We are covering a very different topic than we’ve done in our past podcasting, but a critical issue for Central Ohio.

We are guessing everyone experiences problems and difficulties in getting around their community – too many cars on the road, congestion, construction, and so much wasted time commuting!

We are excited to welcome our guest, Thea Ewing, Director of Transportation & Infrastructure Development, for MORPC - the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

First we explore the role of MORPC in our community. Also, Thea gives us background on her experience and expertise in the transportation arena.

Why are we even discussing transportation? After all, many of us have been working from home for months. Why are transportation systems so important? Really, it’s not just the amount of exhaust pouring into the sky – but how it affects the success of our city.

Columbus is the perfect example of a “sprawling” community dependent on cars. In the 1960’s we built freeways through our neighborhoods. And then major thoroughfares through established suburban housing. All this growth occurring without accounting for potential mass transportation. We lost our rail system. COTA has barriers due to funding/ridership/ and street size. And we are “wed” to our cars – even as we drive alone to work every day. Are there examples of cities that are successfully changing car dependence and how did they get on the right track?

Cost is a factor in mass transportation. Here in Columbus, during the pandemic, COTA has not been charging a fee. Some feel the system should always be free, as those who are most dependent on the bus system can least afford to pay for it. Can you provide us with examples or alternative options for affordable transportation?

We have heard that “what is good for an older adult is likely good for a younger one”. For example: if a bus trip is easy, affordable, safe, and convenient for an older adult, then a young mother with a stroller or a college student with a full backpack of books, will also utilize the service. Educating citizens in “Transportation Demand Management, or TDM” is a needed step to change the culture. Thea talks about TDM and discusses the barriers we face for an easy, convenient, affordable and safe transportation system.

Let’s talk about SPEED! Thea leads some very important and critical programs for MORPC. It’s always great fun to think of our future as an outer space adventure. We find out more about the Hyperloop and High Speed Passenger Rail!

And finally, there are major corridors in our area that can be re-configured for higher transportation capacity (LinkUS Mobility Corridors Initiative).

We would love to hear from you.

Email us at hello@lookingforwardourway.com.

Find us on Facebook.

Please review our podcast on Google!

And of course everything can be found on our website, Looking Forward Our Way.

Recorded in Studio C at 511 Studios. A production of Circle270Media Podcast Consultants.

I couldn't be in a more interesting job at an important time in our history.

Wonderful. Well, and you're showing it hurt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like she just had her second cup of coffee on

listeners. This is why we're talking transportation.

Yeah. Yeah.

Super excited about it.

More so than the should be.

We are looking forward our way. We're in Studio C.

in the five one one studios.

This is Bretz and with me, as always, is Carol.

How are you this morning? I'm good, Brad.

Thank you. Today we are covering a really different

topic than we've been doing in our past, podcasting.

But this is such a critical issue for central Ohio.

So I'm guessing that everyone in our audience experiences problems and

difficulties in getting around their community.

Too many cars on the road, congestion,

construction, so much wasted time and commuting.

Even though our traffic may be a little

bit lower, it's still pretty wild out there on the roads.

So we're excited to welcome our guest,

Thea Ewing, director of transportation and infrastructure development for Morsey,

which is the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Thea, thank you so much for joining us today.

Well, good morning, Carol.

Good morning, Brett.

Yes, I am excited to come in and talk to

you about what we're doing in transportation planning in central Ohio.

Good. Well, you know, let's go on that theme.

Let's explore the role of Morsey in our community and give us some background in

your experience and expertize in the transportation arena.

Awesome.

Morsy with Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission really got our start in land

use and transportation planning over 50 years ago.

Again, believe it. Wow.

So we are a collection of central Ohio

communities that work together, like the city of Columbus, the city of Whitehall.

You know, even Delaware County are members of ours.

And we don't just do transportation and land use focus planning anymore.

We also work on advocacy for our local government.

So we have a connection to the state house

for them and the impacts on their communities, as well as housing and

weatherization for communities or members of our community who may need

that services in their home and can't afford them.

So various grant programs, we can access for that.

And then we we do hold a number of data mapping resources

that comes out of our history of land use

and transportation, but now has been able to be a useful tool to many of our

communities as they're trying to determine, you know, deployment of

maybe an emergency resource or, you know, how to deal with the coronavirus itself.

So it's been really great

resources, kind of like cross over across the agency to help the community as we've

evolved into what we are today from just over 50 years ago.

I've always been a huge admirer of the Morsi team, and I don't think folks

realize how difficult it can be to get information about particular topics.

And you get a small community.

They don't have the resources to do that.

In-Depth research and data analysis that

needs to be done so they can get grant money to fix a road, fix an intersection.

It's a lot more complicated than people realize.

And having Morsi behind you is huge.

