization, and neighborhoods and quality of life. Transportation improvements were clearly a significant desire for respondents.

Public Input Themes for the Focus Area:

1. Upgrade sidewalk, bike, and mulit-purpose trail infrastructure. Comments link the importance of energy conservation and the protection of our natural environment with improved pedestrian and bicycle transportation options. This category of responses focus primarily on improving infrastructure for bikes and creating a built environment where pedestrians are prioritized. Many respondents express the desire to be able to walk or bike to everyday needs.
2. Increase the cleanliness, safety and affordability of existing transportation systems. Contributors discuss different strategies to improve existing transportation options. Incentives from employers and government are recommended to increase the use of public transportation. Many respondents also want to see a promotional campaign pushing the use of public transportation, its positive environmental impacts and ease of use. Additionally, many view simple cleanliness and safety improvements on existing transit options as a way to encourage public transportation use.
3. Improve efficiency and accessibility of COTA. Respondents also have useful and practical suggestions for how to improve operations of the bus system in Columbus. Many want to see more frequent buses that run later on main routes, and also an expanded reach of the bus system so more people have access to it.
4. Investigate alternatives for rail based public transportation. Numerous respondents want to see the city explore all options for rail transit in Columbus. Contributors support the streetcar initiative, while others also want a more comprehensive light rail project that would connect the entire region. Respondents also comment on the need for regional rail services connecting to other cities throughout the Midwest.
5. Decrease automobile impacts on the city through green incentives and carpooling. Comments in this category tied decreased automotive use to environmental improvements. Carpooling was an example of respondents’ suggestions for getting people to minimize their automotive impacts. Additionally, people see the need to switch the incentives of transportation towards public transit instead of auto related transit.

Think Outside the Box...