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After holding several community meetings, COTA has announced today that they are moving forward with their plan for increasing ridership fares for 2010. This fare increase is the first in the past four years.
One-way local fares will rise from $1.50 to $1.75 and unlimited monthly passes will rise from $45 to $55. The increase is expected to generate an additional $2.1 million in annual revenue for COTA.
“We believe that our customers should contribute a reasonable portion of the cost to provide transit service,” said Bill Lhota, COTA President and CEO, in a press release issued this morning. “By adjusting fares upward we are striving to maintain an equitable ratio between the fare paid by the customer and amount subsidized by the taxpayers.”
The new fares are scheduled to take effect on January 1. More information can be found at cota.com.
“This fair increase is the first in the past four years.”
Is that a fair increase or a fare increase? Fruedian slip?
Thank you Buck I.D.
I would have rather seen the higher percentage increases coming from in-town service rather than monthly express service. Living in town, I can always walk or take my bike instead. It’s those express commuters that might be price sensitive enough to stop bus commuting altogether or not even start.
I think COTA would do well to try and focus more express service to and from OSU. Right now you have the #31 and the new #66 from Hilliard. If they could build a special bus platform with dedicated ramps to/from 315 in the Woody Hayes Drive area, then all the express buses coming down 315 could stop and then people can easily transfer to CABS. People going on to downtown wouldn’t experience a significant delay either. The cost for such a project would likely be similar to a parking garage but could have a greater impact.
Also, this is an opportunity for the University to get innovative without spending much money. Make a program where a person agrees not to buy an annual parking pass, and then give them a heavily discounted COTA pass, plus 5 free 1-day parking passes (for those days where you need to leave early or arrive late) and a free membership to ZipCar.
Maybe this will help pay for more bus stop shelters! Also bring back the ads Coata used to have on the side of the buses..I get bored looking at a plain red white and blue bus
We need to work on getting government/businesses to give the same transportation benefits to those who use public transit as they do to those who park their single, private automobile. My company reimburses about $35 from coworkers $100 parking pass. That makes using the bus only $10 cheaper. Sure, you save on gas, etc, but the incentive to drive is still very strong…
Analogue Kid,
Do you mean something like this?
http://xingcolumbus.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/a-concept-for-more-suburban-express-service-to-osu/
This is annoying…not because of the increase, per se, but because I now have to find 3 quarters in the morning as I’m hurrying to get out the door instead of two. Just make it $2. I wish there was a way to do a pre-paid fare card that you could continually add money to, like the D.C. metro card.
I stopped riding COTA when I got a bicycle and realized it was about twice as fast as the bus had been.
/seriously
This is Columbus you think this city will ever be that hi tech..haha
johnwirtz Says:Fruedian slip?
Ha! Perhaps! Fixed it. ;)
Urbanboi Says: This is Columbus you think this city will ever be that hi tech..haha
Folks I’ve talked to at COTA have said that a pre-paid card is something they’re looking into, so I wouldn’t rule it out. Not that you really care anyway, but it’s worth noting for JedThorp and other people who are actually interested in the things we’re discussing here.
i remember when the bus was 50 cents.
I wouldn’t mind the fare raise as much if they could run more on time and a little earlier/later. I started riding COTA when I was in 6th instead of riding the school bus. That was in ’85 and I have watched fares go up and service/routes go down. There are many other similar sized cities that COTA could really take tips from. Pittsburgh for one has similar fares but better service and you can buy your weekly or monthly pass on the bus. I for one will discontinue using COTA at this point. The buses I catch (particularly the 18) are notorious for being 10 minutes early or up to 20 late and sometimes “skip” stops not because they are full but because they are running so far behind.
I’m pretty tired of people saying this or that is not Columbus. No city is a fixed entity.
Anyway, I’d prefer a $2 fare too. They could use the extra cash to revise the way they inform potential riders. The thought of using COTA was intimidating before I’d ever tried it because the whole system is difficult to understand.
What somebuckeye said. Although, I do use it when weather conditions are horrendous. High winds and sleet? I’ll just pay $2 and be done with it. Actually, I wonder how many people will just pay $2 because they don’t have the extra change.
@ Shadowe & et all- EXACTLY! Since I moved here from my hometown of Pittsburgh 5 years ago I have been apalled at the public transportation here in Columbus. The underserved, or rather those who are treated as the undeserved, get crapped on at every turn. Those that cannot afford, do not have, etc another form of transportation are taken advanatge of because of the situation they are in. I cannot even begin to explain to you the process of finding a job that is workable within the bus system. I have had to turn down numerous opportunities simply for the fact that I could not get there, something that I perceive as totally ludicrous and which does not make me very enthused at times when speaking about the “bones” of Columbus. I am sure that COTA needs this revenue; however I would like to see the fruit from this effort… e.g. the scenarios given of buses failing to show up, being “consistently” late, or showing up at the stop but not stopping at it leaving the would be rider stranded- being remedied.
I liked an article in the dispatch where a rep for COTA equated the proposed fare increase to hiking the price of milk & was rebutted by a rider who stated that if she purchases milk and it is sour or otherwise “bad” she can take it back to the store, whereas if the bus just doesn’t show up that day you need to find another way into work (or i suppose be late). You have no control over the situation in this way, other than to remove yourself from it. It is quite humbling to stand at a bus stop in the middle of a nasty Columbus winter for 35 minutes only to have your bus drive by you, then teeth chattering call your boss to tell them that you will be at work, sometime, you just don’t know when exactly. Doesn’t that just scream of proffesionalism as well? Either way- I will be interested to see the changes that take place or don’t as a result of this “fair, fare, increase”
I’ve had my share of late buses too, but I don’t really have a whole lot of regular bus transit ridership in other cities to compare with anecdotally. I wonder if there are any sorts of studies/surveys done on the national level that can give us a better understanding of how COTA’s average timeliness/service compares with other cities around the US.
I think that would be cool to see; I think COTA would have access to that type of information, as I presume timeliness is a company wide issue that they continually try to improve. In that way (and in order to research how to be more effective) they would almost need to have comparable information at their disposal…