Lies.

“It’s not so much about the measurement being wrong, it’s that the whole underlying thesis is wrong”
-- University of Connecticut professor Norman Garrick

Travel Demand Modeling (TDM) for the Ohio River Bridges Project? It was just another example of pseudoscience.

A Twitter denizen named Nolan Gray, who describes himself as a "once and future city planner" offered a valuable link, introducing it with this:

Most city planning and civil engineering heuristics and models—trip generation, floor area ratios, street widths, farm-near-me/">minimum parking requirements, among dozens of others—are legally-mandated bits of pseudoscience.

And our own ORBP? It's one of the single most shining, flagrant examples of the perpetual con game.

Although there are many reasons the Ohio River Bridges Project was a total urban planning debacle, one that has not gotten much attention is the role travel demand models played in putting lipstick on the $2.5 billion pig. One potential reason for that is because those who work in the field have come to expect nothing less.

A long read and a necessary read.

The Broken Algorithm That Poisoned American Transportation, by Aaron Gordon (Vice)

For the last 70 years, American transportation planners have been using the same model to decide what to build. There’s just one problem: it’s often wrong.

In November 2011, the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project published a 595-page document that was supposed to finally end a decades-long battle over a highway. The project was a controversial one, to say the least.

At a time when many cities around the country were re-evaluating whether urban highways had a place in their downtowns, Louisville was doubling down. It not only wanted to keep the infamous “Spaghetti junction” where Interstates 64, 65, and 71 meet in a tangled interchange, but it wanted to build more on top of it. In addition, the political alliance behind the project aimed to expand the I-64 crossing to double the lane capacity, as well as build a whole new bridge just down the river—doubling the number of lanes that crossed the river from six to 12—all for a tidy $2.5 billion.

But in order to get approval to use federal funds for this expensive proposition, the project backers had to provide evidence that Louisville actually needed this expansion. Using a legally-mandated industry practice called Travel Demand Modeling (TDM), the project backers hired an engineering firm to predict what traffic will look like 20 years in the future, in this case, by 2030. They concluded that the number of cross-river trips would increase by 29 percent. The implication was obvious: if they did nothing, traffic would get worse. As a result, the project got federal approval and moved ahead.

Two subsequent studies, however, also funded by the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project, came to a very different conclusion.

Two years later, engineering firm CDM Smith looked at what traffic conditions actually had been while the project was seeking approval. It found that from 2010 to 2013, cross-river traffic had actually fallen by .9 percent.

The other study, this one for potential bond-holders, was far more puzzling. It concluded that by 2030, the combined cross-river traffic would be just 132,000 trips, some 15 percent lower than the SDEIS had predicted. Even worse, according to this new study, the combined 12 lanes of river crossings would carry some 4,000 fewer daily trips than just the I-65 bridge did in 2007 alone, completely underfarm-near-me/">mining the argument that Louisville needed these new bridges.

Aaron Renn, an urban policy researcher and frequent critic of the Ohio River Bridges project, extensively documented these shenanigans. “No matter how crazy this project is,” he wrote back in 2013 when that bond-holder study came out, “it always manages to find ways to show that it’s even more wacky than I thought.”

The project is now finished, and everyone in Louisville can see for themselves which prediction was the better one. In 2018, a post-construction traffic study showed that cross-river trips decreased by 2 percent from 2013 to 2018. As a result, the project has been called by Vox, among others, a “boondoggle” of epic proportions.

The Louisville highway project is hardly the first time travel demand models have missed the mark. Despite them being a legally required portion of any transportation infrastructure project that gets federal dollars, it is one of urban planning’s worst kept secrets that these models are error-prone at best and fundamentally flawed at worst.

Recently, I asked Renn how important those initial, rosy traffic forecasts of double-digit growth were to the boondoggle actually getting built.

“I think it was very important,” Renn said. “Because I don’t believe they could have gotten approval to build the project if they had not had traffic forecasts that said traffic across the river is going to increase substantially. If there isn’t going to be an increase in traffic, how do you justify building two bridges? ...”

