Rumor Mill: COTA Considering Night Owl Service « Columbus Underground Messageboard

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Rumor Mill: COTA Considering Night Owl Service

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Started 4 years ago by josephp
Latest reply from Cyclist

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josephp

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Editor's Note: Marty Stutz, VP of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations at COTA, confirmed that this information is speculation/rumor only and is not an official announcement from COTA.
I just had a lunch with some folks from COTA and they were telling me that COTA is looking into offering Night Owl services in 2 years from now unless they get more federal funding so they can start offering it eariler than that.
What are the routes that COTA wants to run:
1) South High St to North High St to OSU
- Service running every 30 minutes from 12a till 3a (From downtown to OSU will get the 30 minute service, others are hourly)
2) East to West Broad Street
- Service running every hour from 12a to 3a
3) Cleveland Ave to Livingston Rd to Reynoldsburg
- Service running every hour from 12a to 3a
What do you think about that?

Posted 4 years ago #
urbandenim
sitting in press grill having a gin and tonic
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good idea. let the damn busses run for the love of god PLEASE!

Posted 4 years ago #
katieb
OSU
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I think it's a good idea. sometimes I want a bus at night, and it's too late and they've already stopped running. it's annoying.
having them go later would be great in my opinion.

Posted 4 years ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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libratazjoe77 wrote 1) South High St to North High St to OSU
- Service running every 30 minutes from 12a till 3a (From downtown to
There used to be a route called the #20 for that, but it was severely underutilized, so it got cut during the budget problems.

Posted 4 years ago #
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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30 minute service is pretty inconvenient. If that could be knocked down to 10 minutes, drunk riders wouldn't have to mess with timetables, and ridership would be much higher. It would also cost 3x as much, but that's been COTA's achilles heel for years.
Frequent straightforward routes will get new riders. Snakey, less frequent routes will only draw riders who have no other choice but to ride.

Posted 4 years ago #
josephp

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Brewmaster wrote 30 minute service is pretty inconvenient. If that could be knocked down to 10 minutes, drunk riders wouldn't have to mess with timetables, and ridership would be much higher. It would also cost 3x as much, but that's been COTA's achilles heel for years.
Frequent straightforward routes will get new riders. Snakey, less frequent routes will only draw riders who have no other choice but to ride.
If you ride #84 on Saturdays which they run every 15 minutes from 6pm to 2a from OSU to Lennox and the most average they have 5-8 passengers every bus I see coming by so offering so much frequently at late night would be a waste of gas and money so they need to start somewhere first.

Posted 4 years ago #
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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Yep...it's a Catch 22.
3x the busses doesn't necessarily mean 3x the riders, but it does mean more riders.

Posted 4 years ago #
scottlitch
Southwest Hilltop, Columbus
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I'm all for it. There are many nights I'd rather ride a bus than drive.

Posted 4 years ago #
Cyclist
Peach District (State of Mind)
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This is good news, but I have trouble with the infrequency of it.
Why can't they run several smaller busses? I have wondered why they rely on just one standard bus for all routes.
Use mini-buses on late night and unpopular routes, use the regular ones on most routes and double/articulated on the most popular routes.

Posted 4 years ago #
johnwirtz
Evanston, IL
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Cyclist wrote This is good news, but I have trouble with the infrequency of it.
Why can't they run several smaller busses? I have wondered why they rely on just one standard bus for all routes.
Use mini-buses on late night and unpopular routes, use the regular ones on most routes and double/articulated on the most popular routes.
That would save some money on gas, but you still have to pay the driver. If you want smaller vehicles, maybe you could start operating a Pedicab service :D

Posted 4 years ago #
josephp

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Kindly if the mods can stop editing my threads, it is not nessecary. It is not rumor. I will appericate if you respect and leave my threads alone.
Thank you.

Posted 4 years ago #
Brewmaster
Portland, OR
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Do you have a link?

Posted 4 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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I just got off the phone with Marty Stutz, VP of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations at COTA, who requested that I make sure peoople are aware that this information is speculation/rumor only and is not an official announcement from COTA. They've gotten quite a few phone calls about these announcements on ColumbusUnderground, and were surprised to see them here themselves, as they watch the site to keep up with public opinion about the bus system.
FYI, I moved this topic out of "transportation news" to hopefully settle some of the confusion and keep people from mistaking this information as official or confirmed.
Thanks,
Walker

Posted 4 years ago #
Cyclist
Peach District (State of Mind)
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JohnWirtz wrote
Cyclist wrote This is good news, but I have trouble with the infrequency of it.
Why can't they run several smaller busses? I have wondered why they rely on just one standard bus for all routes.
Use mini-buses on late night and unpopular routes, use the regular ones on most routes and double/articulated on the most popular routes.
That would save some money on gas, but you still have to pay the driver. If you want smaller vehicles, maybe you could start operating a Pedicab service :D
I do. Call 327-0074 for service. Capitol City Pedicabs

Posted 4 years ago #