There’s another map posted on ColumbusUnderground.com by th0m, (his other map is here) this time following the rail tracks around town to create an easy light-rail overlap map of central Ohio. Very interesting stuff to see where the stops might lie:
There are also T-Shirts of this design at Skreened.
Unfortunately (or fortunately if you happen to own a music studio there), the entire North-East side gets no rail love (put the tracks in the roads?)…
Looking at other transit maps from other cities, there are all kinds of ways you could integrate COTA into a new solution. Really, the possibilities are endless.
I spent some time also looking at Calgary’s C-Train and it is important to note that a light rail system doesn’t have to use existing rails everywhere, nor does it have to be complex.
So, If you’d like to make your own map (and I know you do) this map is also Creative Commons licensed for non-commercial share-alike use, and available for download in several resolutions and formats. Also available over there is a tracing of the tracks, if you’d like to make one that’s more geographically accurate. I used Inkscape, exclusively, for all of the designs.
Thank you all for the support and kind words since the last one!!! Hope you all enjoy! But, also, in the spirit of a good debate, what simple routes could actually happen the fastest, cheapest, and perhaps augment COTA using its strengths? The last thread was getting there with that…… ;D
i dont get it, is this a contest for designing a rail system, just an idea or is it like official something or other..i musta missed something, are they making the streetcar? thats the last i heard about pub transport..ahh
Anything without Easton/New Albany isn’t going to fly…this town is still run by families and Wexner won’t support anything that doesn’t support his interests.
A Polaris vs Easton battle already exists, this would just escalate things.
This was just a map drawn for fun and to spur discussion. I think he loosely based it on existing rail lines and took a slightly more artistic approach to match the design commonly seen for subway maps in other cities.
I think the reason any neighborhoods were left off are due to their lack of existing rail lines. Of course additional transit options could make up for that. Streetcar circulators in a variety of neighborhoods would make sense.
was at the bookloft in g.v. and we were looking at old photos of columbus. its fascinating how long c-bus had a street car, from the 1800′s (drawn by horses) all the way up to 1948..and then people started buying cars and the street car was in the middle of the street and since it couldnt pull over to the curb to pick people up they had to race across traffic to board…anyway thought it was interesting how LONG we had a streetcar that was used by so many people and how much we have regressed..anyway interesting
This is a fine concept. Any metropolitan transit system can’t run at street level speed (i.e. that of a bus). That would be fine for a down town loop, but the same loop function could be covered with a dedicated bus. Columbus has available rail lines, and would need only to build platforms and sidewalks, and purchase diesel electric (hybrid) multiple units. Overhead wires can come later.