Yeah, I like to think of our team as an extension of many of the government

agencies in the region, some of them through through working with us.

They have another person on staff basically that can do that extra work and

them do the planning they need to do or write the grant they need to go after.

Yeah, that's exactly where we want to be for the the central Ohio region.

OK, so theater audiences

may be still wondering why we're even discussing transportation

since so many of us have been home for so long working from home. So why are

transportation systems so important? It's just not about the amount of exhaust

pouring into our sky, but how does it affect the success of our cities?

Oh, my gosh.

So transportation is a true economic indicator, right?

So, I mean, the coronavirus, for example, I've been tracking a lot of the traffic

patterns since the virus and we took a major dip at the beginning of April.

It took till about the beginning of April

to to really recognize the you know, we we track on a map.

It's almost like in your car, he agreed.

Means the roads not congested, congested red means it's pretty congested.

So we have that and we track it throughout the day, the congestion levels.

And so we used to have places around town

that have little red marks for certain periods of the day.

And that was a normal peak performance of

those roads we went to where we were all green 24/7.

Right, right. That's crazy.

And I don't mean I mean crazy good from getting to get around town.

But from an economic standpoint, that was telling me there was something going on.

Right. We didn't have as many cars on the road.

But oddly enough, we had many trucks going

in and out of Rickenbacker and actually flights going in and out or took some

record highs, we actually took a dip back in January when the why?

The reason why is because actually the virus was hitting Asia, where many of our

planes were coming in and out of into central Ohio, into our Rickenbacker port.

So this is all like basically what I'm getting to is like these are all systems.

They'll work to get the trains, the trucks on the road, our cars mixed into that, the

busses, all these various systems that work together and utilize these systems.

And they are when people are out there on

a is a big sign of what you're in what's going on in your economy.

Well, I think to the

the one thing you just said to me is like Eye-Opening, transportation is not just

a sign of whether we have a lot of cars on the road.

It's an economic indicator.

And if we had looked at the fact that Rickenbacker was low in January and not

assumed it was because of the weather, who knows what our health folks would have

realized even sooner about the pandemic coming, right?

Yeah, I'm sure this was across the United States.

You know, different ports were seeing it,

but it wasn't really getting, you know, that attention exactly now.

But on the flip side, since, you know, there are been folks working from home and

we have seen less traffic, it is coming back, by the way.

And our biggest hit areas are places like

downtown Columbus or the more more populous areas.

Honestly, out in the rural areas, it's already bounced back pretty significantly.

It only took a small dip.

But yeah, in the cities, cities, much of a higher one.

And then around the major areas where

there is warehousing associated with Amazon and Wal-Mart or any of our major

retailers, actually it's higher traffic volume.

And so it's just really interesting.

I mean, you know, people say you work in transportation.

That must be boring. No, it is super exciting.

I mean, you don't know what's going on.

You know, in our community, we get we get

indicators of what's what the next thing is going to be.

Yeah, I couldn't be more thrilled.

And really, this is a system that builds out upon systems.

So it's not just it's not like you're just

talking about cars or trucks or airplanes or bicycles.

It's everything. Right.

It all has to work together.

And I mean, that's a perfect storm right there.

There's a perfect storm to get all that working together.

And then last thing I'll say, I know we're

in a big political season or hopefully at the end of one.

Right. But there's nothing the R's and the D's

love more than talking about infrastructure.

So I couldn't be more thrilled to be in a place where we're kind of moving past some

of these issues we're talking about today to be able to move to talking about

transportation at that federal level, local level.

So I, I think

I couldn't be in a more interesting job at an important time in our history.

Wonderful. Well, and you're showing it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, she just had her second cup of coffee.

The listeners.

This is why we're talking transportation. Yeah.

Yeah. Super excited about it.

More so than I should be.

Well, you know, it's interesting, though,

because, you know, what you just said is to that, you know, you can see the future.

Yes. What you see, you know, it's not just, OK,

this happened yesterday is like, no, this is a trend.

And we know these trends mean this.

So that means that's what can be super exciting is that you kind of know you can

read the tea leaves, quote unquote, of what might be happening.

So, yeah, well, Columbus' is a really good

example of a sprawling community dependent on cars.

In the sixties.

We built freeways through our neighborhoods.

You mean OFF-MIKE? We were actually talking about the

destruction of what, seventy one and seventy five to Detroit

and then major thoroughfares through established suburban housing

without really accounting for potential mass transportation.

We lost our rail system.

Chota has barriers due to funding,

ridership, street size and we are wed to our cars.

There's no way around it, even as we drive alone to work every day.

Are there examples of cities that are

successfully changing car dependance and how did they get to that point?

Mm hmm. That is a very good question.

Yeah.

We in central Ohio, we've been on that quest to figure out that perfect

scenario, to move people away from their single occupancy vehicles for a long time.

