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Suburban Office Parks Poses Challenge For COTA

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Started 11 months ago by News
Latest reply from bman

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News
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Job Dispersion Away From Downtown Poses Challenge For COTA
June 4, 2012
by Tom Borgerding
89.7 NPR News Managing Editor

The Central Ohio Transit Authority says it will enter competition next year for federal monies to get more workers to their job sites. Job growth often occurs in areas poorly served by bus routes and COTA faces obstacles changing its route system to serve newer employment sites.

READ MORE: http://beta.wosu.org/news/2012/06/04/job-dispersion-away-from-downtown-poses-challenge-for-cota/

Posted 11 months ago #
jbcmh81

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News said:
Job Dispersion Away From Downtown Poses Challenge For COTA
June 4, 2012
by Tom Borgerding
89.7 NPR News Managing Editor

The Central Ohio Transit Authority says it will enter competition next year for federal monies to get more workers to their job sites. Job growth often occurs in areas poorly served by bus routes and COTA faces obstacles changing its route system to serve newer employment sites.

READ MORE: http://beta.wosu.org/news/2012/06/04/job-dispersion-away-from-downtown-poses-challenge-for-cota/

People who live in the suburbs should probably not expect great public transportation. Or for that matter, any public transportation. I understand COTA wants to attempt to be in this market, but imo, it should put focus on inner suburbs and the urban core that can be better served and is still not that great. If the move back to the urban core trend continues for the long-term, jobs will also follow. It makes no sense to further dilute services to serve people who choose to live in an unwalkable cul-de-sac 15 miles from their office.

Posted 11 months ago #
bucki12
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jbcmh81 said:
People who live in the suburbs should probably not expect great public transportation. Or for that matter, any public transportation. I understand COTA wants to attempt to be in this market, but imo, it should put focus on inner suburbs and the urban core that can be better served and is still not that great.

+1 COTA is still pretty mediocre even in urban routes. I would rather they spend their efforts in a concerted effort instead of a shotgun approach.

Posted 11 months ago #
cheap
Westgate
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jbcmh81 said:
People who live in the suburbs should probably not expect great public transportation. Or for that matter, any public transportation.

why should the suburbs expect less?because COTA sucks?

there are a lot of people that ride the Tuttle mall bus because there are jobs in that area.

it's not just for the residents of the suburbs.it's for the inner city residents having more opportunities at employment by having transportation to a job located in the suburbs.
believe it or not,this city really doesn't revolve around downtown.

Posted 11 months ago #
jbcmh81

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cheap said:
why should the suburbs expect less?because COTA sucks?

there are a lot of people that ride the Tuttle mall bus because there are jobs in that area.

it's not just for the residents of the suburbs.it's for the inner city residents having more opportunities at employment by having transportation to a job located in the suburbs.

The suburbs are not built for public transit, they're built for cars. The people who actually live in those suburbs chose to live there, to be far from urban amenities. COTA should not be catering to these same people when their urban core service leaves so much to be desired. Further, if there are people living in the urban core with suburban jobs, it still ultimately represents a choice, and COTA is not responsible for how people choose to live or where they choose to get jobs. Bottom line is: if their service sucks in the urban core where it's supposed to be the best, the focus should not be in trying to please everyone who made the decision to make public transportation an unlikely and difficult option.

Posted 11 months ago #
mrpoppinzs
Arena District
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I think the gist is that COTA can't get people in the city (even people who choose to live downtown) to the suburban office parks (where a still growing amount of jobs are being created). If too much of that happens, COTA will start to lose its relevancy.

I was thinking about taking a bus from the AD to Grove City recently - where a lot of jobs are being created - and it would not have been fun.

Posted 11 months ago #
jbcmh81

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mrpoppinzs said:
I think the gist is that COTA can't get people in the city (even people who choose to live downtown) to the suburban office parks (where a still growing amount of jobs are being created). If too much of that happens, COTA will start to lose its relevancy.

COTA's fastest way to irrelevancy is to spread itself so thin as to be useless for everyone instead of just the people who shouldn't be expecting public transit to cater to them.

