Transportation is a Tool of Economic Development
From yesterday’s Enquirer:
“(The Brent Spence Bridge) is not a transportation project only,” Mark Policinski, OKI’s executive director, told the Covington Business Council last month. “It’s also an economic development tool.”
Very true. Investing in transportation infrastructure creates economic development.
I wonder if an economic benefit to cost study for the Brent Spence Bridge has been done, and if so, how it compares to the 2.7 to 1 benefit to cost ratio of the Cincinnati Streetcar?
January 20, 2009 at 1:06 pm
And I also wonder, who does the bridge/road widening benefit? Does it really help Cincinnati and Newport to have a wider highway or does it mostly assist those who want to pass-through faster? More vehicle exhaust cannot be all that good for the people who live in the West End or Camp Washington.
January 20, 2009 at 1:15 pm
The Souvenir History of Cumminsville (1914) refers to roads as “the arteries of commerce”.
I have heard something about the value of goods that go over the bridge but nothing about local economic impact.
January 20, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The existing bridge is 45 years old and an estimated 60 years left on it usable life?
3 Billion Dollars is the equivalent of 6 more stadia or 30 Streetcar lines.
January 20, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I’m not sure how replacing an existing piece of infrastructure will spur any significant new investment on its own. The streetcar will be a new piece of dedicated infrastructure – hence its economic impacts. New interchanges and highways also spur investment (sprawl) but they’re new. This is just repairing/replacing something that already exists.
January 20, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Like Randy, I also was wondering if an existing piece of infrastructure would create economic development. My initial reaction is to think probably not.
And isn’t the estimated 2.7:1 benefit to cost ratio of the streetcar a bit low? Initial conservative estimates were in the 10-12:1 range based on how well other metropolitan areas utilized similar infrastructure technology. Has that changed in the past year?
January 21, 2009 at 9:55 am
How can it create economic development when it enables people to avoid stopping within a 50 mile radius of Cincinnati? You can gas up in Mason and shoot through and never stop until Sparta or somewhere south. This bridge is the opposite of economic develpment. Put a huge toll on it so people cut through the city.
January 27, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Wow! Thank you!
I always wanted to write in my blog something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?
Of course, I will add backlink?
Sincerely, Your Reader