The City of Centerville and Washington Township know that you are tired of sitting in long lines of traffic congestion in this community and they are working to fix that. Create the Vision contains 25 strategies in its most challenging goal to implement: Transportation.

Create the Vision is the guiding policy document for all land use and development decisions being made in our community. It is a long-range, 20-year plan that is just two years into its implementation.

Create the Vision’s goal for transportation is: To obtain mobility choices that meet the diverse needs of the community – including more walkways, expanded bike/walking trails, and a safe, improved and less congested road and public transportation network that is more efficient and attractive.

In my last column in this newspaper, I wrote about the progress Centerville and Washington Township have made in implementing the trails and bikeways portion of Create the Vision. The work to improve roadways and relieve congestion takes much longer and costs more money. In addition, it proves to be more complicated because responsibility for roads in this community rests with several units of government.

The City of Centerville has responsibility for all roads within its jurisdiction which includes state and county roads within its boundaries but excludes the interstate freeway. Montgomery County has jurisdiction over county roads and bridges in Washington Township. The State of Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has jurisdiction over the interstate route in the community, I-675, and state highways - SR 48 and SR 725 outside of Centerville limits. Washington Township oversees township roads not designated as county routes. The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission is designated as the Metropolitan Planning Organization by the State of Ohio, responsible for transportation planning in Montgomery County. And, the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority provides a broad-based public transit system with transit and route planning for the Miami Valley.

Getting these six entities together to work on roads and transit projects proves to be challenging, but Create the Vision is helping to bring these groups together. One of the biggest successes is the joint parking lot built by the City of Centerville and Washington Township to accommodate Town Hall Theatre patrons and customers of Panera Bread that satisfies one of the objectives in Create the Vision which is – Improve parking utilization throughout the community.

Another objective successfully being implemented is - Reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. Examples can be seen all around this community, such as the intersection at Clyo Road and Centerville Station Road, which is being widened to accommodate new turn lanes with improved turn signaling. A new traffic signal and turn lanes have been installed at Normandy Lane and Spring Valley Road. A new traffic signal is planned for the intersection of Spring Valley and Atchison roads. The west side of Wilmington Pike is slated for widening from I-675 to Clyo Road in front of the new Miami Valley Hospital campus. And, Paragon Road south of Spring Valley will be widened and reconfigured to remove a dangerous double curve on this stretch of roadway.

An intersection upgrade project at the congested corner of SR 48 and SR 725 will widen all four approaches and add dual left turn lanes to reduce congestion and increase safety. This will also reduce emissions and air pollution. Next to this intersection is the I-675 freeway overpass that is scheduled for a major Gateway Enhancement project. Originally there had been plans to include sidewalks with that project which I described in my last column. However, I stand corrected and have been notified that sidewalks will no longer be part of that project due to the ODOT requirement to install concrete barriers between streets and sidewalks along that bridge.

There will always be a conflict between improving traffic flow and increasing safety for pedestrians, as both cannot be simultaneously implemented in the same place easily, as the improvement of one usually hinders the other. That is why you’ll never see a sidewalk along an interstate.

Centerville and Washington Township both know that transportation is one of the most important elements in determining the quality of life in a community. And where a transportation improvement can be made, the city and township are striving for that through Create the Vision.

Thank you for joining me this month in the Create the Vision column. I am the Project Manager for Create the Vision and if you missed last month’s column, you may read it on our website at www.createthevision.org.