Posted 11 months ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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jbcmh81 said:
COTA's fastest way to irrelevancy is to spread itself so thin as to be useless for everyone instead of just the people who shouldn't be expecting public transit to cater to them.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with this. Of course I would love it if COTA had the resources to adequately serve even transit-unfriendly areas out on the suburban fringes, but its resources are not unlimited and need to be focused where the built environment allows for those resources to be used most efficiently.

I don't think that means cutting Tuttle Mall off, though. That's still a pretty heavily developed area, though obviously more sprawling than closer-in neighborhoods. The real sprawling suburban office parks are even farther out than that.

Posted 11 months ago #
jbcmh81

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gramarye said:
Unfortunately, I have to agree with this. Of course I would love it if COTA had the resources to adequately serve even transit-unfriendly areas out on the suburban fringes, but its resources are not unlimited and need to be focused where the built environment allows for those resources to be used most efficiently.

I don't think that means cutting Tuttle Mall off, though. That's still a pretty heavily developed area, though obviously more sprawling than closer-in neighborhoods. The real sprawling suburban office parks are even farther out than that.

Agreed. There are a few places where COTA should and can maintain routes, to specific high-traffic destinations in suburban areas. But to try to have the kind of coverage in the suburbs that it does in the urban core is just not going to be very effective for anyone without massive expansion in total buses, hours, etc. And that takes more money... and guess which group of people is least likely to support an increase in funding for the bus system?

And again, we're finally at a point in several decades that people actually want to live in the urban core again. One of the amenities those people want and should expect is good, reliable public transit. Right now, COTA is not good, and not always reliable even in the places it should be. Let's get that fixed before we worry about putting more buses on Polaris Parkway.

Posted 11 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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jbcmh81 said:
COTA's fastest way to irrelevancy is to spread itself so thin as to be useless for everyone instead of just the people who shouldn't be expecting public transit to cater to them.

+1

If it's important for suburban office complexes to have access to adequate public transportation, then they should either relocate to where public transit offerings are more plentiful or pony up some *big* funding to COTA to make their suburban routes happen.

Posted 11 months ago #
GCrites80s
5xNW
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This is kind of like my friends and family in the semi-rural parts of Pickaway and Fairfield Counties complaining about their trash bills. "Rumpke charges too much!" In town, a garbage truck earns revenue every 20 feet or so, but out there they often have to travel thousands of feet between pick-ups. A lot of people still burn their trash. Hence the vast gulf between a city trash bill and one out there. Granted, city buses aren't for-profit enterprises but they face the same challenges.

Posted 11 months ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Exactly ... the economic realities (and, thus, the economic challenges) that arise from the layout of the land itself are the same regardless of whether the entity in question is for-profit.

Posted 11 months ago #
peanutnozone
Baltimore MD
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I agree with most of the people here that say that COTA should focus their funding and planning on core and inner ring suburban service as the layout of the streets is more conducive to having more frequent and efficient bus service. The hub-and-spoke service works but is not very efficient in my opinion.

But but but.

There are LARGE employers (think Chase and Limited and DCSC) that are on the fringes of Columbus and are not served very well by public transportation. There are lots of jobs in the suburbs. When I lived in Columbus and worked full time, I lived near downtown (E town and Parsons) and worked in Easton (this was only 2 years ago). I didn't want to work in Easton. I hated every second of it. I pined to work in a downtown office, or at least centrally, somewhere I could bike or bus or walk to. I would have more likely stayed in Columbus, actually. Nearly every job I applied to, when I was seeking straight out of college, was in the 'burbs, and a few REQUIRED car ownership.

I guess that's my beef. I wish companies would wake up and realize to decentralize their offices / labor is a detriment to them. Some seem to get it, others don't seem to care at best...

Posted 11 months ago #
jpizzow
Above the American Apparel building
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What really gets me is the countless number of bus stops in the suburbs that are in the middle of nowhere. I drive around often in all parts of the city (I'm an appraiser) and to see so many of them empty at all times of the day, every day just emphasizes to me the lack of efficiency of COTA. Many of these bus stops are located in such places to serve a handful of people, or less. I hate to say that these stops should be eliminated as I'm sure they provide much needed transit for some, but the fact of the matter is that density levels are so low in the suburbs that most poeple are not within close enough proximity of these bus stops even if they wanted to utilize the service.

As many have said, work on improving the transit routes in the most dense corridors first, then concentrate on the the most dense locations in the suburbs, i.e. