Right Now Downtown

The first chapter of the book $20 Gasoline, reveals nothing unexpected.  Its title is “Chapter $6.”

Americans got a brief taste of things to come in 2008, when gasoline prices topped $4.  The experience at $6 will be a more intense version of 2008.  According to author Christopher Steiner, SUVs will be worth nothing.  Diesel engines will be fully embraced by Americans.  Highway deaths will be reduced dramatically.  Obesity rates will drop as more and more people walk to transit stops and bicycle.

As in 2008, Americans will use mass transit in record numbers as $500 monthly gasoline expenses jump to $1,200.  A drop in gasoline consumption will result in a drop in gasoline tax revenues, and the government will not be able to keep pace with roadway maintenance.  In an effort to generate maintenance revenue, highways will become toll roads, further reducing their use.

Although denial runs deep with Americans, people will accept that rising gasoline prices are not temporary, but permanent.  Adjusted for inflation, crude oil prices hit their historic low prices in 1998.  Rising demand for gasoline among 1.8 billion newly middle class people in places like China and India will change energy use forever.

I have a pet peeve about the use of statistics, and an article in the Saturday (January 16) Columbus Dispatch made me peevish.  The Dispatch ran an article entitled, “Worst corridors to bike, walk.”  An insert listed the most “dangerous streets” in order of danger, led by North High Street from Dodridge Street near OSU to Goodale Street in the Short North.  MORPC provided the data.

I will not dispute that High Street has the high volume of crashes because it undoubtedly carries the highest volume of bicycle and pedestrian traffic in central Ohio.  But to say that High Street is the most dangerous corridor in Central Ohio is absurd.  Is biking or walking along High Street more dangerous than Polaris Parkway?  According to this article, it is, by virtue of the fact that nobody walks or bicycles on Polaris Parkway.

In my experience, High Street is a relatively safe arterial street because bikers and pedestrians are so prevalent that motorists tend to watch for them.  The MORPC report is a service to the extent that it leads to improving the design of High Street.  But to call High Street the region’s most dangerous corridor makes no sense at all.