Every four years or so, the nation’s eyes turn to Ohio. As one of the major battleground states in the country, Ohio is one of the states that can make or break a presidential candidate. But there’s far more to the state than just the electoral brouhaha that emerges.
There are all kinds of history to be found in Ohio, history that’s big and small. Ohio is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honoring some of the greatest musicians in the history of recorded sound. Ohio is also where Charles Goodyear invented the science of vulcanizing rubber, thus transforming the automobile industry. It is home to the first stoplight (in Cleveland), the first automobile service station, and one of its cities (Akron) was the first in the country to use police cars.
Being that cars and traffic and driving are such a big part of the state’s history, Ohioans still do plenty of it. You can certainly drive there easily enough, as about 50 percent of the United States lives within a 500 mile radius of Columbus, making it one of the most centralized cities in the country. The average licensed driver in Ohio logs an average of about 14,089 miles annually, using the 9.7 million registered cars that are found on the state’s roads. There are thousands of car dealerships throughout the state that help with those numbers, of course. To be precise, there are 4,631 dealerships with cars for sale, many of which contribute to the $24 billion in new car sales, keeping afloat the 848,304 auto industry jobs in the state.
Just make sure that when you’re in Ohio and get an itch to strap on some skates and roll through downtown, you don’t share the road with cars. That’s against the law.
