Squirrels Gone Wild!

ODOT Fires Back.

ODOT's Response to my "Roadway Response" posting. I e-mailed the link to them.
The original post was sent to Gov. Bob Taft, Mayor Michael B. Coleman, both of Ohio's US Senators, my district's US Representative, my district's Ohio Representative, my district's Ohio Sentator, Ohio Department of Transportation, The Central Ohio Transit Authority and people connected with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Comittee.

"Just a couple things to consider ...

1) All of the designs have been analyzed based on 20-year traffic projections, not current year.

2) All the designs can accommodate light rail across the freeway corridor along High Street, which is were COTA has projected the light rail line to eventually run.

3) Capping under the Grand Boulevard is more expensive than if built under the one way proposals. In addition, because half the capping is used for additional roadway lanes, there is less land available for park space and development on the caps. This is best illustrated by the cap photo you used (labeled Mound/Fulton), which shows more space available for these opportunities when compared with the Grand Boulevard drawing.

4) You have to have money to spend money. We would rather maximize taxpayer dollars for building caps for green space and development than caps for additional roads. The wider footprint of the Grand Boulevard limits this ability.

5) You have significantly underestimated the impact of diverting thousands of vehicles elsewhere during construction. There are very real limits to the amount of "available" capacity on these other roadways. The downtown neighborhoods and businesses we speak with are very concerned about the impact of rerouting traffic during construction. If the diversion of traffic is too large, people will be diverted from downtown destinations, it will create additional gridlock on I-670, SR 104 and downtown city streets and it will increase cut through traffic into neighborhoods.

I respect your right to call us a bunch of "ODOT jerks," but we truly have put a lot of time and effort into weighing the pros and cons of each alternative. Ultimately, we are trying to do the right thing that benefits the most people under very real physical, environmental and financial constraints.

Michelle
Michelle.May@dot.state.oh.us"

AND my e-mail back.....

I should have been more specific about who I called "jerks". I read a Dispatch article a couple weeks ago in which a ODOT employee was actually balking at the concerns and needs of Columbus. Whomever that was... is short sighted and ignorant. If we can make these huge failing bridges for Toledo and decorative bridges freeway for Dayton, I think the city that RUNS Ohio can be given a little more respect.

I also think your department does not give the residents of Columbus any credit. So if I sound a little angry its because I feel the city has been let down countless times before due to lack of planning things out properly and doing things RIGHT the FIRST TIME. We do have resolve to see things through. Do not let the loud cry-babies at your public meetings ruin things for everyone. Business owners DO NOT run the city, people do.

BUT I am completely astonished somebody actually responded to my e-mail, thank you. I apologize if you felt you were personally called any names, please forward that name to the person who deserves it.

Roadway Response

I have been getting newsletters from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for a couple years now. This has happened ever since I filled out an online survey on how to fix the most dangerous freeway intersection in the state. The I-70 to I-71 split. This "split" has an average of about 3 to 4 car accidents daily.

Some of the most highlighted accidents include a Wal-Mart semi slamming directly into the split wall, a head-on collision between a drunk driver and an ambulance trying to get to a hospital with an injured child as cargo and some horrific t-bone accidents. Most accidents occur do to people sideswiping each other as the mad dash for crossing four lanes of heavy traffic happens up and down the stretch of the freeway.

Here are of problems simplified.

Problem 1.


This is an overhead view of the I-70, I-71, State Route (SR) 315 split.



This is a westbound view of the I-70, I-71, SR-315 split from a traffic camera.



As you might imagine and if you could, this area has been accident prone because of the amount of ramps and the visibility of the ramps you need to get on. Because of this, I have even found myself crossing several lanes trying to get to the correct highway I need. These actions multiplied usually results in sideswiping accidents and collisions due to people slamming on their brakes. ODOT tried to combat these problems by painting large signs on the lanes to direct people to which lanes they need. Personally I feel that is just a half-ass way of bandaging the problem.




Problem 2.





This is the I-70, I-71 straight between the dangerous splits.


This area of the split area is not completely dangerous but lacks ramps to get people off and on the freeway. The ramps that you do see are either not accessible by most traffic due to double white lines on the highway or the ramps do not connect to areas people are really trying to get to. In the photo above, the downtown area is to the north and the brewery district and German Village is to the south.



Problem 3.



This is the I-70, I-71 split overhead view.



This is the I-70, I-71 split westbound view.



This is the I-70, I-71 split southbound rush-hour view.



From these views you can see how much land is unused and wasted and how easily it can get clogged with a couple semis and some traffic. The posted speed limit in this area is 55 MPH but during heavy traffic it will slow to a crawl or even completely stop. The actual recorded average speed taken in a 365 day period is 35 MPH. Obviously this are needs help especially with its 900 car accidents annually in this quarter-mile section.