Jumping to the conclusion, as a rather painful reminder of every meeting I ever attended where the carefully structured "models" were cloaked with unimpeachable "science," having the effect of reducing rock-headed elected officials to tears of joy at the thought of their own self-deception.

Perhaps the most useful thing the model does is obscure that debate behind a veil of scientific certainty. Behind hard, solid numbers. “From the standpoint of a citizen, these numbers essentially come out of a black box,” he said. “You don’t have any idea how they generated these numbers, so you can’t begin to critique them.”

In other words, the model shuts people up. It may not be honest, but in the world of transportation politics, there’s nothing more valuable than that.

The Urbanophile nails it: "Louisville Bridges Project Is the Biggest Transportation Boondoggle of the 21st Century."

Go there and read all about it. The Urbanophile is remorseless.

I differ with only one point.

By rights I should be writing this for a major national publication instead of putting it on my personal web site. But I love Louisville and Southern Indiana (my hometown) and don’t want to create negative press for them. I just want it known for the record that this did not have to happen.

Without negative press -- without floggings, scourging and negative feedback in every known public configuration, right here in Louisville and all across America -- these imbeciles will do something just as stupid, yet again.

Louisville Bridges Project Is the Biggest Transportation Boondoggle of the 21st Century, by Aaron M. Renn (Urbanophile)

I have been a steadfast critic of the project to build two new bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville for over a decade. In fact, my first critical post on the bridges proposal was put up in 2007 less than six months after starting my original Urbanophile blog.

The end result was even worse than I anticipated. The project has proven to be a money waster of the highest order, and in fact by far the biggest American transportation boondoggle I can identify in the 21st century so far.

Part of the agreement between Indiana and Kentucky to build the bridges was that they would do official before and after surveys of traffic to determine the impact of the new bridges on traffic flow. The study was published in August of this year.

The result? The two states spent $1.3 billion dollars to build a parallel I-65 span in downtown Louisville that doubled the capacity of that crossing. After spending that money, traffic fell by 50%.

Let me repeat that: Indiana and Kentucky spent $1.3 billion to double the capacity of a road while traffic levels were cut in half ...

The 2019 mayoral race is handed a critical debating point: "$80M Sherman Minton Bridge project to extend life up to 50 years."

I missed all the fun with last week's Sherman Minton repair revelations, but it seems the beaming powers-that-be are making reassurances about the absence of future tolling.

They're not to be trusted any longer than Dan Coffey's attention span.

Based on our previous local experience with the ORBP's unelected implementation junta, my advice is not to accept a single word any of them say, now or ever, sans verification.

I'd also advise every last elected official in New Albany and Floyd County to follow the timeless wisdom of holding these appointed decision-makers far closer to their bosoms than loved ones, or even mistresses.

The ORBP was a brutal top-down example of regional and state oligarchies in action. If River Ridge stands to benefit from the Sherman Minton Bridge reassembled over a period of five years, with double the existing rate of tolls when finished, then don't kid yourselves, because that's exactly the way it will come down.

Wendy Dant Chesser will beam, humanities majors will be purged, and the toadies will gather to toast "progress" -- although in fairness, many local residents still will be screaming about taking the knee, well into Trumpolini's second term.

Having said this, and conceding that issues pertaining to the bridge place it near the top of the "must hear" list for our mayoral/re-enthronement contest in 2019, the single biggest issue in the campaign remains the catastrophic implications of presumed Democrat Jeff Gahan's public housing putsch.

But you already knew that, right?

EXCLUSIVE: $80M Sherman Minton Bridge project to extend life up to 50 years, by Elizabeth Beilman (News, Tribune and Evangelism)

Project will result in months-long shutdown

NEW ALBANY — Indiana officials are planning an estimated $80 million rehabilitation and painting project for the Sherman Minton Bridge corridor that will extend its life up to 50 years.

The cost-sharing project with the state of Kentucky is fully funded, so tolling drivers as a method to pay for it isn't being considered, Indiana Department of Transportation officials say.

