ThisWeek UA 12/1/2010
Something I really enjoy about our community is the passion of the residents. Recently, that passion helped lead to the closing of the Onyx nightclub after a shooting occurred; another example of this passion is all of the signs popping up near Zollinger Road asking the city to stop the A-Z (Ackerman to Zollinger) connector.
Over the years, I’ve often found myself traveling past North Star and Zollinger, and I always thought it was interesting that there is the stub of a connector there but that it doesn’t flow all the way through. Since I don’t live directly in the path of this connector I never thought much about how the lives of those residents might change if that connection were ever completed.
Thanks to the passion of the residents, now I feel like I can empathize with their concerns that completing this connector will negatively impact their neighborhood and could be a danger to our school kids. Owning a home on Fishinger Road, I can tell you that disregard for speed limits and residents are real problems. Combine that with a lack of pedestrian infrastructure and my street can be downright scary some days. Thankfully, our police do a good job patrolling the area with the red and blues often illuminating my living room as they apprehend yet another speeder.
When these impassioned residents talk about the A-Z connector the first thing that logically comes to mind is a four-lane road, like how Zollinger currently exists, except stripped of on-street parking and almost certainly with a 35-mph speed limit (which experience suggests means traffic will flow closer to 40-mph or higher). Take a drive on Fishinger Road if you don’t buy into that statement and you’ll see my point.
A majority of our current leaders sadly don’t see this style of infrastructure development as much of a problem. Because they don’t feel it is appropriate to invest in pedestrian-oriented infrastructure, it only makes sense that the residents have this four-lane speedway idea as the future of Zollinger Road.
Unfortunately, getting buy-in on long-view infrastructure built around modern, pedestrian friendly transportation standards such as Complete Streets is difficult. This majority of leadership claims what I am suggesting as an alternative is too costly to the tax payer and that instead everyone should just use their cars. Given this perspective I have to side with the residents looking to stop the building of this road – another 4 lane “superhighway” through UA is ultimately bad for both the Zollinger neighborhood and our community at large.
Instead of looking to just stop the road though, I challenge you to think of how the A-Z connector could be a positive and welcome investment in our community. In my mind, I can envision how, if designed properly, this connector can be an evolutionary step from the 1900s style bedroom community we began as to the 2000s style bedroom community we could become – and I believe our ability to compete with other communities demands this.
Currently our interior east/west arterial roads are designed in a very traditional way that focuses more on passing people through Upper Arlington, not as an invitation for them to stay. Even Lane Avenue is poorly designed in terms of welcoming people to the shops – it is as if the businesses are at odds with the road. Under debate now, though, is the missing east/west connection of Zollinger Road because of how it directly connects North Campus, state Route 315, Upper Arlington High School, Kingsdale and tangently the Northam Park facilities and Tremont Shopping Center.
Imagine, if you will, adding this third east/west artery through UA. But instead of focusing it on being a pass through for cars, let’s think about it as a red carpet for pedestrians; the transportation equivalent of the welcome mat at your – or your business’ – front door. By building the road with an emphasis on pedestrian (both walking and cycling) infrastructure and maintaining a single lane of traffic in each direction, you take some strain off of Fishinger and Lane, allowing a similar “road diet” to be implemented on those arteries. Now, instead of two relatively high-speed pass-through roads you would have three lower-speed pedestrian forward connectors.
These slower-paced transportation solutions provide several benefits. First and foremost, they protect the neighborhood that they are implemented in. Slower speeds mean fewer accidents. Pedestrian-friendly infrastructure has been shown to increase property values in part by making available the healthier lifestyle and connected community feel many people are seeking. Another benefit is in how the very intention of our infrastructure can state to visitors that this is a community to live in, not just pass through, and ultimately, the slower connectors invite them to take in the surroundings and stay. Finally, related to that last point is that businesses along Lane Avenue have already been discussing how to implement this “road diet”. They understand that this type of infrastructure is conducive to bringing in even more business – slower traffic makes people more willing to stop, get out of their vehicles and spend money in Upper Arlington. A stumbling block however is in dealing with the diversion of volume – three low-speed connecters solves this.
Of course, business is currently being made to play the part of the villain in this epic struggle of neighborhood versus connected developer. If we choose to look for innovative solutions we could change that dynamic and have a partner in this development instead of an adversary. To this end, the reality is that Kingsdale only has a life span of about 10 years as a strip mall. I’m sure that no one is looking forward to the day that Kingsdale has once again lost its shine. So let’s not wait for that to happen, let’s start planning today and our choices about infrastructure can positively impact the future of what is essentially the center of our city.
I believe I understand the fear associated with this A-Z connector, and I think it is well founded given the past and present resistance to building thoughtful infrastructure in our community. And maybe our current leaders are right, maybe we as a community don’t have the stomach to pay for infrastructure that takes the long view – if we don’t, then I agree that the A-Z connector should be stopped. For me, however, I hope I have inspired our community just a little to consider the greater possibilities for everyone if we choose to take the bold step of envisioning something beyond the status quo. I know our future community will be better for it.