This is one city I want to move to soon. As a republican I hate that republicans don’t advocate for public transit.

Elevated trains are pretty horrible. Subways are dark, cold, gross. Really, the easiest and cheapest is what Detroit always had, the surface streetcars. There were once even lines running through the narrow streets of the downtown (eg. Griswold). Questionable if those would be needed right away considering the small population/activity of the city compared to back in the heyday. Now, streetcar lines extending down Woodward Avenue, at least to six mile road, facilitating the Palmer Park area, colleges, and other residential areas there, especially west side, would be great. By contrast, Palmer Woods has only free standing huge houses. Presumably those folks have cars...and $$! Another streetcar line should go down Michigan Avenue in order to facilitate Corktown, Michigan Central, etc.. Yet another line should be established down East Jefferson Avenue. At first, this line could extend as far as the Jeffersonian apartments/Indian Village, or just a bit beyond. Possible also, in order to encourage use of casinos on the west side, and Eastern Market on the east side...for both locals and visitors/tourists, two short lines, one down Grand River Ave. and one down Gratiot Ave. All lines mentioned easily could be extended as necessary. A few others could be added as necessary, such as a line down (West) Grand Boulevard... Now, considering that Detroit once had like 500 miles of track, going everywhere, is this plan too terribly ambitious? Seems this would be about the minimum to start. Seems the existing stretch of 3.3 miles down Woodward can be sufficiently tooled if necessary, or just live with it as is for the time being. Question: would a more extensive system make use of overhead cables, as in the old days? *BTW, there also once existed overhead cable run buses (not on tracks) in Detroit. These were aborted five years after the streetcars, in 1961.

This is such a relatable thing for me. I live in the Columbus area and several times in the past several years I’ve driven to and from Sandusky to take Amtrak. It works relatively well for what it is, but I agree wholeheartedly that Columbus needs some form of Amtrak service, sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the great video. Metrolink has had lots of issues, most recently being security. BUT, there are improvements in this area and new security procedures and new stations. I ride it regularly from the airport to my house and it is nice. I hope expansion will continue. STL has lots of issues, many related to the decision of limiting our borders that you mentioned, but constrution of new housing and livability construction is going on very well. I bought a great historic house in a great neighborhood and the city is really nice. People would be surprised how nice STL is.

The Ohio C's have been real quiet ever since this short dropped...

The soon to be 9% sales tax in Franklin county is unsustainable. If this is a good idea, we wouldn’t have to be forced to pay for it through another stupid tax hike. I will make all of my purchases outside of Franklin county, including cars (alternate address). This will be great for surrounding counties.

Well despite the unfortunate turn of events in our state. It's very refreshing to see Issue 47 pass.

Voted yes last week! Really hoping we can make this effort more than a dream in my lifetime

Wow, this guy clearly has an agenda.

I’ve been to downtown Columbus several times. Doesn’t seem big enough to need it. Probably would be later, though.

You’ve done your part to get the word out! Way to go! Good luck! As a car-free Denverite, I find it fascinating how our transit system is perceived by those beyond our region. When I moved here 10 years ago, RTD was still in building & expansion mode, not yet grappling with the fact that the prior GM (now CEO of DIA) over promised a huge portion of revenue area a train they can’t afford, even if the tracks were free. Pandemic notwithstanding, RTD hasn’t expanded anything since 2019 & is letting the city of Denver & CDOT take the lead on BRT on surface highways through Denver. We used to be lauded for leadership, but taking eyes off the vision can set a system & region back to experiences not unlike those with little rail or fast, frequent, reliable or accessible surface transit, as it seems for Columbus. Good luck!

I seriously doubt 'Columbus' is going to convert High Street in the Short North to pedestrian only. It is a now vital economic hub supporting the convention center. That being said, "stranger things have happened."

That "worst bus stop ever" is in a gentrified neighborhood. All of this is a part of "Italian Village."

I voted yes yesterday 🎉

Short answer: No, Columbus cannot. Columbus city council is incompetent

Wow, that would be a great thing for Columbus!! Here's hoping it passes for y'all!

Please update us on the results of the vote! looking forward to your video on the results!

The 1972 amtrack law gives passenger rail the right of way over frieght rail! NO ADMINISTRATION HAS YET HAD THE BALLS TO ENFORCE THE LAW, RED OR BLUE. ONE MINOR REASON TO VOTE GREEN PARTY!

I recently visited Toledo. Their bicycle infrastructure is 99% better than ours in Columbus, mainly due to bike lanes safely seperated by concrete curbs. Columbus should replace those responsible for road design, they have a 1960s mentality placing car transport above all other modes. Painted bike lanes are worse than nothing, littered with trash and broken glass. Recreational trails between parks are fun, but they are of little use for commuting to work😢

I live in Columbus, we are far behind.... A middle modal transit is needed not shared traffic light rail. Bussing is not a solution for the 21 st century. i actually moved here from Houston. Quick correction, the people overwhelming supported Houston Metro expansion... Corrupt officials ciphoned funds an no one knows what happened. I m not interested in any bussing we need comprehensive rail .