But they do anticipate the entire Sherman Minton will shut down, likely for a period of several months, during a portion of construction.

That work won't begin until early 2021, with construction bids awarded in the fall of 2020. Officials have "no idea" how long the work will take, as the project hasn't yet been designed ...

ORBP: "Massive expense, big tolls, fewer cars than ever. Even if way down the road these bridges fill up, this project is a financial boondoggle of epic proportions."

From 2011.

I'll lead with Aaron Renn's answer to a question asked in the comments section.

The toll revenue from the system is being split 50/50 between Indiana and Kentucky. Previous analysis indicated that 80% of the tolls will be paid by Indiana residents, so that’s who is paying for the project, ultimately.

One Southern Indiana is delighted. Evidently not a single humanities major was consulted.

Conversely ...

Louisville Spent $2.4 Billion on New Bridges While Traffic Fell Sharply (Urbanophile)

The initial figures are in and the new Louisville bridges are on track to be as big a failure as predicted.

Viva Oligarchy! It was our own Indiana politicians who abdicated their duties to represent their constituents' interests, and brought us bridge tolls.

Mr. Epperson nails it in his opening paragraph of his letter to the editor, but then strays into Loony Tunes territory by tagging John Yarmouth as being responsible for tolls. There'll be an answer below, but first:

Bridge tolls a hardship for some (News and Tribune)

As a disabled senior citizen with cancer, I’m already burdened with many medical debts. I often must see my personal doctor in Louisville. The tolls for passage across the bridge may be negligible for young working people, but they are a hardship for the poor and elderly. No discounts are available for locals, yet an interstate driver can simply not pay if they even get a toll charge of $4.

What a waste of time and added expense 3rd District Kentucky congressman John Yarmuth caused, delaying this project and increasing its costs. This is the reason we now have to pay a toll. I urge all Southern Indiana citizens to talk to their friends and family in Louisville to retire this scoundrelous politician.

David Epperson

At the newspaper's Fb page, KLB replies by shining the spotlight precisely where it stands to illuminate the greatest number of parties responsible for tolling -- namely, right here in Indiana. It's a devastating indictment, don't you think?

Sadly, Mr. Epperson's plight of being subject to tolls despite needing to access medical services in Louisville is due less to John Yarmuth and far more to his own political representatives on the Indiana side abdicating their duties to represent their constituents' interests.

They're the ones who allowed the plan to balloon from one bridge to 2 with a Spaghetti Junction rebuild.

They're the ones who let one governor choose an east end route that crossed a (albeit questionably) historic property that required an expensive tunnel to cross.

They're the ones who let another governor get a pass for reneging on his promise that our bridges would be built with state funds and not tolls.

They're the ones who ignored the fact that their constituents who work in Louisville already pay a tax to Louisville to cover using their infrastructure.

They're the ones who allowed the tolling plan to be set up in such a way that Hoosiers would pay far more tolls even while the states split the revenue equally.

They're the ones that allowed a toll set up that lets out-of-state/out-of-region drivers get away without paying (because collection rates for tolling-by-mail are dismal where they're utilized in other states) thus handing the tolling burden even more so on Hoosiers.

Bridge tolls: For K-Stem, it hasn't been this good since that last lunch date with Mitch Daniels.

It's a load, all right -- of oligarchic bullshit. That's why it's a good thing we have River Lube ...

"Southern Indiana residents brace for impact of upcoming tolls," unless they're at Oligarch Shillworthy Pay Grade.

Source: IndyStar (2013).

“I think over the next couple years or so after we get through the opening and initial shock of the tolls, that tolls are going to receive very little discussion in that the economic benefits that we will be seeing will become the focus of the discussion.”
 -- Uric Dufrene, IU Southeast Vice Chancellor and Oligarch Fellatrix

Good work by Beilman, who opts for the deft touch in depicting tolling's impact on different income groups, and allows Dufrene's salaried (above) detachment to reveal itself.