But I do feel like through our Linkous

initiative, we're really taking this seriously and not that not that

predecessors didn't, but we're doing it in ways that do take

into account communities that are making those strides.

And look.

At their best practices like Indianapolis and what they've done with their bus rapid

transit system, and they also have installed a really extensive bike system

like a bike track system through their downtown, leveraging a lot of the

alleyways and turning this into fast lanes for the bikes.

Right. So, yeah.

Yeah. So that's I think that's kind of what I

was getting out earlier, is that that system idea that these things have to work

together, you can't just say, oh, we're going to throw in a bus system.

Right.

That it's going to be way better than the old one.

Now, it has to incorporate the fact that people are going to be walking to this.

Right.

What about the people who can't walk to it?

Right.

And then, you know, those people and how they're accessing that and how they

interface with the people in their car or the truck.

So thinking about all those different

things, the safety aspects, so it really becomes a very comprehensive and I feel

like that's something we are doing working with KODE through the Link US initiative,

and that is we're looking at multiple corridors

and actually started out of some work we had done around corridors.

And where we think that the growth would happen in central Ohio as we

are, is anticipated to be as much as three million people by the year 2050.

And so planning for that, you know, not

all of those people can be in one car every day.

And so then we started looking at the corridors and now we're moving on to

actually those like, you know, coming up with the estimates of how much this type

of work is going to cost and what exact route it's going to take.

Right.

So Northwest Corridor headed up towards Dublin, out of downtown and east and west,

that broad mainstream perring from county, from Madison County to

Licking County, basically right through downtown a southwest or sorry, sorry.

So southeast towards the Rickenbacker area out of downtown and the major job hub.

And then something that parallels or basically builds upon what is known as the

C max line, Cleveland Avenue, the Northeast and the northeast line.

So, yeah, and because is doing so much, I

mean, this is one of the initiatives that we're working on with them and the city.

But there's so much more. Right.

There's so, so many other things that they're working on, including

looking at smaller vehicles

for

getting people around and more on demand type services.

So what we we sort of missed the boat when

we didn't dig in a subway under Columbus before it sprawled out.

I remember I was interning in Congress in

Washington, doing the subway in Washington.

Oh, my gosh, that was so cool.

I mean, it was I bet it wasn't even up to

I think it had just hit Dupont Circle at that point in time.

So it was not that large of a system, but it was phenomenal.

I kept thinking, you know, why can't we

dig under the we put in a garage under the state house. Why can't we dig under?

Well, and, you know, there are a lot of

factors that you thought would turn the tide when we when gas prices went so high.

Everybody is talking, OK, that's going to change our minds.

Never did.

All of a sudden, we're actually buying bigger vehicles, right.

During that time period or the I don't know if it still exists or not, though.

The point to point cars. Oh yeah.

Car to go. Car to go.

Yeah. Well there's a different company in town

doing that, but that's interesting concept.

Didn't really do it though either to a certain degree.

So it seems like it has to be a

combination of timing and hearing the public what they need.

Right.

Yeah, some of it maybe.

I think so.

I mean so we're kind of on the cusp of the

population size that typically ends up taking off with this.

Right. Like the LANAS or, you know, a Chicago

that, you know, the basically what it comes down to the pain, is it painful?

And that is exactly the limitation of

parking spaces to actually drive your car downtown or to look at or to the place you

want to go is more painful than actually just, OK, I'm going to buy a ticket to go

on the Rapid Transit or or whatever the case may be.

Yeah, yeah. We're just not there yet.

And the beauty of it is at least now we're planning for that

and thinking that one through trying to work in those competitive routes.

I think the other thing is, is, you know, with the existing quota system,

when someone rides that they're they're not an opportunity.

Right. They're a have to rider exact part.

Right.

They're doing that because that's maybe their their last option.

We we want to in Coda wants to turn that into opportunity customer.

So they're really looking at that customer service.

How can we get people there faster. Right.

How can it be competitive with the automobile?

This new CEO of CODA

is a new she's been around for a couple of

years now, but I've known her for longer that she you know, she's really for.

Focused on, well, this just isn't just a

bus system to make sure that everybody has at least a

ride, this is like we need to be more competitive.

This needs to create the opportunity for

everybody that really, truly is the opportunity for everybody.

Like they can get there as fast as somebody in their car.

You know, I think to the assumption of mass transportation has always been, oh,

it's only for people who can't afford a car.

That's not it by any stretch.

And like you said, the pain point hasn't come.

I realize just now it's been likely 20

years since I was in Tempe, Arizona, for the bowl game and New Year's Eve.

They started that little

I can't remember now what they call it, the little shuttle.

That's all like a little train.

And we thought, oh, yeah, this is kind of cool.

I mean, it went from one stop to another at that night.

