Benefits of the Multi-Modal Plan
Benefits of the Multi-Modal Plan
The Eastern Corridor project provides tangible transportation benefits to the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Safer and more efficient travel connections will be established, including non-car options. As a result, more than 50 million vehicle miles of travel are expected to be eliminated from the region’s highway network each year, with accompanying fuel and air emissions savings. Transit use is expected to increase over existing conditions to nearly 5% of all peak period travel within the Eastern Corridor. More effective roadway connections will reduce circumferential travel in the region. Congestion will be reduced during critical morning and evening peak periods, and travelers will experience a reduction in delays of nearly 4 million hours annually. Total travel time in the corridor and region will be reduced by 5½ million hours each year. The transportation benefits from the Eastern Corridor have been calculated to have a present value of more than $2.8 billion, excluding any direct economic benefits to existing or future businesses due to improved access. This is about twice the present cost of building, operating and maintaining the multi-modal project, at about $1.4 billion.
In addition to basic transportation benefits, the Eastern Corridor is expected to generate benefits from economic development and community reinvestment. In consideration of market factors, mobility requirements, land capability and environmental constraints, an economic analysis conducted in Tier 1 found that the Eastern Corridor investments would result in a net total increase of $23 billion to the gross regional product over the life of the project, including substantial increases in jobs and population for the urbanized parts of the metropolitan area.
Eastern Corridor Benefit-Cost Summary
The Eastern Corridor will more effectively link communities to employment areas as well as key attractions along the Cincinnati riverfront, including the new Banks development. The plan incorporates intermodal transfer stations, transit hubs located in key density areas, the use of parallel corridors for multiple modes (such as highway, rail transit and bikeways) and the use of existing transportation corridors as much as possible. Under the Eastern Corridor plan, effective roadway links will improve the efficiency of bus routes and deliver transit riders to park-and-ride areas. When coupled with bike-friendly buses and rail vehicles, bikeways can extend the non-car “reach” of transit stops, hubs, and stations into local neighborhoods and destinations.