Southern Indiana residents brace for impact of upcoming tolls, by Elizabeth Beilman (Hanson's Harley Folly) ... Staff Reporter Danielle Grady contributed to this story

 ... Uric Dufrene, executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and finance professor for Indiana University Southeast, said residents will need to make decisions about how to handle the cost of tolls based on their individual circumstances.

(The Clark Memorial Bridge ... along with the Sherman Minton, will remain untolled. The Kennedy, Lincoln, and Lewis and Clark bridges will have tolls)

“There, I think consumers or individual households can balance the cost of the tolls versus the benefits of time and distance,” Dufrene said.

Here's the inconvenient flip side, one you'll seldom hear Dufrene (or Kerry Stemler) address.

 ... people living in low-income areas, defined by one-person households with less than $10,830 in annual income in 2010, will bear a disproportionately high effect of tolls.

Phil Ellis, executive director of Community Action of Southern Indiana, hears from the low-income residents served by the nonprofit organization that tolls will hit them hard. CASI provides assistance to people for costs like utilities, but they won’t be able to help with tolls since no federal program provides funding for this cost.

“They’re going to have to sacrifice something in order to pay that toll,” Ellis said. “That might be a decrease in groceries, that could be not being able to pay their full utility bills ... Something’s going to be left unpaid, to be honest with you.”

Somewhere between $40 and $80 a month may not seem significant when weighed against the overall economic impact on the region in the years to come.

“But for the immediate need of individuals with low income, they’ll be the last to benefit from any type of economic boom or anything of that nature, because most of them don’t have the education or skills to be eligible or qualified to have one of those [new] jobs ...

“You’re talking a person where $80 could feed them for a week, could feed their family for a week,” Ellis said. “That’s major.”

Bridge porn raincoating reaches thunderous orgasmic crescendo as preparedness for pass-through toll dodging remains nil.

Of course, the least imaginative east end bridge name possible was the final choice, and that's exactly what we've come to expect from brain-dead state ruling elites.

Not since Dagny Taggart swooned over Readen Metal has there been such breathless coverage of concrete and steel, though in terms of dreadful photo ops, it was Jeffersonville's turn to pull a short straw.

Actually, a can of multinational swill might be the ideal metaphor for the history and practice of the Ohio River Bridges Boondoggle, although it's doubtful Moore grasps this. Cheers, Mike. The campaign finance slush River Ridge spills in a shift dwarfs that produced in New Gahania.

Speaking of which, here's the view from the News and Tribune:

And here is the way Team Gahan saw it:

Toll dodging begins in just a few days, folks. For bridge opening coverage at the News and Tribune, go here.

Amid the media's 2016 bridge envy and tolling glorification, we turn to this 2010 letter from a local independent business owner.

Ah, yes. Quaint memories of the gangbang foisted on Southern Indiana by our benevolent oligarchs, circa 2010, with the pop shot finally arriving six years later, in three ... two ... one ...

Over at Facebook, Keg Liquors owner Todd Antz looked back to those wonderful times when the area's heaviest hitters gathered together to bolt the autocentric fix firmly into place.

Six years ago, I posted this letter that was sent to the Bridges Authority about the project and tolling. To me it is ironic that this should pop up in my Facebook memories one day after they announce the starting date of tolls on the new bridges. After 6 years, I still believe everything that I wrote back then.

One quick reference. Someone on the Bridges Authority board publicly declared that only 3% of the population were against tolls. This was loudly denounced at the time, but I wanted to make sure that number was thrown back in their faces.

Here is the text of Todd's letter, from December 14, 2010.

---

My public comment to the Bridges Authority

Dear Bridges Authority,

As a small business owner in Clarksville, I wish to share my opinions with you on your plans to toll the existing bridges in order to finance the new proposed bridge(s). I own a small business that attracts many people from Kentucky over to Southern Indiana. By placing tolls of any amount, you will hinder my business and other small businesses on both sides of the bridge. The environment for small businesses is difficult enough these days without something else making it even more difficult.

For years, there has been a cultural divide between people living on both sides of the river, but over the past 10 years, that divide is slowly fading away. I feel that your plans will do nothing more than re-widen that divide between our two states that we have been working for years to unite. Southern Indiana and Louisville are indeed one community, and you do not charge a fee to go from one side of the community to another.