It was no big deal. But it that I mean, that's been 20 years.

They did that. And you don't you don't think of Arizona

as a place of looking at issues of mass transportation.

There's a lot of land out there. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it's starting to hit them too with the the masses.

I've been to Phenix and Scottsdale lately

and seeing that they've had to address this to light rail and light rail.

That's what it was. Yes.

Yeah.

Light rail is a really popular way to approach that.

Another thing is, especially with all the autonomous features that you can build on

these vehicles, and it was smart Columbus'.

They had been looking at some some shuttles and different types of

vehicles that to use and they were testing them here.

But it's not like we're going to be

picking up a full route at this point in time.

But when you said Bolgar, I was in Minneapolis speaking

to a group and it was right before the Super Bowl a couple of years ago.

And there was one of the companies was

testing their autonomous shuttles and they were running people back and forth in the

those Super Bowl in endzone party areas, right in this vehicle.

And they gave me a sneak peek.

You know, I got to ride the autonomous

vehicle and then a little party zone area and try it out so easily.

And then, of course, they they told me

they were taking me back to the bay or we could have taken you to Paisley Park.

I was like, well, I mean, I am a transportation nerd,

but braincells would have been pretty good to

ride.

So unfortunately, cost is a huge factor in mass transportation.

And here in Columbus

during the pandemic, I believe that KODE has not been charging a fee.

Some feel that system should always be free.

I'm not sure about all of the the their notion behind that.

But as those who are most dependent on the

bus system, you know, they're least able to afford it.

As I said, you know, everybody thinks mass

transportation is for folks who can't afford a car.

So can you provide us with a few other

examples and alternatives to en mass transportation that's affordable?

Yeah, thanks for for asking that question. Yeah.

So this debate about whether a service

like KODE should be free, I mean, certainly that is a very noble

initiative if our committee chose to take something like that up.

But I think the really scary part for me

is you're making a commitment in a in a moment in time.

Right.

Because at that point, the income you have coming in, that's it.

Right. That's going to be that's going to be it.

So you're saying like the federal grants are going to be receiving or possibly

maybe the levy levy dollars at that point, but not being able to generate more

revenues over time and being able to collect revenues

that that's really challenging and doesn't allow a system to continue advancing.

Right, right.

And so that that's probably my biggest concern with with that argument.

That being said, it doesn't mean that we can't provide services free of charge to

certain individuals or look at creative ways to fund things.

For instance, we worked with the downtown employers through the Columbus Crossroads

Special Improvement District and provided something called CPS, where actually

we did a bulk right through Coda provided that to them.

They did an assessment whenever they do

their taxes and then for nonprofit or governments.

And they gave a instead of the taxes, they did a payment in lieu of that was very

similar to what the business or sorry, the the building owners did.

And so all that money goes into a fund that goes to KODE.

It pays for 100 percent of the employees downtown.

Now, about 100 percent of them use it. Right?

Right. But they also it's a significant discount.

So it kind of ends up being about where about what the ridership would be.

We actually saw a huge increase in people

writing to their jobs downtown as a result of that and had a transportation and.

As far as traffic as well and parking, which actually was what they were getting

at parking, was becoming such an issue for downtown that there was a start of a

conversation about building a new parking garage.

Those are multi-million dollar, 30 year adventures in finances.

And we're talking about a time whenever we might be improving our transit system.

Cars maybe have

made become more autonomous and we may not need to park them in the downtown.

That's a huge building. The money dump.

Right. We don't know what our future holds.

Why do we need to build another parking garage?

And right now you're building a parking garage.

You better be able to go to rehab to be

able to rehabilitate it to another use later.

Oh, interesting. Well, and when you look at the park and

rides all over town, oftentimes they're empty or only half full.

And so that they the loop that the connection is there, it's just a matter of

getting folks to commit to the to the bus system.

I was at Ohio State when they started the pass for students.

And then I think then that it was increased to staff and faculty also.

And truly, I didn't think students would

use it, but it's still going, from what I understand.

Oh, yeah.

Actually, it was the model or CPS did the CPS.

That was that was an awesome program that they got started.

Yes.

Students really did take to it and some of their employees did, too.

And what we've seen with the parking rigs, actually, I mean, of course, now they've

had to make because not not as much for the case, but the parking rides were

probably some of our biggest stops for the downtown space program.

And we had two of them were they actually had to start sending out more busses

at the morning and the evening pickups and some of the suburbs.

So, yeah, it was amazing.

It was amazing turnaround for you.

And and this allowed the CPS users.

They didn't they didn't just get that pass for work.

They got it for going to an office. You gay.

Right. Right,

right. So it got people you know, I think there

was probably I remember some of the first conversations like why do they need

to be able to use this all the time?

Well, it's a part of a lifestyle change, right.