The biggest reason that this traffic is so ridiculous is that all these roadways converge right on top of the downtown area and its the easiest way to cross town. Even easy to cross town from my neighborhood which is 8 miles north of the splits. Another problem is that public transportation is almost non-existent in my city. The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) has been raising fares and cutting bus lines for years, meanwhile, the top officials have been fired and/or jailed because of their actions. Nobody I know uses COTA.

Here are ODOT's ideas on fixing the problem with construction starting in 2011!

Solution 1.




This idea would create one-way streets on either side of the freeway that collects downtown traffic and takes it to one or two main ramp systems. The roads that currently run along the freeway would need to be streamlined in order for this to happen. Personally I hate one-way streets in cities. They cause accidents. This idea scored highest with ODOT because it would reduce the most amount of accidents, construction would be cheap and the construction would barely constrict traffic. I vote this down. Its lame, unoriginal and it will not stand the test of time. These people need to remember that this must carry 20 years more than the current 175,000 cars daily. This is also not pedestrian friendly and it still cuts the city in half.



Solution 2.





My arguments remain the same for this plan because the only difference this has is that all the traffic is kept in the downtown area. This completely cuts off the south side and hammers the downtown with more confusing one-way streets. While our Mayor is begging people to live, work and shop downtown, this plan would only send people packing towards the north-side again abandoning our fledgling downtown area.



Solution 3.




This really does nothing. It widens bridges, widens pedestrian areas and "adds decorative retaining wall". So, this cheap alternative does nothing about the accident prone area. The only positive development that I found is that the bridges and retaining walls will be reinforced for later development of "caps". I will get to "caps" later. Obviously the current ramps would hamper most future development. Next.


Solution 4.




Again, this keeps the traffic away from the south side. I'm totally against this style.



Solution 5.





This scored highest for me. Though the street is, again, only on the north side of the freeway it does make extremely good use of dead space. In fact, I would propose an even deeper cut under the "Grand Boulevard" that would house tracks for a light rail. Smart public transportation will always prevail against the use of more roads and more cars. I personally believe that if people could get to our downtown without driving and parking it would spark a huge amount of interest. These tracks could easily connect and expand the already existing underground network between the county courthouse, statehouse, large buildings and the almost hopeless City Center Mall. The rail could also connect all of these assets with the existing Arena District that is about to add a AAA baseball park that will also be begging for business in the near future.

This plan also creates safe islands and shorter bridges to cross the freeway to get to the south side on foot or bike. Another great thing about this plan is it makes creating "caps" cheaper.
As opposed to the "cap" development for solution 4, these caps will only need to be half as wide due to the fact the "Grand Boulevard" would already have made half the distance over the widened I-70/I-71.



Caps.


Caps are cool. We already have a really successful cap in place over I-670 (shown below). This expanded roadway is not "just" a bridge, it offers wider pedestrian areas, stores and restaurants that connect the Short North to the downtown Convention Center and beyond.


I-670 runs underneath this "cap".


These caps can be placed along the numerous bridges that crisscross above the I-70/I-71 freeway. They can house stores but they can also house parks and green areas (shown below). These caps can really connect the south side with the downtown area by making the area almost seem seamless from one another.


I-70/I-71 could run underneath this greenspace "cap".



So what's the problem? I think the choice is clear. The "Grand Boulevard" idea along with the rail and the commerce/greenspace caps would solve a multitude of problems!

Connect the south and possibly east sides with the downtown area so that cars, public transportation and pedestrians could all easily make it into the downtown area. By connecting all of these pieces together, the ability to spur more economic development in the downtown area while supporting the areas surrounding will be possible. Adding green areas to otherwise dead zones will always ramp up the realty worth and the demand for more building in the downtown and surrounding areas.

The rail that would also run under the "Grand Boulevard" can connect the airport (very important) to the commerce in the downtown. For some odd reason, planners continually try to start plans for a rail that goes nowhere NEAR the airport. My question to them is why would you try to break peoples 10 year habits when you can steer newcomers to the rail as they get off of their flight and send them straight downtown to their hotel and convention? This is only common sense. You can add that rail to the north side and all the way to the city of Delaware only when you get your native public extremely excited about it. I personally can't wait to get trashed in the Brewery District without having to have a "designated driver" or an expensive cab on hand. But, you gotta sell it to the people first.