As a business owner, I have to watch every dollar that comes into my business and manage it accordingly. If I wanted to expand my business, I would carefully plan things out, and spend money as it becomes available. If my eventual plans were to build two new sites, I would budget and build when I could rather than attempting to build everything at once, putting myself deeply in debt. And I surely could not charge a fee for someone to come into my business. Why you as an authority feel that you have to do everything at once, when you do not have enough capital to do the job correctly is apparently beyond me. Also why you feel you can place a toll on existing Interstate(s) to finance this project is apparently beyond me as well.

I am for building a bridge, and possibly another if it is determined to be necessary, but only if it can be done in an affordable manner. The numbers the Bridges Authority have made public simply do not add up. The revenue you will possibly bring in is not enough to pay for the loans, and your tolling rates will have to increase, making this project too expensive for the people you claim to be representing. I proudly count myself in your supposed 3% that are against the tolls. I do believe that whoever thinks that there is only 3% of the area population against tolls must be using the same math that you all are using to do your budgetary planning for this project. You have had numerous cities, towns and communities put forth resolutions against the tolls, as well as business groups on both sides of the river. Surely that alone is more than just 3%. Poll the common person and the number of responses against tolling would surely add up to more than 3%. I honestly think you might have your numbers backwards and only 3% of the population is in favor of tolls.

I have the feeling that my words will mean nothing to you, as you have ignored public sentiment, and derided those who do not agree with you. I sincerely hope that this message does become public record as you have noted above.

Sincerely,

Todd Antz

Toll readiness as defined by ... by ... by ... say, what is this, invisible ink?

Yes, that's the one.*

Yesterday with open arms we welcomed cynicism back into our lives. It had been nearly thirty minutes, and I was starting to sweat.

A new buzz phrase enters City Hall's bunker-speak: "Downtown Grid Modernization Project." We believe it's a synonym for "non-existent."

If you read the subsequent newspaper account of the state of Indiana's auto-centric million-dollar grant to Southern Indiana, and specifically New Albany -- for future state senate candidates, "asphalt aplenty" money like this far outranks Viagra -- you'll have noticed this passage, as attributed to the straw that stirs our collective Shirley Temple.

"(The) downtown grid modernization project, which is a review of the downtown grid that will allow the city to ready itself for the completion of the Ohio River Bridges Project and the associated tolls."

Stop laughing and pay attention!

Shouldn't there be a follow-up question something like this one?

"Mayor Gahan, seeing as tolls begin in less than six months, can you explain precisely what this 'readiness' means, in the real world, and in the short-term, because after all, there is no long term when it comes to toll imposition."

The question hasn't been asked, except by me. A reporter should try asking it, for the only response I ever get goes something like this:

(crickets chirp)

(pins drop)

(somewhere, a dog forlornly barks)

(public access requests can be heard fluttering into garbage cans)

* thanks, J

Apocalypse WOW: Pat McLaughlin thinks toll evaders will stop to shop in New Albany. Jeff Gahan doesn't return calls. Welcome to tolling preparedness, New Albany-style.

Imagine how a local newspaper might be functioning as tolling approaches. Imagine the hard questions a reporter might be asking of local officials. Imagine the dialogue that might be engendered.

Keep imagining, because we have no newspaper in New Albany.

Meanwhile, it still isn't clear what the city of New Albany's official position will be with respect to the issues discussed in Green's piece. We suspect servile silence, but only because it's what we've been conditioned to expect from Jeff Gahan, but note that if the council president's uninformed opinion is any indication, we might be better off with no opinion at all.

SUNDAY EDITION | Old overpasses to get more wear and tear as Kentuckiana drivers avoid bridge tolls, by Marcus Green (WDRB)

... “Talking to a lot of people that I know, they said they’re going to change their route of going to Indiana and coming around the Sherman Minton and ride all the way around to avoid paying a toll,” said Natalie Neil, who lives in the Shawnee/Chickasaw neighborhood in western Louisville.

