Posted in Bus X-ing, Rail X-ing on July 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Was anyone else expecting Columbus to be mentioned along with the other cities that have neglected mass transit through the years?
HERE’S another video from NBC’s Today Show about the rails being packed for 4th of July travel.
Posted in Bus X-ing on July 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Jeff at Urban Infill has some pretty good posts, but his latest is too good to miss. He reflects on his COTA Challenge, which after 6 months is now more of a habit. He had a car and would use it frequently, so his default mindset before the challenge was to use his car. He [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing, Rail X-ing on July 2, 2008 | 7 Comments »
That was my initial reaction when I stumbled upon these quotes from Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md)…
We are in desperate need of significant transit improvements. We’ve got to have the facilities and we don’t today, and then we need the fare-box and economic policies that reward people for taking public transportation. Some try to say that [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing on July 1, 2008 | No Comments »
Transit agencies hate raising fares. It hurts the mission of providing affordable transportation to as many people as possible. However, sometimes it’s necessary to balance the budget and maintain service.
How long will it be before COTA follows GCRTA’s lead? A rumor was posted in April that said COTA may raise fares in [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing on June 24, 2008 | 15 Comments »
I was one of about 20 interested citizens at tonight’s COTA public hearing convened by Councilwoman O’Shaughnessy (Transportation Committee Chair) and Councilwoman Tavares. I’ll summarize my “minutes” of the meeting below, but the overall message I got was:
1) COTA is a “prudent, cautious, and measured” organization. Probably to a fault.
2) COTA is on sound financial [...]
Posted in Bicycle X-ing, Bus X-ing on June 23, 2008 | 4 Comments »
While the press release is dated June 20th, I just heard about it today (June 23rd). However, I’m out of town so maybe this has already made the rounds. Tuesday at 5 PM Councilmember O’Shaugnessy is holding a public service and transportation committee meeting. Some highlights from the press release:
At 5:00 PM the committee will hear from [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing on June 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Packed COTA buses passing by waiting riders
More people using public transit amid higher gas prices
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:52 PM
By Tim Doulin
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
“That happens to me all the time,” said Laverne Morris, a longtime COTA rider from Gahanna who works at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as a secretary.She said the No. 1 Cleveland Avenue bus [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing on June 16, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I have recently started experimenting with writing Google Mapplets. I wanted to do something simple for my first one, so I overlaid images of the official COTA system maps on a Google map. This doesn’t improve the quality of the COTA map, but it does combine the system map, downtown map, and OSU map into [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing, tagged columbus park and ride, COTA, cota park and ride, park and ride, shared park and ride on June 1, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I’m not surprised to hear that COTA lots are full and drivers are finding new places to park. In the last year, 43 users have used the search terms “COTA park and ride” or “Columbus park and ride” to link to XingColumbus, but 41 of those searches were made in the last 90 days. [...]
Posted in Bus X-ing, tagged biodiesel, COTA on May 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
COTA dropping biodiesel-fuel mix because of costs
Thursday, May 29, 2008 3:30 AM
By Tim Doulin
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The high cost of soy biodiesel is prompting COTA to discontinue, at least for now, using the environmentally friendly fuel to run its buses.
Instead, the fleet will operate strictly on ultralow-sulfur diesel.
“It’s an economic, as well as environmental, decision,” [...]
