Could Greater Cincinnati get a new bridge to reach Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport?
Or maybe a dedicated bus route?
Or perhaps driverless cars?
Those are among the early options being talked about as a new study about transportation options to CVG kicks off.
"We are aware there may be many, integrated solutions, and we will investigate their impacts, costs and viability in our region,” said Mark Policinski, CEO of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments,the agency spearheading the study.
The study will look at a range of possible "mobility solutions," he said via a spokesperson.
$350K study will identify travel options
OKI will spend $350,000 to bring on a contractor to complete what it is calling the CVG Regional Workforce Mobility Study, according to an
OKI budget document.
The study will identify options for getting to the airport more quickly and their costs, OKI said.
Options are needed to support coming job growth around the airport, according to OKI. The airport's campus now employs about 16,000 people, and anticipates up to 25,000 in the next 10 to 15 years. Booming freight business at adjacent businesses – Amazon Air, DHL Express and Fed-Ex among them – is creating jobs, too.
"This study will closely examine future travel demands because of this anticipated growth in jobs and activity at CVG," OKI's call for contractors said.
"The CVG workforce is drawn from across this region and beyond," added Policinski. Mobility, he said, impacts the airport's ability to attract workers.
Jeffreys passionate about bus option
Cincinnati City Council member Mark Jeffreys, a vice president on the OKI Board of Directors for nearly five years, said he began talking about travel to CVG with area transportation officials on both sides of the Ohio River a few years ago.
That conversation led to OKI taking on and funding the study.
Jeffreys said he is "particularly passionate" about dedicated bus service to the airport. He'd like it to be the next "bus rapid transit" route for Metro. The Cincinnati transit agency is launching two such routes – which reduce travel time with dedicated lanes and fewer stops – by 2028 and considering two more after that.
"We need to start thinking about what's next," Jeffreys said.
The possibility of a West Side bridge over the Ohio has also been raised in early conversations, Jeffreys said. That would divert traffic from the new bridge now under construction west of the Brent Spence Bridge, designed to carry Interstate 71/75 traffic between Ohio and Kentucky.
Waymo is getting a little attention, too, Jeffreys said. The self-driving taxi service is mapping downtown Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, the company reported earlier this month.
Roundtrip bus ride from Price Hill to CVG? Two-and-a-half hours
The call for contractor bids does not mention a bus, a bridge or a driverless car as options for reducing travel time to CVG.
Instead, it asks whoever is hired to come up with that list.
But the document does note that CVG employees currently have limited ways to ride a bus to the airport.
In fact, the Airporter Express, operated by the Transit Agency of Northern Kentucky, is the only bus service to CVG.
On the Ohio side of the river, riders catch that in downtown Cincinnati. CVG employees from Price Hill, as one example, ride a Cincinnati Metro bus downtown then transfer to TANK, with a round trip taking about two and half hours.
TANK 'excited' to be part of the process
Improving travel to CVG is not a new topic for TANK.
"Over time, people have raised ideas, questions and thoughts about what is possible," General Manager Gina Douthat said via email.
At present, TANK has "no active or established plans for additional transit to CVG," she said.
But she said her agency is excited to be part of the process to determine travel options to the airport. "The CVG campus is clearly a critical job hub," she said.
Metro did not respond to a request for comment about travel to the airport.
As for a bridge, neither Kentucky or Ohio has anything on the books.
In Kentucky, counties and OKI can ask to add projects to the Transportation Cabinet's rolling six-year highway plan.
Any "hypothetical bridge" would likely require federal dollars and cooperation with the Ohio Department of Transportation, KYTC spokesperson Jake Ryle said.
Ohio transportation's position? "What Jake said," spokesman Matt Bruning said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New bridge? Driverless cars? Study to look at how to get to CVG faster
