Northeast Ohio Long-Term Planning Aims to Reverse Legacy of Car-Centric Planning

The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) will begin a new long-term planning process. Early indications are that the new plan will focus on providing transportation options to low-income people with no access to cars.

1 minute read

April 9, 2016, 11:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


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Henryk Sadura / Shutterstock

Steven Litt reports: "Northeast Ohio's top transportation planning agency is preparing a new, 20-year vision for the region that will focus on improving social equity, particularly for households without cars."

According to Litt, "the new long-range plan of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency will address the reality that transportation spending in recent decades, mainly on suburban highways, has privileged the automobile over mass transit and other modes of getting around."

Litt quotes Grace Gallucci, NOACA's executive director, in the article. Gallucci describes the negative externalities and unintended consequences of a legacy of sprawling development—and the transportation planning decisions that enabled them. NOACA's rhetoric, when considering along the Vibrant NEO plan, which won the Daniel Burnham Award from the APA in 2015, indicates a new era for planning in Northeast Ohio.

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