Neil said she uses the Minton twice a day for trips to New Albany. More traffic on the bridge is troubling, she said, because there’s “a lot of increase already.”

And:

Traffic on those structures in Floyd County is expected to increase by as much as 118 percent in the coming decades. Indiana plans maintenance and repair work on four of the overpasses before 2018, according to the state.

The state also aims to paint and maintain the Sherman Minton Bridge within the next four years, said Will Wingfield, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation. The Minton was closed for about five months in 2011 and 2012 to fix a crack in a load-bearing beam.

This means that very soon, we'll either lose the Sherman Minton for an extended period, and/or see it tolled. But here's the important part (emphasis mine).

Opponents of tolling interstates often cite traffic diversion as a side effect of tolls and rate hikes.

“Tolls are often easily evaded, usually by motorists who are using an alternative route that unfortunately was not built to handle the level and type of traffic experienced due to that toll evasion,” said Stephanie Kane, spokeswoman for the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates.

After reviewing projections showing increased traffic on the Minton, she said ambulances and other first responders could face delays getting across the river on I-64.

With the Minton remaining toll-free, traffic passing through New Albany is expected to double in the decades to come. Mayor Jeff Gahan did not return a phone message seeking comment, but council president Patrick McLaughlin said “it’s something that’s been constantly on our radar.”

McLaughlin stopped short of agreeing that traffic will rise at the levels predicted by INDOT, but he said any increase could give the city an economic boost.

“When trying to judge human nature,” he said, “no one really knows how that’s going to pan out.”

As bridge tolls approach, Team Gahan stocks up ... on industrial strength blinders.

Summer Guthrie, originator of the Southern Indiana-based Cabin Grill food truck, posted this photo on Fb.

Bluegill finds the target's center.

The two most popular choices are both the most practical for a majority and the most destructive for urban neighborhoods. Excellent planning and design.

Meanwhile, Jeff Gahan stays firmly on point.

Tolling inches ever closer as Jeff Gahan announces exciting new water slide.

The funniest part about yesterday's news stories about impending final approval of Ohio River bridges tolling rates can be summarized by this single sentence, in "Final Tolling Plan Released For Ohio River Bridges Project" (by Rick Howlett, WFPL):

Officials will vote on the tolling plan Wednesday.

Vote?

Think of it as the sort of election these guys used to hold.

Ah, yes; those halcyon days of 98.6% "yes," with the lone dissenter forced to relocate to luxury apartments being constructed from balsa and Elmer's.

Speaking of brand-dead regimes, over here in New Albany ...

It's going to be a long and degrading year, isn't it?

Yes, there will be a shared use path on the East End bridge.

It had been suggested to the Green Mouse that while a shared use path would be included on the East End Bridge, it would be the responsibility of local government to provide connecting infrastructure to the ground. According to ORBP East End Bridge on Facebook, this is untrue.

The shared-use path, including access points from IN and KY, will be built by the developer of the project, WVB East End Partners. Also, when the project is complete, WVB will remain local and maintain the bridge, including the shared-use path for 35 years.

It's another question as to what happens after 35 years; perhaps this number reflects the bridge's planned obsolescence in a time of hover jet cars.

Can we toll into the sky, via laser beam transponders?

Grooms musters meaningless rearguard legislative feint, says he tried really hard to undo the bridge tolling damage he supported all along.

It's all about appearances, now and always.

Senator Grooms was a ceaseless, persistent and utterly tireless supporter of the Ohio River Bridges Project, ignoring all questions and testimony about the deleterious effects of tolling on Southern Indiana residents and businesses, right up until the detestable boondoggle was signed, sealed and artfully applied to his constituents via Kerry Stemler's preferred political method (which occurred to him when he underwent a colonoscopy with failed anesthetic), and then -- only then -- did Silent Ron, who in 2015 just as enthusiastically vamped as one of the GOP's homespun Heroes of RFRA, finally conclude that some toll "relief" posturing was necessary.

