If we want to reform the way Ohio Department of Transportation does business, we have to look at changing the models they use, says Surface Transportation Policy Project, a national non-profit working to bring us more transportation choices. The models that transportation agencies use often rely on flawed assumptions like energy prices remaining constant or that greenhouse gases will not be regulated, says Norm Marshall in his presentation, “Understanding the Transportation Models and Asking the Right Questions (pdf).”

Modeling has a seat at the table but facilitates discussion rather than ending it, Marshall writes.

If we want ODOT reform we need to discuss how models are used now to determine where transportation projects are initiated. We need to talk about the underlying assumptions which are contributing to the status quo (all of us paying for more highways and interchanges subsidizing ticky tacky houses on farmland). We can explore, for example, if travel behavior will be the same in the future as in the past? And is future land use really independent of future transportation service levels?

The flaws in the models start at the top. The Federal Highway Administration found that 61 percent of the miles driven in the U.S. are on urban roads, yet, nearly 77 percent of the 8,223,393 lane miles of roads in the U.S. were located in rural areas in 2000. So, why do we hear so many complaints about congested roads? It has more to do with our growing reliance on driving for daily tasks, STPP explains here.

One specific policy upgrade that ODOT should consider is reforming the use of the state’s gas tax which currently is restricted to only funding highway projects. In Oregon, state’s Attorney General ruled that, indeed, if you buy gas for your lawnmower, leaf blower, your powerboat, ATV or snowmobile you probably don’t plan on using them on the Interstate. It is legal, then, for the state to use that portion of gas tax revenues for non-highway projects. After the AG ruled, Oregon's legislature passed a constitutional amendment that allowed the state to create a fund to set aside the non-vehicle portion of the gas tax. That fund paid for a new passenger rail line. How do we do the same in Ohio, and fund a Lorain-to-Cleveland commuter train and probably have enough left to start the long-awaited Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati high-speed train? Read more here.

Transportation choice would ease the burden of beastly transportation costs for Ohio’s families. Take Columbus, for example, which STPP found has 0.09 miles of hourly transit service per mile of roadway—the lowest transportation choice in the nation.

What other ways can state policies help us get unstuck from this quandary of not enough transportation choice (which leads to fewer people, then, choosing to ride a bike, walk or take transit)?