Youngstown could blaze trail in Ohio smart transportation

October 3, 2018 at 12:10a.m.

By JUSTIN DENNIS

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown was chosen as one of 10 pilot project sites in Ohio expected to blaze a new trail in smart transportation development across the state.

Area leaders said the favor of Gov. John Kasich’s DriveOhio initiative, created in January, could offer the extra leverage needed to secure $10.8 million in federal transportation development funds for an autonomous shuttle corridor connecting “anchor institutions” such as Youngstown State University, Mercy Health and Youngstown Business Incubator plus other street enhancements.

“They thought we really fit the blueprint of what they’re looking for – a tight urban core with a loop around the university to the hospital,” said James Kinnick, executive director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, which submitted the $10.8 million BUILD grant proposal in July.

BUILD awardees will be announced in four to six weeks, he said.

He and others, including Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber President James Dignan, YSU President Jim Tressel, met with federal lawmakers in Washington, D.C., late last week to champion the city’s application. It’s the third time the city has sought the money, but the first with the DriveOhio designation, Brown said.

“We needed to be more innovative,” he said.

The application describes $26.2 million in transportation improvements to downtown, including the self-driving shuttle circulator along Fifth and Rayen avenues – which would run along a widened Fifth Avenue, cut down to three lanes to make way for a designated shuttle lane – and improvements to portions of Commerce, Federal, Front and Phelps streets, as well as Park Avenue. Project partners have contributed $10 million in in-kind donations, Kinnick said.

YSU spokesman Ron Cole said Tuesday that improvements to Fifth – a main corridor through campus, would complement the university, which is seeing more students living on campus. The improvements would be similar to Wick Avenue’s, which made the road “much safer, more attractive and more conducive to a university environment,” he said.