We'll get them going on it for work.

Whether they might want to use it for

other things like this is all a part of the system.

They get to get people moving to trying out that car free lifestyle.

So it's really work that I felt like was really successful.

We also have Van Poole program through Ohio.

So maybe

this is maybe not if you work downtown.

Actually, this has been a program that we

I mean, we have seen some dips during coronavirus, but we actually have picked

up some new vans during this time, too, of medical workers going out to VA hospitals.

Right.

And actually, we have some reverse commuters who are

coming from the

know they're going out to Chillicothe to

the VA in Chillicothe, the out of Columbus to there.

They initiate out of here because they need to go down there.

Actually, a lot of our federal work staff use these van pools.

And I have a team member who works on that.

And we also have a program where we help

people find another person that's just going their way.

Right. To ride with.

So, yeah, we're certainly in that business of trying to find those

low cost opportunities for people so that everybody has a chance to move forward.

Well, and to we will talk about this again

at the end of the podcast, but we will put information into the show notes on this

podcast that will tell folks where to find these programs.

It's not just talking about it if we don't give everybody a hint on where to go.

So, yeah, well, we really appreciate that.

Thank you, Carol.

Oh, we've heard that what is good for an

older adult is likely good for a younger one.

I thought we phrase that on this podcast.

Isn't that our our quote looking forward, our website.

That's Zack ours.

OK, well, for example, if a bus trip is easy, affordable, safe and convenient for

an older adult, then a young mother with a stroller or a college student with a full

backpack of books will also utilize that same service.

You know, I understand that educating our citizens in transportation demand

management or TDM is needed to change the culture.

Can you talk about what TDM is and then, you know, talk about the barriers?

Are we face with an easy, convenient, affordable and safe transportation system?

Yeah. So we we circuit we're sorry.

We focus on transportation management as I practice at more.

So we really so basically what that comes down to is creating that system for all.

So we do things like working on complete streets.

We have policies that whenever we're getting do.

A grant funded project for a roadway that

when we when we were spending that money, we're also looking at a corresponding bike

lane enough with for a bus lane, if should should we need that there,

that it accommodates the trucks that may need to go through there for the economy.

Right.

Or other stops that may need I mean, maybe sometime in the future

passenger rail or even, you know, some higher speed type train.

So we definitely do that project by project.

Now it's Noah's complete streets.

That term is called Complete Streets.

We have a complete streets guidance

for our projects and every project goes through that

and along those same lines because a new form of transportation has come.

And it's not for us, it's for our data.

And that's broadband.

It's very important, all of our

communities and I think of it as part of the transportation system because it is

moving something and it's really important to us.

And in fact, it actually puts us in a

place where we don't have to move things about.

You don't have to go to the library to get

the information or you don't maybe don't go.

That doesn't sound so good.

Go to the movie theater, you know, but

it's bringing stuff to you, making your job your life easier.

Well, we certainly saw that in the pandemic.

Well, people not having access to the Internet.

Right, right.

And I mean, it was bringing you education. Right.

And if you didn't have it, it was limiting you from it, from that education.

So we also have a policy and we were the first metropolitan

planning organization in the nation to adopt this.

A Smart Streets policy, smart street policy is that every time you open up the

corridor for a construction project that you're considering at least installing

conduit for broadband to be run in that corridor in the future.

Now, you may go ahead and start working

with the companies to get that broadband put in.

Maybe that's public information or public

infrastructure that you're going to be putting in there.

Maybe it's with a private carrier like Verizon or AT&T.

But the the bottom line is you're at least looking at it because this is another

important piece of the transportation puzzle for our future.

So and another item was that that you are considering the infrastructure needed for

new smart lighting systems that may help you safely be able to get through

intersections like busses, warning systems in our vehicles.

They're going to need specific levels of

broadband to communicate with us and say, hey, there's something coming up ahead,

stop that stuff, maybe part of that infrastructure as well.

So we want to make sure that stuff gets put into these street projects as well.

And then the last one is if you're going in front of a place like a fire station, a

library, a school that you've contacted them and say, hey, we're putting this in,

was there anything you needed as part of this project?

Yeah, including if Cohodas on that right

route, you know, maybe they need it for their communications.

So this is really important that we consider these corridors in our

communities, not just for our movement, but for the movement of our data.

So it's basically just a tick list. Yeah.

Of Wacek. Yeah.

And so I was thinking to kind of going back to what you said, if it's it's easy

for an older person to get around, it's just as easy for a younger there's a there

is a planner and he's from South America, Gil Peñaloza.

He's actually spoke at one of the events

we've had it Morsi is called an eighty eight eighty city.

And the whole concept between the ATC city is that someone who's eight years old can

get around as good as somebody who's 80 years old.

