One of the most frequently requested COTA upgrades I’ve heard would have to be the addition of a late night weekend bus route serving High Street that runs until the bars close down. It sounds like COTA has been listening.
In September, COTA will be launching a new route (numbered appropriately as the #21) that will run a loop from the Clintonville area down High Street to the Arena District from 7pm to 2:30am on Friday an Saturday nights. We’ll post timetables, maps, and other details as soon as they are made available.
The only thing the line needs now is a catchy nickname. Any suggestions?
Why not take the same length route and move it south to the Brewery District? They could the attention/money. Clintonville has, what, two whole bars? Although that could explain why residents there would need the C-bus.
Let’s hope the #21 does better than the old #20 that ran from campus to the Brewery District.
Columbusite: Buses generally don’t drive development. The Brewery District needs more destinations, added late night bus service to an empty area isn’t going to get new bars to open there again. Be realistic.
John: I think this bus has a better chance. The #20 seemed to be servicing a smaller population and went through a lot of empty space (downtown at night) on the route. I think this Arena-ShortNorth-Campus-Clintonville route is arguably the densest in the city and the most active during the late night Fri-Sat hours.
Realistically, the Brewery District has more bars than Clintonville. I was in no way implying any development benefit from the line, just that a “bar bus” should include a stretch of High with several *existing* bars, i.e. in the Brewery District which has Hi-Beck, Plank’s, Gresso’s, Club Diversity, etc, not to mention bars around Front St within easy walking distance of High. Instead, it’s going through a mostly dry, quiet neighborhood (Clintonville) with so few bars on High St you can count them both on less than one hand and will not service residents or businesses south of Downtown.
How about the Vomit Comet?
Well played with the Vomit Comet name…
I was thinking it could be called the Last Call Line. It might be a little bit better for the image, but along the same vein.
Either way, if COTA markets it well to OSU students it should get a lot of ridership, especially if they still ride for free.
Maybe the DUI’s will go down too…
How often do students go out to the Arena District? I don’t know the answer, so if you have input let me know. If students now are anything like students 7 years ago, then I think the answer is not that often.
Keep in mind that many students are under 21 and some students don’t live on campus. Even with these caveats, that leaves a big potential market to tap, but I know when I was a student we didn’t actually go out to non-campus bars very often. I think we went to the Brewery District once or twice in the two years I was “of age” and to the Long Street clubs maybe once. No doubt that these factors contributed to the failure of the #20.
I think the folks in the Short North, Old North Columbus, and Clintonville might get more use out of this service than OSU students. Hopefully that will be enough to keep it busy.
There is actually a surprisingly large student crowd that ventures down to the Park Street area right next to the Arena District. So while you might not see as big of a young regular crowd at places like Gordon Biersch or Cotter’s, you’ll definitely feel like an old man if you hit up Sugar or Park Street Patio on a Saturday night.
But I agree, this is going to have to appeal to more than just the student crowd. And I think also servicing residents in Clintonville, non-students in the University District, Weinland Park, Short North, Victorian Village, and Italian Village is just as important.
Keep in mind, that with a route this long, not everyone will be going in the same direction. Potentially you could have south-campus students using it to get back home after hitting the bars that are congregated north of campus now (Ledo’s, Dick’s Den, Sloopy’s, etc). They don’t have to necessarily be drinking in the Arena District to need a ride home.
I wonder if the employees working late down that stretch are going to be able to use it?
Yeah, it’s basically an extended hours #2 that only serves the highest demand portion of the route. I’m rooting for it. I think transit has to be available and reliable over long hours for people to give up their cars.
Andrew, I work at a bar on Campus and I am very hopeful that this route works for people like me. It’s easy enough to take the bus to work, but the walk home in the wee hours of the morning gets pretty scary. The lack of parking around Park Street and Campus is a big deterrent for driving, but many students don’t want to fork over the cash for a cab ride. I will be very happy if this route is successful. I see too many people drive a ridiculously short distance (less than a mile or two) to drink at a bar, then drive home intoxicated… what a wasteful, reckless combination.
I hope it works for you guys too, crast. What time are the employees typically out? I think that is my main concern-is the 2:30 AM end time going to work for the employees to catch a ride home?
You may want to seek out some of the folks at Columbus Underground who have the ears of the various restaurant groups and COTA to make sure all potential users will be well served by this.
My brother-in-law was working the late shift at Tip Top for the past few weeks (he’s now working an earlier shift at Dirty Frank’s). On nights where he’d close the bar at 2:30am the staff would still have to finish cleaning up, and sometimes would hang out a bit after close. He said that some nights he didn’t leave Tip Top until 3 or 3:30am. He’s carless and would sometimes get a ride, and sometimes walk the whole way back to his 9th St campus apartment. So yeah, this bus route would do little for him.
I was just remembering my days in food service-though not as late. I don’t think Columbus is anywhere near having a few 24 hour lines but this is hopefully a step towards that.
[...] a new express route to Gender Road in Canal Winchester, the #81 extension to Rickenbacker, and the late night #21 route on High Street. Also not shown were new route numbers created to clarify the difference between traditional and [...]