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Vehicle-miles traveled in Ohio increased by 12% from 2000 to 2016.
Ohio's population grew only 3%.
It doesn't matter if elected officials believe that's good or bad. The user-pay concept of highway funding means they can't use gas taxes for anything other than more lane-miles.
Ohio's population grew only 3%.
It doesn't matter if elected officials believe that's good or bad. The user-pay concept of highway funding means they can't use gas taxes for anything other than more lane-miles.
Too much of anything is bad (ie: medicine is good; too much medicine is bad). At some point, someone has to say "enough."
Who can say we have "enough" highways when highway user fees, per the Ohio Constitution (Article XII, Section 5a, 1949), must go only to more highways?
Who can say we have "enough" highways when highway user fees, per the Ohio Constitution (Article XII, Section 5a, 1949), must go only to more highways?
So the feedback loop of highway users generating gas taxes to build more highways continues without a mechanism in place to say "enough" -- let's use gas taxes instead to support the development of more 15-minute cities rather than sprawling, car-dependent metro areas.
Ohio needs that mechanism so that when traffic (VMT) growth rates exceed population growth in a region, gas taxes can be used for alternatives like building more housing in employment nodes, transit, walking/biking paths and better digital infrastructure.
Instead, Ohio is hostage to a constitutional provision passed when most Ohioans lived & worked in walkable neighborhoods with quality transit.
In 1949, few could have imagined today's sprawl, job/job-seeker spatial mismatch, social isolation, global warming, etc.
"Enough."
In 1949, few could have imagined today's sprawl, job/job-seeker spatial mismatch, social isolation, global warming, etc.
"Enough."