Right. And everybody in between you build to that

level, then, you know, it's meant for everybody.

And so I think about that physically as well as digitally.

And I see right there, I can remember when everybody was all up in arms because we

had to pay to have the cutouts on the corners so that for wheelchairs,

so the little ramps for the wheelchairs and everybody was all up in arms.

And now it's like when we when it's not there, we're like,

well, we're why don't they have a wheelchair

use on that sidewalk so that they can get it across the street.

That's wonderful. That is wonderful.

Well, you know, I think one of the things

that I think of as the baby boomers have aged, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That, you know, that that there's probably

been some enlightenment for some folks who maybe I have a dad who had a stroke, you

know, who you know, it was nothing for him just to walk out and go get my car.

I have no problems.

Just you getting ready for the day.

Now, that's just a challenge, right? Right.

Walking further.

I mean, he can walk, thank goodness.

But just walking from his car to the store is hard for him.

I mean, you know, that's been a major wake up call.

And so I think, you know, for people who

really want to make a difference, they start to realize, like, oh, my gosh, this

is the way life has been for this other person their entire life.

Right. This isn't just like an old age issue.

Right.

And how am I going to get around when I get older?

Right. You know, so I think these these things

are starting to come up as this this group, this generation

definitely is moving into that where they need those services.

And I think that's going to help everybody.

That's great for everybody, because it's not just an age.

It's the it's

other abilities is individuals who have been sick and who aren't able to walk.

And it has you know, your dad had a stroke.

My dad had a stroke.

Walking was a huge issue for them.

But how about somebody who has to be on a scooter?

You know, that's a quality of life situation, right? No matter if it's just

you broke your leg and you've got crutches for a few weeks or you are in a

wheelchair all your life, it's quality of life situation, right? Exactly right.

If we consider this as we build all the

time, then that's not going to be a major issue.

Right. And I think that's that's one of the

things we are trying to work on on several levels.

All right. All right.

We're taking a little left turn here. All right.

The need for speed. That's right.

We are going to talk about speed now.

So there you are leading some very important and critical programs for Morsi.

So it's always great fun to think of our

future, sort of like an outer space adventure.

And one of the things that you and I have

had an opportunity to talk about was the Hyperloop.

Yeah. And what is that?

What what is it going to be?

I understand now it's not going to be

around until I'm likely no longer on this earth.

Darren, I was really hoping to go back to Chicago, but.

Oh, well, so, yeah.

Thank you for asking me about the Hyperloop project.

I love sharing this with our community.

We have some people are really excited about this.

So when I started Maubee in 2014,

Morse had already started a passenger rail project focused to Chicago.

So really looking at that connection.

And, you know, the one thing we do, we do

a long range planning effort known as the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, where we

look out at least 20 years into the future every four years.

And every time I do this, citizens come

and say, you know, I really want to see something with intercity connection.

Right.

I really want to be able to go from city to city.

We don't have it.

We lost it in to the last train rolled out of the Columbus Station in 1979.

I mean, people can show you a picture of

that dassin it, you know, so I mean, there's there is there is a

mini hearts and minds very tied to what was our rail service of the past.

So we did quite a bit of investigation

that we worked with cities between here and Chicago.

All the mayors signed on to say, hey, we're really interested in doing this.

Basically, we got to a point where it was

really challenging to get funding to move to the next stage of the project.

And we needed to do so to really prove to the FAA that this thing's for real.

But it's around the same time Hyperloop was being developed as a technology.

And if you're not familiar, Elon Musk, I

mean, I say that name people know SpaceX, Tesla, this guy, you know, he's

he's associated with all these really big ideas.

So he came up with this concept and it's been it's been brought or developed.

And there's multiple companies in this space now.

It's Hyperloop is a term like railroad. Right?

There's you know, there's CSX, there's Norfolk, Southern.

Well, Hyperloop, there's actually multiple companies working in that space, too.

So but, you know, if there was like a

grandfather of the railroad, the Elon Musk is the grandfather of Hyperloop.

Right. As a concept.

So he came up with this concept when I was

sitting in L.A. traffic, we got to be able to get around faster.

This is just this is ridiculous.

So the idea was that taking that magnetic

levitation, you talking about these high speed bullet trains over in Japan

and over in Asia and taking that technology, putting it to safer and.

Doesn't come into contact with people or,

you know, livestock along the way, and people can't dismantle it or anything

like that, and then just in creating that vacuum in the tube so that it's not going

against resistance or anything, the super fast.

So these these pods inside the tube,

which is Hyperloop, can move over 600 miles per hour.

So that's airplane speeds right on the ground.

Right.

So we looked into this technology when we were looking.

We were promised that when we were growing up, right?

Oh, yeah. Right.

And by now, the Jetsons. Right.

It was supposed to happen by now. So, yeah, OK.

