By Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – The Ohio House approved the two-year, $7.8 billion transportation budget Wednesday that includes a proposed variable speed limit on I-670 and new fees for drivers.
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The transportation budget, which now goes to the Senate, would increase the deputy registrar fee from $3.50 to $5.25, and allow county commissioners to levy a $5 vehicle license fee to generate infrastructure revenue. The registrar fee has not increased since 2004.
Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Cincinnati, argued that a $5 fee increase should be implemented only by a countywide vote, rather than allowing county commissioners to approve it.
Her proposal was defeated after Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, argued that the fee increase must have two public hearings, public notice, and is subject to referendum. Commissioners also have the option of putting it on the ballot, he said, while also deciding to sing the Subway $5 foot-long jingle.
“You want us to have a $5 vote on a sub sandwich?” Seitz asked. “I can’t imagine anything more preposterous than that.”
Other major provisions of the bill (HB 26) include:
Permitting an unattended vehicle to be running if locked or parked on residential property
Making the failure to display a front license plate a secondary offense if the car is legally parked
Increasing the earmark for Transportation Improvement Districts currently in the bill to $4.5 million per year from $3.5 million
Establishes a Division of Freight within the Department of Transportation.
Increases an earmark for Transportation Improvement Districts from $3.5 million per year to $4.5 million
Establishes a two-year pilot program in Clinton, Lucas, Montgomery and Stark counties to reduce commercial vehicle registrations from $30 to $15 and requires the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to study the effect of lowering commercial trailer fees.
Allowing the operator of a watercraft to monitor skiers with a mirror and eliminates the requirement that another person is in the watercraft to monitor the skier
The bill also includes a Kasich administration proposal to use I-670 to test a variable speed limit system designed to reduce speeds, sometimes by the hour, during times with the heaviest congestion as a way to reduce the braking and jockeying that slows down traffic.
The proposal also would open the shoulder lane of I-670 during certain times to further alleviate traffic. Currently, only COTA buses are permitted to use the freeway’s left shoulder between Downtown and I-270 during heavy traffic.
The bill, which was approved by an 83-13 vote, authorizes the Department of Transportation to also establish variable speed limits on U.S. Route 33 between Dublin and Marysville and on I-90 near Cleveland.
Various projects are in the works that would expand the use on technology on roadways. Route 33 has been dubbed a “Smart Mobility Corridor,” a 35-mile stretch designed to foster real-world research into autonomous and connected vehicles.