Written by Eric Inda
When it comes to getting from A to B in Northern Kentucky, an overwhelming majority of people choose to get to their destination by car. This makes sense, we have three separate highways connecting in a 10-mile radius. The car is king in this region, as are many other places in the United States, where 87% of “daily trips take place in personal vehicles” across the nation according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (https://www.bts.gov/statistical-products/surveys/national-household-travel-survey-daily-travel-quick-facts). Perhaps you’re included in this figure.
With so many cars on the roads, it presents an issue for our environment. Our air, land, and water sources can face damage from the harmful emissions stemming from our motor vehicles every day. Reducing our carbon footprint through alternative transportation methods is a great example of trying to reduce this environmental concern. Biking, walking, or taking public transport doesn’t just benefit the environment, but also one’s own physical health. Getting one car off the roads won’t make much of an overall impact, but convincing others to follow in your footsteps, should they take your advice and tell their friends, family, and even local governments and corporations, can lead to a domino effect which may begin to make a dent in our environmental impact and travel behavior in Northern Kentucky.
The impacts of our car-centric region and its effects on pollution can be felt from taking a look at environmental data from the Cincinnati area. Traffic congestion is a “serious cause of air pollution in Cincinnati” and is most prevalent in areas like Florence and Hebron’s commercial and industrial hubs, which generate a lot of traffic from nearby highways, commuting workers, and shoppers, along with areas near major highways like I-71/75, I-275, and I-471, and along the river in cities like Covington, Ludlow, Newport, and Dayton according to a joint-study by Groundwork Ohio River Valley and Green Umbrella (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/8c2fa0feff13424ca8738fe051b579db?item=2).
What makes a region meet the criteria of livability is subjective, it will differ from person-to-person. For me, an ideal livable area should be able to grant residents access to the essentials within approximately a 20 minute walk or 10 minute bike ride. These essentials being education, places of employment, healthcare centers, grocery stores, and access to public transportation, such as a bus stop. By this definition, Northern Kentucky is not a very “livable” region for those lacking a vehicle in many of our cities. In order to make these places more livable, it should be made easier to conveniently navigate to these places without use of a car. Walking and cycling should be a realistic and safe option and can be accomplished with additional sidewalks, bike lanes, and multi-use paths separated from the main roads, helping people get around.
Many neighborhoods lack the facilities necessary to support walking or biking such as sidewalks or multi-use trails. Trails that exist may not see much foot or two-wheel traffic as it can be considerably longer to walk or bike to their destination rather than take the car. Walking may also be dangerous in some areas, especially along busier roads such as Burlington Pike, Orphanage Road, or portions of Alexandria Pike featuring few or no sidewalks, biking lanes, or opportunities to safely cross the street outside of populated areas. Public transport isn’t much better either as the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky has been cutting services over the last few years due to lack of funding or few people riding the bus. Should this problem continue to worsen, those who rely on public transport may find it much more difficult or even impossible to ride the bus to work, school, or home. These current issues make it easy for the many towns dotted along our rivers and highways to maintain their “car-centric” status and stick to the status quo. After all, it’s much cheaper and easier to only worry about roads than to add on the burden of focusing on paths and bus lines.
For people who don’t make a lot of money, public transport, walking, and biking may be the only way some know how to get around. We can look at the data of an area which makes hundreds of thousands of dollars on average and easily forget about those who don’t meet that threshold who still live or work in that area. Indian Hill in Cincinnati is a very wealthy village, but how can people living below the poverty line get around in that area if one lacks a car? With few paths, biking lanes, or public transportation options, mobility in an area like this is a monumentally difficult task without a vehicle, which is why it’s important to consider the needs of the few, just as much as the needs of the many.
In order for there to be the mere potential of changing how Northern Kentuckians get around, it starts with making alternative transportation options more convenient and safer. An ideal solution would be implementing more sidewalks and multi-use pathways for cyclists and pedestrians to use, keeping them off the sides of our many busy pikes, reducing the risk of being struck by a motor vehicle as a result. These paths would have to go from residential areas to places of interest, such as schools, shopping areas, healthcare centers, and places of employment. This infrastructure costs money, as do roads and bridges. The difference being governments are more comfortable with spending much more on car-based infrastructure compared to bike or walking infrastructure as a majority of Northern Kentuckians use cars to get to where they need to be.
A survey from a recent Boone County transportation study found 98% of those surveyed used a car as their most frequent “transportation mode” (https://yourvoice.boonecountyky.org/k84461). It’s that demand for travel by car that has local news outlets and governments focusing on the car-focused projects like the new Brent Spence companion bridge while neglecting any new pedestrian or cyclist infrastructure. It may have been thanks to the 20th century concept of the American suburbia that our “car culture” came to be, where people moved away from the mentioned “alternative” means of travel as was the norm in the pre-vehicle inner city days.
Investing in car infrastructure is less of a gamble than pedestrian or cyclist infrastructure because of this majority mindset. There’s no guarantee people would utilize paths that often, even if they ended up being convenient simply because of our dependence on the car. Spending $3.6 billion for the entire Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project makes sense then, as the region is heavily car-centric. Over 160,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day, proving our regional and national dependence on the personal vehicle. How many people walk and bike on our region’s busiest sidewalks for comparison? The demand may be significantly lower, but the costs to build paths are much less than roads, and it’s an option that must be taken more seriously by our local governments and organizations.
