TRAVEL THREAD FROM TWITTER: Ohio Roads a Disaster With Little Evidence of Effective Leadership
Even Bankrupt Illinois Did a Better Job on Its Highways
On December 23 on our way back from a family vacation internationally, we made the fatal error of flying through Chicago O’Hare, which I always try to avoid like the plague. Our connection back to Columbus was cancelled (of course), with American Airlines rebooking us for two days later at 1:37pm—yes, on Christmas Day. We opted to risk the roads and a longer drive to ensure we got home yesterday. It took us roughly eight hours to make the five-and-a-half-hour drive, with much of it white knuckle driving. See the picture below for the white-out conditions we sometimes faced. Here are some thoughts:
(1) Many thanks to Budget Rental Car staff at the desk and at the exit booth at Chicago O’Hare at 2:00pm yesterday for their excellent service;
(2) Shame on Chicago O’Hare Airport for the debacle of service with the terminal train down that forced people to queue for bus rides to terminals and the car rental hub. It was totally disorganized, staff were just standing around doing nothing, no one was managing the automatic outside doors to keep people from triggering them, so frigid air kept blowing in as kids were freezing INSIDE the terminal, and there were very short lines/special buses that were mostly empty just for airport staff/air crews, as flyers missed connections due to huge line. It took us two hours to get on a bus.;
(3) Major shame to United Airlines for abandoning a poor woman from Ethiopia who spoke no English, as she needed to go from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 for her connection to Minneapois. We did our best to help her using Google Translate, but she needed help and neither airline staff nor airport staff standing around helped her. I hope she made it to her family;
(4) Pox on the DeWine-Husted Administration/ODOT for the utter mess of the highways. In 100 miles over two-plus hours of driving we saw a grand total of four snowplows on I70 and I270. The massive 46-car pileup in northern Ohio that left at least three dead, many injured, and others stranded is simply terrible. Our thoughts and prayers go to those who died, were injured, stranded, and delayed because Ohio government is led by career politicians with over 70-years of experience who couldn’t handle this winter crisis like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dealt with the major hurricanes this summer. Ohioans and out-of-state drivers deserved better than incompetent leaders and terrible highways with just four snowplows seen over 100 miles of driving. Rural roads in bankrupt Illinois and Indiana were in better shape.
(5) In response to DeWine-Husted/ODOT Spokesman Matt Bruning’s pushback on my criticism claiming I just “missed” the snowplows and that the response was similar to other winter storms over his eight years at ODOT, I wrote: “Assume they were out, Matt, just not enough of them or in the right places to keep drivers safe…Should have contingencies in place to deal with severe conditions. Saw few cars and trucks off roads in Illinois and Indiana, but upon entering Ohio we passed dozens and dozens with only four plows in 100 miles—you can defend status quo response…I’ll call it as my eyes saw it.”
(6) UPDATE: I just did another 35-40 miles over 1.5 hours taking the rental car to Port Columbus Airport. I didn't see any plows and I-270 is nasty--from Sawmill Road to I23 literally like a sheet of ice over entire highway...rest of the highway not much better.
Perhaps it was going from 84 degrees to -34 degrees just five hours later that put me in a ranty mood yesterday, but government failure sends my temperature north. My little travel rant is now done. My family is safely home and it is Christmas Eve. Hope you and yours have a safe, warm, and blessed Christmas.