Download testimony (1 pg)Toledo can adopt an aggressive complete street policy, demand that Ohio make public transportation a higher priority, that policymakers focus on ensuring safe routes to school and funding the infrastructure to promote safe walking and cycling.
Presented to Toledo City Council
I am Amanda Woodrum, sustainable development researcher for Policy Matters Ohio and co-chair of Ohioans for Transportation Choice. Policy Matters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with the mission of creating a more vibrant, equitable, sustainable and inclusive Ohio. Ohioans for Transportation choice is a statewide network of advocates from a diverse cross-section of interests including environmental, anti-poverty, local governments, young professionals, cyclists, people with disabilities, and transportation experts.
We have underinvested in public transportation for decades, both as a state and as a nation. We have built a system that revolves around driving cars and trucks. However, cars are expensive to operate and maintain, often prohibitively expensive for low-income working families, and may not even an option for the elderly, people with disabilities, and youth. A system built almost entirely around roads and highways drains our urban core cities and town centers of their vitality, endangers pedestrians and cyclists, and encourages a more sedentary lifestyle. Cars and trucks depend heavily on polluting fossil fuels imported from elsewhere and that are volatile in price, putting our economy at risk.
Ohio does a particularly bad job. Our state ranks 47th in the nation for its commitment to public transportation. We spend less than 1 percent of the state’s multi-billion transportation budget on public transit. Ohio’s transportation system, in its current form, is inequitable, unsustainable, and bad economics. Ohioans spent more than $50 billion on energy in 2011, roughly 10 percent of the state’s gross domestic product; more than half of that went to fuel our cars and trucks.
Ohio needs a 21st-century transportation system. Research indicates that young people want to live in vibrant communities with walk-able, bike-able neighborhoods with access to public transportation. Transportation is critical for working families. It gets people where they need to go when they need to get there