I said back here that if COTA couldn’t find a way to build a transit center without inconveniencing passengers, then it shouldn’t be done. It looks like they have come to the same conclusion:
COTA debates downtown transit center
Agency poised to reject city request to move bus stops away from shops along High Street
Sunday, May 29, 2011 03:16 AM
By Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHCOTA appears ready to reject a request from Downtown planners to move bus stops away from High Street storefronts.
A Downtown transit center – one location where Central Ohio Transit Authority passengers could wait indoors to catch a bus – would cost too much, disrupt too many routes and inconvenience too many riders, officials say.
But a report the agency plans to finalize in coming weeks won’t be the last word on the idea.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman and the Downtown development group that floated the idea of a transit center last year aren’t ready to let it drop. Rerouting the buses that line up just north of Broad and High streets can help revitalize area retail, advocates say.
Relocating bus lines seems to still be on the table in the interest of converting the High Street bus lanes to a combination of on-street parking and bus stops since there are currently too many buses on High to serve with a standard sized stop. I think this is an interesting idea, as there may be routes where travel times could be reduced by using other streets (I’m thinking the #4 using 3rd/4th), but I think the convenience of bus passenger connections still needs to be considered. COTA has connection/transfer data and I’m sure they will come to a reasonable decision.
Let’s scrap the transit center idea then, and just implement changes that address the same concerns for retail, parking and adequate bus transfer accommodations:
1. Re-route some of the non-High-specific routes to Front, Third and Fourth. According to the Dispatch article, COTA claims that ridership drops if people need to walk a quarter mile from the stop to their destination, which is great because fourth is only .2 miles from High and Third and Front are only .1 miles from High.
Many of the routes that run on High through the middle of the CBD turn off within a few blocks… a mile at the most. Routes 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16(north), 18 and 19 could all be shifted to Front, Third or Fourth. Some of the express routes too.
2. Add state of the art covered bus shelters from Mound to Goodale along Front, High, Third and Fourth. Make it so that shifting routes to parallel streets is not a downgrade, and keep all of those waiting environments top quality. Temperature controlled, free WiFi, LED signage with real time bus arrival departure information, etc.
3. Add full time on-street metered parking to High Street between Mound & Goodale. Buses can have dedicated spots to pull in & out like they do in the Short North, or curb bump-outs for bus rides to board.
4. Give buses signal priority through Downtown. There’s a lot of stops through this area, so bus rides can be slow Downtown. No reason they shouldn’t be given green lights whenever possible.
Done! Problems solved, right?
(Easier said than done)
Rail, damn it.
;]
Walker Evans, good and reasonable suggestions all. The second point on bus shelters is a bit reaching as regards WIFI and temperature control, but lighting and security should definitely be provided. Shifting routes to 3rd, 4th and Front would promote a larger downtown business district. Parking, retail, and transit are not mutually exclusive.
Do you really want a system where you get dropped off at one location (say Third), then have to catch the return trip bus in another, fairly far off location (say 4th)?
Who is going to pay the costs to convert Front street to two-way traffic?
Hwo are buses going to travel faster down Front St. when you have several parking garages that unload during the peak periods?
Also, High street sidewalks are built for pedistrians and are much wider than Front, Third or 4th. You put shelters on those streets, and people are walking in the street, not the sidewalk.
Finally, don’t ignore the employment map in the article. People work near High St…it only makes sense to have buses along this street.
For God sakes, aren’t there buses on Michigan Ave. John?
Bart,
Your comment sounded like you were asking questions of Walker rather than me until the last line, so I’ll just answer that one.
Yes, there are lots of buses on Michigan Avenue (in Chicago). They are also extremely slow due to congestion, frequent stop spacing, and large numbers of passengers boarding and alighting. I’d really like to see some bus lanes or a center-running BRT system there, but that seems off topic.
I guess the distance between drop off points would vary based on your destination, but Third and Fourth are really only a block apart. Your trip home might require an extra block’s walk than your trip into work, but I doubt that would be a major deterrent.
The City of Columbus is already in the process of converting most of Front into two-way. I imagine they can foot the rest of the bill as well.
As for the sidewalk widths, that depends on where you’re talking about. Some areas are narrower than others, but you don’t need a bus stops everywhere. Don’t even need them every block.
Anyway, those are all things that should be taken into consideration. By no means was my simple list of suggestions supposed to be something recommended for implementation without any further study. While some of the major employers are centered along High, there are others located closer to other parallel streets. This PDF has an interesting graphic on Page 31 that shows employer locations and sizes:
http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/docs/2010%20DCSP%20Downtown%20Today.pdf
And again, I’m certainly not advocating that *all* buses be removed from High Street. Just some of the ones that really aren’t primarily focused on servicing High Street to begin with.
The Dispatch is weighing in on this issue, suggesting that COTA and the City of Columbus need to get creative and find a compromise that works for COTA and benefits High Street retail:
READ MORE
Jeff Johnson responds at Urban In-Fill, saying that pretending COTA is part of the problem with High Street retail is laughable:
READ MORE
COTA is going to be having public hearings on the transit center idea according to the Dispatch. The study is available online here (PDF). I will read it and post comments in the near future.