A study by Tri-State Trails found that new trails in our region have the potential of generating new revenue sources from increased tourism, connecting neighborhoods divided by overly car-friendly roads and highways, improving air quality by reducing car emissions, and decreasing obesity and other disease rates, benefiting public health as a result (https://tristatetrails.org/nky-regional-trails-plan/#plan-objectives-project-benefits). Another factor to consider why our region may be so car-centric is the weather. For many, it’s probably less pleasant to walk or bike in a 20 degree snowstorm versus 70 degrees with sunny skies. Unlike Los Angeles or other coastal cities, the weather in Cincinnati isn’t pleasant year-round. Why would people risk illness or injury to help the environment or save a few dollars by not pumping up on fuel or paying for parking? This could be another reason why most Northern Kentuckians likely prefer the car, especially around this time of year.
Paths remain important for people without a vehicle, for those who wish to make a positive environmental impact, or for folks wanting to stay healthy by using their legs to get around, not for sitting down behind the wheel. I prefer to walk to my nearest bus stop and take the bus to avoid paying for parking passes and gas, which are some of the downsides of using a car to get around everywhere. In some places near my home, there’s no sidewalks, and those lack of sidewalks led me to getting hurt once from a bad slip on the muddy grass as I was running home in a thunderstorm. It’s likely I wouldn’t have had such an accident if there were more pedestrian-friendly facilities near where I live.
An increase in public transit options such as buses is another way people can challenge Northern Kentucky’s car-centric attitudes while also reducing our carbon footprint impacts. Out of the almost 300 people polled by Boone County’s government on which mode of transport they most often used, nobody selected public transit as their primary means of getting around. 15% noted they “rarely” used public transit, while 83% said they never do (https://yourvoice.boonecountyky.org/k84461). Many of the bus routes that do exist are infrequent and arrive once an hour, adding an extra layer of inconvenience to those wishing or needing to take the bus. Cutting TANK routes in areas where there is a need for alternative transportation options makes the region more dependent on the car, when there should be a desire by local governments to move away from the personal steering wheel by providing additional funding to organizations like TANK to improve frequency and expand service to towns like Union, Burlington, Independence, and other Northern Kentucky places lacking convenient public transport service.
Improving accessibility to public transit can make more people comfortable with choosing to ride the bus. Many bus stops in Northern Kentucky lack the basic facilities many would likely expect while waiting for the bus, such as a bench or shelter to wait under during inclement weather. These amenities don’t exist outside of some bus stops which see a lot of people boarding and exiting at that stop. Some bus stops can pose a genuine risk for people waiting at them, an example being a bus stop on the corner of Alexandria Pike and Low Gap Road for TANK’s route 25. At this stop, the bus sign is bolted to a stop sign next to a busy highway with no sidewalks or benches to wait on. People wanting to board the bus at this stop either have to sit on the highway guard rail, which can be uncomfortable, or stand on the service lane, which poses the risk of being hit by a car.
How can these alternative transit options be improved in Northern Kentucky? It starts by word of mouth. Asking your friends, family, and neighbors to consider other ways of getting to where they need to go is a good way to convince people to start walking, biking, or taking the bus more often. Having people realize the economic benefits to alternative transport through saving money is so important in a time of financial uncertainty for many. We can’t and shouldn’t expect people to completely change their outlook on getting around, but we should have them ponder why stepping away from the car can be a good thing. We do not want people to walk 10 miles to go to work downtown, but walking 10 minutes to the store to help save fuel, money, and the environment may be something to think about for the small cost of a few extra minutes to get there. The positives far outweigh the negatives, especially in terms of one’s own health and our environment as a whole, even if that is minimal in the grand scheme of things. Just getting one person to change their attitudes can get others to follow suit, especially if they find it beneficial.
If we want to make things easier and safer for our cyclist and pedestrian friends, reaching out to local government officials to express the importance of our cities not being so heavily reliant on the automobile may have them realize the other ways of spending our taxpayer dollars for transportation purposes, especially if enough people begin reaching out. Engaging in activism is another way of seeking a positive change in traversing the region. If there’s an area in your neighborhood that deserves more care for pedestrians and cyclists, starting a petition to see change and having residents sign it can have our cities think twice about just focusing on cars, and allow residents and visitors to enjoy other ways of getting around town. Perhaps writing an opinion piece in a local newspaper can get people talking!
I believe the overwhelming use of cars in our region isn’t because people don’t want to walk, or bike, or ride the bus, but rather it’s the only realistic option for many based on where we live and where we need to commute to. Our main roads are often very wide and allow for fast and unrestricted travel between places by car. You’re more likely to see people walking down the sidewalks of Fort Mitchell along Dixie Highway where the speed limits are lower and traffic is more dense, making it generally safer for pedestrians and cyclists, versus the speedway that is Burlington Pike, where few paths and large driving lanes encourage drivers to put the pedal to the metal, giving pedestrians unneeded stress. Perhaps more of our neighbors would be less likely to get behind the wheel and consider other means of getting around if our roads were narrower or slower to support safer travel for those biking or walking.
Whether or not they’re often used, building new paths at least gives people another option and may help “fix” our car-centric behavior. We can’t expect many people to walk or bike down the side of our busy pikes if the alternative travel infrastructure isn’t present to begin with, that’s a suicide mission for many. Where there are paths, many people may utilize them solely for getting their steps in, but what if we had that same mentality for getting to the closest bus stop if it’s a short distance?
Northern Kentucky will never turn into a little Amsterdam, where cycling and walking is king, but the small investments we make today towards new and improved bike and walking paths can lead to major impacts down the road and may have people think twice about putting the key into ignition and consider the friendlier options of getting from point A to B, for themselves and the world around us.