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Past is forgotten; future is stalled on the interstate
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Dick Feagler
Plain Dealer Columnist

I used to live in Brecksville, and I always rode the bus to work dur ing rush hour. It was the only sane thing to do.

I’d board the bus around Ohio 82, open a book and read it as we motored down to Grant Avenue. There we would stop and inch the rest of our way downtown. That’s when I would turn the pages again and read more James Bond. And finally, when I got off the bus, I felt relaxed.

I had a friend in those days who was a traffic helicopter reporter. He broadcast the bad news about traffic jams and snarls. He was the angel of urban sprawl. His was a beacon who told his listeners what they already knew.

I asked him once what happened on those cloudy days when he couldn’t fly in the traffic copter.

“I say the same thing,” he said. “Traffic is backed up all the way from Grant Avenue.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but how do you know?”

“Hell,” he said, “it’s backed up to Grant Avenue every morning.”

And so it was. And so it is. And here’s where the column starts.

There was a spur railroad line that ran from Cleveland toward Akron. This line paralleled Interstate 77. It could have easily carried light rail. Like commuter trains. The track bed was dug, the tracks were laid. It was the thought that was missing.

One day I noticed that the interrupted railroad track stopped at a missing trestle on Alexander Road. That train could have carried people next to that crowded freeway, but nobody thought of that. Or if they had thought of it, they threw it away, thinking it was useless.

Now we know we’ve abandoned things that we thought were useless. Maybe some of this was carelessness. Or maybe a misshapen idea that we had something better. Or maybe we just have been too cheap too long.

We sold our trolley cars to Toronto, thinking perhaps that we had progressed beyond the days of trolley cars. Now we wish we had them back. Toronto uses them as a valuable tourist attraction. Who would have thunk it?

I love this city. We soar when it comes to artistry. We have the best orchestras in the world, both classical and jazz, and one of the best art museums. But when it comes to public works, we have no vision.

The best example of no vision is the Euclid Corridor project. What imagination did we see there? Before it was built, we had a bus line from downtown to University Circle. When it is finished, we will have a bus line from downtown to University Circle. Why not a gleaming subway like Washington, D.C.? Or a high-speed monorail like Dallas? Why just a bus that confounds traffic and wiggles its hips? Is this the best we can do?

Once the United States had the best rail system in the world. We let that go to hell and cast our lot with airplanes. And now the planes are terrible and the trains are unreliable.

We live within a six-hour trip - by car - to Chicago, a seven-hour trip to Washington, and within two hours of Columbus and four hours of Cincinnati. That would be even faster if we had high-speed rail to get there.

Europe has such rails. Once we had the best in the world. But we threw them away.

Now when I fly to Chicago, I’m inserted into a seat like a sardine so I can’t move. When the stewardess comes around to ask me to please return my seatback to the full, upright position for landing, I ask her, “This thing’s only going to come up 1 inch. Is that going to save my life?”

Trains, which are more comfortable and better, are things that have been left behind, replaced by things that are far less comfortable and far more annoying.

Rail. Maybe this is just another example of how we are lost in the present and should find instruction from the past.

To reach Dick Feagler:
dfeagler@plaind.com, 216-999-6801

Consider the following:

1. There are 62 actuall members of the Task Force but over 250 people attended this first meeting. What does that tell you about the significant level of interest in creating more and better tranortation options.

2. Both ODOT Director Beasley and Governor Strickland repeatedly emphasized that this Task Force is NOT about more highways and/or maintaining the staus quo. They made it very clear that this Task Force will be an agent of change.

3. Moving more people and freight by rail repeatedly came up both in the opening speeches and in the afternoon commitee meetings. Improved mass transit, bikeways and walkable neighborhood also were mentioned frequently.

4. Changing the way we fund transportation projects was also a major topic on all three committees. Many comments were made that the current federal process for funding transportation projects is entirely too complicated and slow. Several participants also brought up the need to change Ohio’s motor vehicle fuels tax to allow revenues to be distributed for non-highway projects.

What I like about this Task Force the most is that they have been given a deadline of six months to issue a report and recommendations. It is not an open-ended process, so there can be no dawdling.

Public input will be crucial to this process, so I urge anyone reading this to visit the Task Force website and polan on attending the regional meetings and let your thoughts be known. If you can’t attend, e-mail your comments. Be direct and to the point. Don’t make a speech. Tell this task force what you think Ohio needs for transportation options.