GOPC wrapped up the 2017 Ohio Transportation Academy with its partner Transportation for America last month in Cleveland.

The Academy provided practitioners throughout Ohio working in public, private, and nonprofit sectors with tools for developing 21st century transportation systems. Representatives from Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Delaware, Lorain, and Toledo came together for three workshops that allowed them to learn from experts in the field and to collaborate in creating local transportation action plans.

A primary topic explored during the Academy was proven strategies for building local coalitions to successfully guide a transportation campaign. Leaders from Indianapolis discussed an initiative called IndyConnect, which culminated in a successful ballot initiative to bolster multimodal transportation in the city. The Academy also learned from speakers from Pittsburgh who discussed ongoing efforts to form a multi-sector coalition of leaders from around the Pittsburgh region to tackle longstanding mobility issues, while the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) offered insight on the process of redesigning their transit network.  Read more about workshops 1, 2, and 3 here.

GOPC congratulates all participants for completing the Academy. This Academy lays the groundwork for demonstrating to state policymakers that local leaders are seriously investigating ways to locally support transit, and that Ohio's public transportation systems still require state support.