Hopefully they implement those center meridian bus lanes. Austin is in part suffering because we lack them, and yet somehow the plan to encourage bus routes to feed the commuter rail are supposed to do it without prioritizing the buses

I used to work in an office in that Smith Bros Hardware Building. It was indeed an island. A walk down the street to the west is, in theory, not bad - but you're walking along the looooong, windowless wall that is the north side of the convention center.

good video: I would add that the whole idea of having to vote to fund transit while highways are subsidized without a vote is the root of the problem. Not only transit, but schools, parks, and other public services are inadequate because they are in competition with the sprawl-industrial complex.

My concern with bus rapid transit is that it’s easy for service to degrade. Right now there are promises that it will be on a dedicated right of way. But budget overruns and complaints are unfortunately likely to make it a just bus with a fancy paint job. We need rail transit, I don’t know why that isn’t being considered.

Great to see urbanist videos that address local issues. Keep fighting for transit in Columbus!

Great to see a video from this channel again

I want to vote on this issue, but unfortunately, I live just outside of Columbus in Westerville. :(

While Vancouver, Washington which is a much smaller city than Columbus has The Vine with two lines and building another line in the next few years en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vine_(bus_rapid_transit)

Lol if Harris wins you'll have to ride the bus!

While BRT can be helpful in expanding ridership - if it’s truly BRT (with mostly grade separated lanes and stations - a la Ottawa) - its impact is limited as upper-middle class people will choose not to take it vs driving in almost all instances. Conversely, rail transit, particularly fast suburban/regional rail - can have the biggest impact on ridership. It needn’t be an either/or, but developing a regional rail network - particularly before the City gets too dense - can be the most significant way to reduce traffic.

Any BRT through Bexley along E Main will function no better than the faux-BRT fever dream that is CMAX. Existing car traffic will ring it of any hope for improved efficiency.

Yes on Issue 47!! Love the video! If you’re in Columbus and care about this stuff, join a local action group to become a change maker!

Omg ur back !!! I knew this had to be in the works before the election :)

Columbus needs to act FAST. It's a shame we don't have rail or good bus frequency

I pray for this. Im a student at OSU without a car and its miserable

Add frequent rail like Switzerland

I'm not from Columbus but assuming this passes once it's built out the metropolitan area can step up to light rail or light metro.

At a minimum I hope Columbus can get that proposed BRT and service frequency accomplished! Living in the Twin Cities I can definitely vouch for how much of a difference frequency and enhanced stops can make on key bus corridors. One thing I would caution against for BRT station design though is trying to have completely level boarding for the buses if they aren't also investing in solid design and hardware to do it. Assuming they will be working with the typical New Flyer or Gillig products it can eat a lot of time lining up and docking at each station if they are trying to create a bus version of the rail platform experience by just pulling up tight. Going with an elevated/near level boarding platform height still makes it much easier for mobility users, but also makes for much quicker pull up for the operators as there isn't the risk of damaging the bus body coming too close to the platform edge. If they do want a level platform setup then adding guiderails at each station and docking wheels will help speed it up.

This is a great plan but it’s missing some rail transit. Many of the other cities mentioned either have or would have had light rail. BRT is a great short term solution, but it isn’t a good long term solution for a growing city.

I love the fact that he links better mass transit with the housing crisis. I could not agree more.

I really hope that voters do the right thing. I haven't been a resident since 2015 but C-bus deserves better than what it currently has.

You present the issue well. I hadn't realized that St. Louis , where I live was a little better off than Columbus, as far as the issue of urban transit goes.

it’s a good day when you upload :)

12:32 Peter Sonski & Lauren Onak of the American Solidarity Party are another presidential ticket of transit & urbanism champions on the ballot in Ohio!

Columbus needs light rail with different lines. For example, one from the airport to downtown to Ohio State

Every city should have MAX like system like how Portland Oregon currently has. Five different lines that can take you everywhere in Portland and the surrounding areas

As someone who lives in St Paul, I really think we need more crosstown bus routes and rapid transit. Like there is absolutely no reason why the 46 doesn’t run on weekends. The 3 and 64 should just be combined and not make you have to go downtown although we still should have a version of the 64 that goes down Payne Avenue. Also if you love south of 46th street, north of Lowry Avenue or live in East side Saint Paul, there’s basically no crosstown transit and we need crosstown routes there

you lost me at columbus.

You’re glossing over one key aspect of the Twin Cities: the people. You can have the best transit and walkability in the world, and it’s worthless if the people around you are cold, distant, unfriendly, and uninviting.

I live in Phoenix, everyone loves our lightrail system that connects our suburbs to urban centers. When I want to go downtown for the night, I can save $40 on ubers by riding the rail, it takes us from the suburbs to sporting events, bars, casinos, and back safely. Public transportation isn't about helping people without cars exclusively, it's about opening up downtown culture to the suburbs, saving people money on parking and traffic. Detroit needs to downsize many roads, cut back on maintenance fees and have them appropriately sized for residential areas. Cars don't disappear, I owned a car, lived in the suburbs and rode the lightrail downtown to work daily. I got to read, nap and skip sitting and stewing in traffic. I always got to work on time. Transit is for everybody.