In 2012:

Groggily, belatedly ... but finally, Senator Grooms begins to fathom the toll of bridge tolling.

... “After careful review of the recently released economic impact study on the Ohio River Bridges Project, I am still primarily concerned with the burden to Indiana taxpayers and worry that the proposed tolls will put undue financial strain on the people the project is designed to help,” said Indiana Sen. Ron Grooms, R-Jeffersonville, in a statement released last week. “It is important to look at every option available to lessen the financial burden southeast Indiana residents will face, either with some type of individual tax credit or one for employers who are willing to pay employee tolls.”

And then in 2014:

Today's truthful moment: "Bridge tolls will devastate Indiana businesses, owner says."

... And then there's Ron Grooms, who said and did nothing until nothing could be done or said, and only at a dog-won't-hunt point far beyond tactical usefulness finally opened his eyes to the issues and heroically spoke out to mostly empty rooms. Posterity won't be kind. Meanwhile, the rest of us search for survival strategies.

Now, in 2016, Grooms does his homework by cribbing a Wikipedia article.

How stupid does he think we are?

Oops. Let's be more accurate.

How stupid are we?

Lawmaker: Bills seeking tax relief for Hoosiers using Ohio River toll bridges dead for 2016, by Marcus Green (WDRB)

... Federal data indicates that Southern Indiana residents who travel to jobs and school in Louisville will bear most of the toll burden. About three times as many Clark County residents commute to Louisville for work than do people who head in the opposite direction, according to Census estimates released last year.

Really? Walk on the auto-centric toll bridge?

Graphics credit: John Paul.

You can walk it if you want to, but unless the chintzy medallions are good for a few future jalopy crossings, you can leave me out of it.

Death to chains and bridge tolls. If you must, the C-J explains.

How to walk the new Lincoln bridge Saturday 

Orwell somersaults as tolling becomes a "brand," with or without Astroglide.

NAC's Jeff Gillenwater has posted a tolling compendium. We hate to say it, but we told you so.

Bridge Toll Rates

With a transponder
• $1 for frequent users in non-commercial vehicles.
• $2 for passenger vehicles.
• $5 for a medium truck.
• $10 for a heavy truck.

Registered video of license plate
• $3 for passenger vehicles.
• $6 for a medium truck.
• $11 for a heavy truck.

Unregistered video of license plate
• $4 for passenger vehicles.
• $7 for a medium truck.
• $12 for a heavy truck.

These are one-way prices, folks.

Meanwhile, WFPK surveys the carnage here, but the News and Tribune's Elizabeth Beilman has a better sense of the pure, irony-free sleaziness involved with today's revelation of tolling details.

'RiverLink' unveiled as new bridges tolling brand

RiverLink is the brand Ohio River Bridges Project officials created for the Louisville and Southern Indiana tolling system, narrowed down from a list of hundreds of names and logos.

"The RiverLink brand is what will bring our communities together by bringing a stronger link," said David Talley, innovative finance manager for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Zurschmiede swings and misses as Padgett and pals sue the city of New Albany.

Narcissus gazes at his erection.

We've been following this story since the original April tort claim (here ... here ... and here, among others).

Whatever your political persuasion, it should be obvious that the lawsuit's timing has been determined according to the election calendar, and just as non-coincidentally, given Padgett & Pals' healthy monetary support of the GOP in the current voting cycle, Republican mayoral candidate Kevin Zurschmiede has made sure the C-J's reporter got this much in writing.

(Zurschmiede) does not consider turning one-way streets into two-way streets to be a top city priority. He wants to add an additional lane in each direction to Interstate 265 to help deal with traffic on the Sherman Minton bridge when the two metro area Ohio River bridges open and start tolling.

So, in his zeal to appease the trucking paymasters, KZ desperately wants us to know that (a) he does not at all understand induced demand, (b) he thinks it is necessary to rely on the state and feds to redesign an interstate on short notice, and (c) enough of that two-way stuff, 'cuz it makes his brain hurt.

If you're a two-way streets advocate, and in terms of casting a vote for mayor, I'm not guilty of hyperbole in suggesting to you that only one choice exists: Me.