Yeah, yeah.

So there is a place on this earth where it

already exists and it's just 40 minutes north of Las Vegas.

So

it's Denver.

So no, but really excited to to work with a company.

Virgin Hyperloop one is tied to Sir

Richard Branson and his Virgin Virgin companies.

But there are like I mentioned, there's a number of other companies out there, too.

We competed in a global competition. Right.

They had developed the technology, but they were looking at places where they

could apply this technology, like what are cities they could connect?

And when they did this worldwide

competition, about twenty six hundred applicants applied from around the world.

And we went and submitted our Cawdor that

Chicago, Columbus, we actually put in Pittsburgh.

We notice there's a rail line between here

and the Pennsylvania state line that's actually owned by the state of Ohio.

And we thought, let's throw that that idea in there.

We won.

We were one to 10 in the world that they wanted to work with.

We continue to work with them.

This debt to this day, that was like back in 2000, 2016, twenty, seventeen.

And so we just finished a study with them last year.

We've been working with they're actually getting ready to place a facility for

certification of their technology in West Virginia.

So not very for here.

Yeah, we actually have one of their

employees who's moving to Columbus because this is where she grew up.

She went to Ohio State.

Wow.

Which, by the way, maybe you should talk to her.

She's awesome. Oh, yeah.

See, she moved back to town and she's

going to be going over to West Virginia working on that certification site.

And she's going to be here working with me

on a regular basis on getting our quarter off the ground.

So the very first segment that we've been

looking at is this connection between like downtown Columbus in the airport, the idea

that we could get some small concept off the ground.

So the reality of maybe by the 20, 30

years that we can see a small segment pop up is is real, right?

I mean, I'm ready. We may not go to Chicago in it by then,

but I think we might see we are very motivated to see something and take off

with the company somewhere in central Ohio.

So, I mean, the likelihood of us be able to do that or another direction we thought

of is freight, you know, moving our freight around rather quickly.

So, yeah, pretty excited about the

opportunity to work with them, and we've taken about

100 officials between Chicago and Pittsburgh at to actually see the the they

have a test facility, as I mentioned, 40 miles north of Las Vegas.

And we've taken several out to see it.

They've gotten over it.

It's about five thousand meters.

This site is just over a half a mile around a half a mile.

And they can get over 230 miles per hour on that.

And it's not even that long. Wow.

So this next facility they'll build is the idea that it's going to be longer so they

can get up to full speed on it and it will also be over, have the oversight

of the U.S. government so that once they basically meet all of the criteria, this

can be like, yep, it's something we can do in the United States.

Wow. That be great.

Yeah, pretty exciting.

And it's not going to be very far from us where where they do that.

So we will be able to go over and check it out and see how it's going, you know, and

and we were fiscally responsible through this planning

process because we never did give up the rail side of the study.

So just so you know, I continue to work on passenger rail as an option.

I mean, because you can't put all your eggs in one basket.

You know, there's the true and tried of rail as well.

So we're going to be looking at all that for the future of this region.

But the rails not just as simple as

putting a rail on on the existing I have it where we would already be there.

Right.

Well, it's interesting you bring about

freight, because in my mind, it kind of goes, OK, follow the money.

It looks as though to me, freight could actually put this one on hyperspeed

because of the money behind it, even if you're dealing with transport and freight

freight that Wright is worried about how to package package packages and also how

to squeeze every last little inch in a in a cargo to put as much as you can.

You think the speed to get it from point A to point B would be worth their money?

Oh, absolutely. You know what, though?

And then I can see the ying in the yang of this, OK, you know how much push back

rail had against semi trucks, you know, and all of a sudden semi trucks could,

you know, the trucking industry fight this as well.

So you've got to make everybody happy.

Ultimately, you know, it's like, OK, this can help.

This can help. But we're not eliminating one.

We're enhancing another because you can't do this anyway all over the road.

This will take care of that piece of it sort of thing.

So I could see that being very

complicated, but very lucrative for some businesses to jump on and go.

Yes, this is how we can do this better. Right?

Well, in going back to passenger rail,

anybody who's gone through Europe on rail knows how wonderful it is.

I mean, I did I did seven countries in 14 days, and that would not have happened

other than we were on passenger rail the whole time.

So it was it's phenomenal.

And why we don't have it here in the Midwest.

I mean, they've got it on the East Coast, I think northern tier a bit.

But the Midwest, when we shut down that that rail out of Columbus in seventy nine

was a huge mistake because you want to see the USA in your Chevrolet.

You know,

that's why. Because I don't have a Chevrolet.

Right. Well, whatever.

I'm sure, you know, whatever that was, you

know, that whatever there was less congestion on the road.

Oh, absolutely. Sure.

Yeah. But now maybe not so much or that, you

know, there were no interstates right in the middle, you know that.

