The COTA Challenge: Day One

If you’ve read this blog before, then you’re probably aware that I’m a mass transit enthusiast. I really want to see Columbus develop a multi-faceted rail transit system over the next decade or so. It would be a huge economic boon for our region and would also help to alleviate some of the problems we’re going to be facing in another 10 years as gas prices continue to rise and our city continues to grow.

In the meantime though, the only thing we’ve currently got is the COTA bus system. I mentioned recently that I wanted to put my money where my mouth is and ride more frequently now that our new neighborhood doesn’t have quite as much within immediate walking distance. Well, yesterday we finally made the jump and picked up our first monthly bus pass. Right now Anne & I are opting to share a single pass, as we have a single car that we share and just one pass should work just well to supplement our transportation needs.

Let me preface my overly-detailed and boring anecdote by saying that I know COTA isn’t perfect. Everyone has at least one bad story to tell about busses running late. Everyone probably also has stories to tell about their cars breaking down. No machinery is perfect, so I don’t expect the bus system to be either. And neither should you.

So anyway, last night I had a meeting up at the South Campus Gateway to get to. Normally not a bad drive. Six mile round trip from home. 15 minutes up, 15 minutes back. Parking isn’t much of an issue there either with the large parking garage costing only a single dollar. Instead I decided to try out the new pass and see how it worked (I’ve only ever used change or BuckID before to ride the bus, so this was sort of a new toy for me).

I set out from home giving myself about 40 minutes to get to my destination (not really knowing how long it would take) and walked down to the bus stop near my house to wait for the #16 to come by. I used the timetables they have listed online to find out when it would be coming by, so I only had to wait outside for 2 minutes. It was right on time. The bus was maybe 25% full and the ride to High Street went quickly as nobody got on or off between my stop and High.

The bus dropped me off right in front of the Elevator and I crossed the street to catch the next #2 heading north on High. The #2 runs in 10-20 minute headways around 6-7pm on weekdays, but I lucked out and only had to wait about a minute to hop on. If I had missed that one it would have cost me an extra 20 minutes of waiting. That’s seriously way too long for the most heavily used route in the city. I can already anticipate that happening in the future. I better make sure to always have my Nintendo DS with me.

Anyway, the ride up High street was quick. Lots of people watching through the Short North on a nice spring evening. I hopped off at the Gateway with a total travel time of 20 minutes. Not bad at all.

My meeting went fairly quick, and I walked across the street to the classy bus stop in front of the 7-11 to catch a ride headed back downtown. The #2 was running 2-3 minutes late, so I had to wait a total of maybe 4-5 minutes. Still not bad. Especially when it’s so nice out. After I boarded I consulted my timetables to see the best way to get home. My situation is a bit weird since I have three lines that run past my house, but two of them travel east on Long while another starts off at Nationwide before cutting down to Long at Cleveland Ave. Should I get off the #2 at Nationwide or at Long? After some calcuations I figured that my wait would be shortest getting off at Nationwide and waiting for the #11. The lines running down Long Street would result in an extra 15 minute wait.

So I hopped off at Nationwide, crossed the street and waited on the #11. It arrived on time after a 3 minute wait. A quick ride delivered me back at home. Total ride back was 23 minutes. Again, pretty speedy.

Luckily for you, I’m not going to go into this much detail with future reports of mass transit ridership. But I did want to provide as descriptive of a picture as possible for something that is an alien concept for many people in our city. COTA retains a somewhat negative public image, but it’s really not as bad as the hearsay. It’s a bit intimidating at first to have to figure out the routes and times, but so was learning how to drive when I was sixteen.

I’d encourage anyone to give the bus a fair shot if they’re up for the challenge. It was actually sort of fun too. I expect both the fun and the challenge to wear off quickly, but I’ll still report back with more as the month continues.