This story was written by Leo Thamann
Despite a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) lawsuit pending against the project, officials have officially “broken ground” on the Brent Spence companion bridge and highway expansion. This is a devastating betrayal of not only local transit agencies, but also NKY and West End residents who will be affected by this. This is not what Greater Cincinnati needs and will not ultimately fix our traffic problem.
There are ways to fix our bridge problem that will be less costly and much more beneficial to Greater Cincinnati residents. The most obvious is that we have better ways of solving traffic. Brent Spence was never made to carry the multitude of Semi-Trucks that it does today. It was only ever designed to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day, and yet as early as 2006, it carried over 150,000. One simple fix to this problem is to simply route all trucks not doing business in Covington or Cincinnati through I-275. In fact, this was already the rule up until 1995. This one simple change would immediately alleviate a large portion of the heavy traffic we currently see bogging the bridge down. Another way to solve traffic would be to invest in non-car-dependent modes of transportation. TANK and Metro are already lacking proper funding as we speak. Imagine if we invested in making these buses faster, on time, and accessible. By just getting a few people out of cars and onto buses, our lanes wouldn’t be so clogged. If we instead invested in updating pedestrian and bike infrastructure, we would see less cars. The solution to traffic isn’t more lanes, its getting people out of the lanes that are already clogged. Increasing car-dependency is not the way to go about this.
The other, more important, reason is the damage to residents. This project’s cost has ballooned to over 4 billion dollars, only 1.3 of which were funded by Biden’s DOT. Where is the other ~3 billion coming from? Most likely, straight out of our incomes. The remaining 3 billion would create a tax burden on a region that is already fed up with high tax rates and doesn’t want to see more taken from their take-home pay. Another financial blunder will be the detrimental effect the lane and ramp closures will have on small businesses in Covington. Many people will simply stop going to restaurants that require fighting traffic to get to. Not only that, but the noise and air pollution from the highway will end up affecting residents of multiple Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky cities and neighborhoods. These cities will be hit with new waves of air pollution clogging their lungs and cars droning in the background. In neighborhoods with already lower-than-average life expectancies due to pollution, poverty and crime, do we really want more years taken from our lives? The pollution doesn’t just stop at affecting people though. Acres of wetlands, greenery and public spaces are slated to be destroyed for this project. Already were seeing historic buildings like Longworth Hall be sectioned off for demolition due to construction. Bike lanes, parks and walking paths are being closed off, with no real promise of re-opening.
This doesn’t need to happen. This future doesn’t have to become reality. We were once a beacon of transit-oriented development, and we can be again. Even as early as just two generations ago, streetcars and sidewalks outnumbered cars in the area. We almost even had a subway, and not just in the 1920s either (anyone still mad over MetroMoves?). Like I said earlier, the path towards alleviating traffic is not marked with expanding lanes and endless highways. It isn’t marked by tax hikes or air pollution. It’s done by investing in what the people what, sustainable transit. Imagine if those 3 billion dollars were used to make our busses fast, reliable and cheap. Imagine if all those semis were instead routed through I-275 instead of slowing down the Cut in the Hill. The reality would be a Greater Cincinnati that isn’t so slow and car-dependent. A Greater Cincinnati known for it’s food and vibrant culture, not it’s depressing Midwest traffic. It’s possible and we can make it happen. Talk to your neighbors, representatives and community leaders. Tell them what you really want. Because do we really want ten years of construction headaches and twelve lanes of ugly concrete?