But beyond that, a pinch of salt helps the lawsuit make better sense, because this much is true: When it comes to breathtaking duplicity, Jeff Gahan has exercised supreme arrogance and bad faith with two-way streets proponents and Padgett obstructionists alike, in equal measure.

He has lied to us all.

Boondoggles like the Main Street "improvement" project have poisoned potential resolution by making lawsuits like this inevitable, and Gahan's inept evasiveness ever since has made an ugly situation intolerable.

It's why he cannot be trusted, and it's why he has to go.

Period.

New Albany, others sued over street design, by Chris Morris (News and Tribune)

NEW ALBANY — Eight local manufacturers, service companies and trucking companies have filed suit against the city of New Albany, New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan, the Floyd County Commissioners, Indiana Department of Transportation and other government agencies alleging that a recent redesign of East Main Street has negatively affected their right to safely access the street.

The plaintiffs are: Padgett, Inc., Tiger Truck Lines, J&J Pallet Corporation, Kaiser Wholesale, Inc., E.M. Cummings Veneers, Inc., Maximum Fleet Service, LLC, Mr. “P” Express, Inc. and W-M Lumber & Wood Products, Inc.

According to their counsel, James Gary, these business owners were not consulted prior to the redesign, which has impaired the ability of their vehicles to travel the designated “Heavy Haul” route for New Albany.

If the ORBP is bringing "$87 billion into the region over the next 30 years," then why are we paying tolls to use them?

One is compelled to be fair, and so I must recognize this article for capturing some of the most stirring examples of Usual Suspects Boondoggle Speak yet recorded.

I'll merely note that auto-centrism is cancer, and leave it at that.

Ohio River bridges hailed as economic leader in infrastructure projects, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

... United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation Victor Mendez on Tuesday called the Ohio River Bridges Project a "perfect example of what is needed throughout this country."

" ... At the end of the day, we all go home, and we go home to our community," Mendez said at a news conference at Waterfront Park in Louisville. "And that's what this [project] is all about — improving our communities from an economic standpoint and really just from a quality of life standpoint."

Yet another gigantic cash flushing sound heard as ORBP axes tolling consultant.

I really enjoyed doing these memes ("Kerry Stemler's statement on the occasion of the Clark Memorial Bridge closing," July 8, 2014), and am humbly grateful for the opportunity to reprise them. Meanwhile, in case you were wondering about the headline ...

Adviser and advisor are both accepted spellings of the noun meaning one who advises or counsels. There is no difference between them. But adviser, the older version, is listed as the primary spelling in most dictionaries, and it is about five times as common as advisor in current news publications from throughout the English-speaking world.

Now, to the point, as stated eloquently by the inimitable Iamhoosier at Fb:

The never ending cluster ****, known as the Bridge$ project.

Yep. Sure is, and will continue to be. I repeat: It should be called the Kerry Stemler Toll Bridge, forever more.

Ohio River Bridges Project removes toll services advisor due to failure to correct myriad of failures, by Joe Sonka (Insider Lousiville)

The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board of the Ohio River Bridges Project removed and replaced eTrans KY Inc. as its toll services advisor on Tuesday, stating in a resolution that the contractor’s performance since it began in February “has not met with the expectations of the Joint Board.”

While the board provided few details about eTrans’ deficiencies, an open records request obtained by Insider Louisville from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet shows the cabinet gave the company notices of default in April and May, listing a myriad of failures and incompetencies that were not corrected.

Recent posting about the ORBP:

Surprise, surprise, surprise ... said Gomer Pyle, Kerry Stemler and 1Si, as bridge tolls go on forever.

Thanks to motorized oligarchs like Kerry Stemler, "We still pursue an elusive automobile paradise like a swamp-lost Conquistador seeking the Fountain of Youth."

Stemler on road-pounding trucks: “A (truck) carrying 20 tons of asphalt or crushed stone – we're taxing (the Clark Memorial Bridge) an awful lot."

One Southern Indiana's hypocrisy is absolutely reprehensible.