Joe Rinzel: Ohio is Leading Transportation Innovation

By this time next year, hundreds of Ohio government vehicles will be wirelessly communicating data to devices installed along a span from Columbus to East Liberty that could eventually be the nation’s longest driverless-car-ready stretch of highway. The corridor marks the latest in a series of forward-thinking initiatives that are inspiring innovation and drawing private investment to Ohio while providing a roadmap for how other states can embrace technologies that can have enormous benefits for residents, businesses, and economies.

In recent months, workers have been transforming the quiet stretch of Route 33 into a model for autonomous-vehicle innovation. Fiber-optic cables will turn the 35-mile stretch of highway into the Smart Mobility Corridor and position the state as a national leader in driverless-car implementation.

It’s the latest example of how Ohio has pushed the envelope of automotive innovation for decades. In 1974, the state opened the Transportation Research Center (TRC) as the nation’s largest independent automotive proving ground, drawing millions of dollars in outside investment. Many of the innovations in our cars today were developed and tested in Central Ohio, and as the country prepares for the next wave of automotive technology, Ohio policymakers on the local and state levels are once again acting to ensure the state’s leadership in the 21st-century economy.

In 2016, for instance, the City of Columbus won a $50 million federal grant to turn the city into a testing ground for transportation technology. At the state level, Governor Kasich’s most recent budget proposal provides funding for two new smart-highway projects along I-90 and I-270, as well as $12.5 million to update the TRC.

With these investments, policymakers are signaling that the state is ready to shape the innovation economy of the future — and the private sector has taken notice. With the help of pledges from private-sector partners, the City of Columbus will match its Smart City Grant with an additional $360 million investment. Honda announced earlier this year that it will invest $124 million to build a high-tech wind tunnel at the TRC, and Ohio State University will invest an additional $25 million in upgrades at the facility.

The benefits of these investments will be felt far beyond the state’s transportation system. The fiber-optic cables powering the Smart Mobility Corridor will also carry faster internet service to towns along Route 33. California-based Peloton Technology announced earlier this year its plan to use existing smart-highway technology along the Ohio Turnpike to roll out its “platooning” technology. Platooning involves the use of vehicle-communication technology to create pairs of semi-autonomous commercial trucks that can travel closer together, reducing fuel burn, cutting costs and making the shipping industry more efficient.

Ohio’s policymakers are also thinking beyond the state’s borders. Earlier this year, Ohio worked with Pennsylvania and Michigan to form the Smart Belt Coalition, which will establish standards to protect consumers while ensuring the region stays competitive in the industry. Peloton will also work with the coalition to create a multistate platooning effort and enhance interstate commerce.

At the national level, the TRC is home to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s only research and test laboratory, where the guidelines for automakers wishing to bring self-driving cars to market were developed. As more companies look to develop their own self-driving cars, officials hope they will pay to test their vehicles on the exact roads where those standards were developed.

In major cities like San Francisco and Chicago, policymakers have proposed completely banning innovations such as driverless cars and delivery drones, citing concerns about consumer safety. But Ohio’s approach toward engaging private businesses, universities and policymakers at all levels shows that ensuring public safety does not have to mean banning innovation altogether; in fact, Ohio is showing how these technologies can include robust safeguards and benefits for local communities. Ohio continues to stand out as a national leader in this effort, and policymakers elsewhere would be wise to follow suit.

Joe Rinzel is a spokesperson for Americans for a Modern Economy, a consumer advocacy group focused on modernizing antiquated regulations and laws governing the U.S. economy.