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What causes transit to fail? Low density, lack of walkability, chronic underfunding...

Marc Lefkowitz  |  05/29/19 @ 4:00pm  |  Posted in Transit, Vibrant cities, Transportation choices, Walking

Sure, transit has been perpetually underfunded in Ohio. But a big reason transit suffers is because of low-density development that follows highways into farmlands and forests at the metropolitan edge. A deliberate effort to sprawl rather than redevelop dense nodes works against transit.

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Transit in the balance: Two competing views of the future take shape

Marc Lefkowitz  |  05/28/19 @ 1:00pm  |  Posted in Transit

For the last decade, Ohio has dropped transit funding by double digits, ignoring the national trend of driving-less young adults moving to cities and valuing freedom of mobility above ownership. The results have gone exactly as predicted. Fewer people can afford to ride transit and buses don’t come as often because RTA was asked to effectively operate in the red...

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What climate action is needed most in Cuyahoga

Marc Lefkowitz  |  03/05/19 @ 2:00pm  |  Posted in Transit, Explore, Live

Cuyahoga County and Cleveland are simultaneously working on Climate Action Plans. They hired the same firm to measure where carbon emissions are generated. For Cleveland, Industry and Air Travel is concerning. For Cuyahoga County, individual transportation outpaced all others, including power plants, which have lowered their carbon emissions. We should encourage city and county to adopt sweeping change based on...

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Talking transit crisis, solutions with Joe Calabrese GCRTA CEO

Marc Lefkowitz  |  12/08/17 @ 9:00am  |  Posted in Transit

This week, we reported on a transit crisis unfolding in the State of Ohio. We end the week asking, what can state and local leaders do to prevent the transit crises brought on by the long-expected end of a medical care organization (MCO) sales taxes which will punch a $20 million hole in the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA)...

That familiar feeling<br />GCRTA CEO and GM Joe Calabrese discusses cuts during a 2016 funding shortfall with labor leaders. A capital idea<br />Funding for transit capital projects, like the Little Italy Rapid Station, is separate and usually more available than operating funds. (although the federal TIGER grant program that paid for this station is on the Trump chopping block). On the line<br />The GCRTA Green and Blue light rail line runs to the suburbs where many riders have options such as driving. The line lost its evening service to downtown after the 2016 transit funding crisis.How Ohio funds transit<br />Image: Policy Matters Ohio

Ohio is watching a "transit death spiral" unfold

Marc Lefkowitz  |  12/04/17 @ 12:00pm  |  Posted in Transit, Vibrant cities

2017 saw Cleveland transit advocates clash with Mayor Jackson over his decision to close Public Square (then re-open it) to buses. But that tempest played out in a teapot compared to what the State of Ohio is preparing to (not) do this month when a long-awaited medical service sales tax cut is expected to blow a hole in the budgets...

<br />RTA cut service to its suburban trains in 2016<br />Many Clevelanders will be stranded in economic islands of lost opportunity if RTA is forced to shut down 10 percent of its system in 2018<br />Ohio lavishes tens of millions of dollars on highways, like this empty highway which is being decommissioned in Akron, instead of flexing those highway funds to be used on transit.<br />The Public Square closure to buses was a distraction from the real issue facing transit - a state that has historically undervalued and underfunded it.

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