And it was just like the Route 66 trip or whatever it is.

I can tell you as someone who recently did

travel out west in a vehicle actually right before the pandemic.

Yeah, it's not like that anymore. You don't want.

Right. I appreciated flying much more.

Right. Oh, my God.

So. Yeah, well, let's cover one more area

I get and this is going to be coming from a previous podcast I work with.

Also, I'm going to give a shout out to

Whitehall Works City Whitehall, Zack and Jenna co-hosts this podcast.

And back in September of twenty twenty, they did an episode on transportation.

So they had talked about Linkous Mobility Cauterization initiative.

So let's talk a little bit more about that.

You know how that higher transportation capacity, we're

going to reconfigure how that all works together.

Awesome. So I I'm sure you've talked to them a

little bit about the work they're doing at Broad and Hamilton and redevelopment.

So the idea that we have corridors in this

region that have major nodes like that Broad and Hamilton redevelopment that are.

Coming online, this is where a lot of people are going to live.

This is where a lot of people are going to work, right.

And so the idea that we would have a system that better connects people to

those nodes allows for us to be able to have more people in the region, which is

kind of an imminent situation for us, but also allows for people to be able to take

advantage of a corridor where, you know, this is the place where I shop.

Everything's convenient for me. Right.

I shop here. I get entertained here.

I live here.

This is my neighborhood. Right.

Again, it gives that feeling of I think of

when we're talking about passenger rail, maybe not so much that.

But Dieter Irvin's right.

You know, and how they would, you know,

connect you to your job or to places to shop and things like that.

So it's very much going and going back to

some of those same things that were facets of developing a city of the past.

And it's awesome because Whitehall is

right on the cutting edge of being one of those places where people are

going to want to be on these corridors because they're going to be on a really

happening corridor that connects them to the downtown and to other awesome places

in the region that people are going to want to live in.

Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, great.

Good.

Any other ideas or things that we haven't hit? Is there other other opportunities

out there that we didn't know about? Oh goodness.

I think we've covered so much.

But I think where I wanted to end is to

talk a little bit about the transportation planning process.

So I talk about Hyperloop a lot with people.

And, you know, we've talked about the corridor planning.

Right.

And I feel like people when they're talking to me, they get really discouraged

because they'll say, well, that's not going to happen any time soon.

I want this to happen now. So patience.

Patience, right.

So just so that everybody understands,

when we were planning this crazy mess out your eyes, 1771

annotates, the downtown life that happened, the planning, the the initial

work to make this happen started 20 years ago.

Right. And what it takes to move the blocks of

money to make these things happen in the segments, we can make them happen

without without really disrupting the current traffic at the time.

Right. Well, we try we should reject it.

But yeah, you know, I mean, these are

things that take a momentous amount of time, effort and energy to take place.

And I think it's definitely lost on the general public.

A lot is like, oh, when is this going to happen?

And you Koumas has tried multiple times to try to they've put in that work that that

five to ten years of work on like a light rail corridor in the past.

Right.

So, you know, this is not something we're trying again, for the first time.

I think the most important thing to keep

in mind is that when we're going through these processes and we put all that work

in to have like political leadership, just like throw that out the window and start

over, that is very damaging to the process of advancing.

So definitely thinking about continuing the course and getting those things done,

because otherwise it's just kind of like a waste in time.

Right. Right.

And and that's what discourages people. Yeah.

Yeah. So leadership that really stands behind

the future of the region and thinking about its course for, you know,

allowing those planning investments of now to pay off in the future.

Right. Very important.

And that's something I uniquely see from the position I'm in.

Right. I had mentioned to Theo when we were

talking before podcasting that I live in Delaware County.

So when I first moved there, I sat in

traffic all the time because everything was still a two lane road.

Even though that whole south corridor of Delaware County exploded with new

building, they never changed the main roads other than Players Parkway.

So all of these two lane roads going into Players Parkway, it would take me

30 minutes just to get to the freeway, which was three miles away.

So now Delaware has all of this building money.

So I'm still sitting in traffic behind the construction cars.

But at least at least there is hope, hope.

There is movement, momentum and and and a

final date that the construction folks have to be done or get penalized.

So that's that's my my wish. That's my wish.

But but it is Columbus is known as having

two seasons, you know, orange barrel and winter.

Yes. And so on that note, the.

Thank you, this is wonderful.

This is wonderful

listeners, it it's a lot of information and yes, I realize that transportation may

not be on the top of your list right now since you're working from home.

However, when you have to go back downtown, there is limited parking.

So you may want to think your plan out.

And we will again have all of the

resources included in our show notes with information on Morsey so that if folks

have questions, they can contact Morphosis.

So, again, Thia, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you, Carol. Thank you, Brett.

It was great to just get out of the house.