As for the ODOT jerks that say its to hard to do... Diverting that 175,000 cars per day too hard? You have assets on hand. You can temporarily use SR-104 and divert a ton of the cross-town traffic to I-270. I think a lot of drivers still carry bad habits from SR-315's 14 year reconstruction era, lets help break that. Plus, most street level roads remain way under their daily capacity, fully looking into those unused roads can also be a solution while the deadly "split" is completely closed. As for building it... you are the engineers, we pay you for original ideas. Stop copying and pasting ideas from other cities and figure it our for yourself! What do we pay you for?

As for the ODOT jerks that say its too expensive... Have you ever heard... "You have to spend money to make money."? I fully believe this can be applied here. How many jobs have been moved out of the downtown area because the freeways suck and the public transportation is worthless? Talk to corporations and companies! Talk to developers! Just think of the excitement you have the ability to create by selling a comprehensive downtown/transportation plan. Selling this to your voters will be easy if the economic impacts are explained completely. While you are only focusing on only the roads future, I think the ability to recreate our cities identity is at stake. I think once the impact of a bad plan like Solution 1 is weighted against the true possibilities of our city, you will regret ever thinking it up.

I say scrap all of your current ideas give Ohio and our city a better chance. Help us find our identity. Taxpayers deserve better.

I vote for the "Grand Boulevard" with the rails and caps. I expect no less.


ALL IMAGES EXCEPT FOR SATELLITE IMAGES HAVE BEEN CAPTURED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES FROM THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

ALL SATELLITE IMAGES HAVE BEEN CAPTURED FROM THE COMPUTER PROGRAM GOOGLE EARTH.

Demo Review

Two playable modes on two playable levels.

Wait Mode consists that every action goes into a turn. You can take your time and strategically choose what is the best course of action in a battle situation. Though I noticed that foe in the area may join the battle at any time. Good for people who get flustered with stress.

Active Mode is for the "thrill-seekers". Instead of a turn based battle system, you are in the business of menu hunting as timers tick for each separate entity. I am guessing how long you are delayed from action depends on your agility and the weapon/summoning/magic/item that you are using. No time for thinking. You have to adapt to each area and have a plan before any battles start. When a quick attack monster is thrashing you, its no time be menu hunting. I sensed more ambushes in this mode but this way was much more enjoyable. I did notice that changing your mind "mid-swing" did sometimes reset my players timer. Thus, choose and commit.








Some things I really liked about the demo:

The areas, like FFXI, are extremely 3 dimensional. Free flowing areas where you can explore "off the path". Trees and objects are all 3 dimensional and can be used as cover.

I can finally confirm that the monsters are indeed visible and detect you in several different ways. Though I am hoping the extremely packed monster population in the two short levels I have played are only for the purposes of the demo.

Range information rings. When casting a "-ga" style black magic (such as firega), in which the blast can stretch along a larger area, the rings tell you the area you are going to effect before you cast. Thus, no excuse for accidentally aggravating multiple enemies and having a nasty unbearable battle.


One thing I thought was a pain in the butt:

Range lines. When you are in range of a possible enemy. Red lines show what or who the monster is attracted/attacking first and when. Blue lines show which monster you are attacking and all of its game information. Blah. It used to be an artform to know how tough a monster was, that elements could be used against it and what level it was. I personally think its too much information and ruins part of the game. Plus, if you want to start a battle with black magic, you have to toggle in and out of the magic menus till you get close enough to get your blue line. It’s kind of a pain but I'm guessing over time I will get a feel for the distance needed.


A nice surprise. They finally separated Protect, Shell and other protection spells into a Green Magic category. Therefore, no more hunting through your White Magic spells trying to find Curaga and watching people die.

In all the transition between exploring and battles is completely smooth now. This almost makes the game more of an action game than a RPG. You still get the same exact victory music as you had since the late 1980's. You still get the same language (so you don't have to learn another fake language) and even more options than before which makes this a great up and coming Final Fantasy to add to the Final Fantasy epic collection. If you like over-teched battle systems and using your head while you play, you are going to love this game. I might even label this as a partial "Real Time Strategy" game. I do expect a huge story line, like the one from FFX where you had to sit through a music video love scene or some overly explained history lesson. I kind of wish the story line was a little more left up to the player but this is the Square/Enix way and they know nobody else touches them when it comes to RPGs. So deal with it. The graphics are beautiful during game play and the monsters even have the correct demeanor to spook you just enough. I did run across some Mandragoras but they did not seem so tough. I am hoping they are just as painful as they were in FFXI.

Overall, some surprises and some things I don't fully appreciate yet but I am continually waiting for the release. This one looks like it may take the "Most Frustrating Game Ever" award. Which means I will love it.

Off The Map

Brown Sign Special.













RockBridge State Nature Preserve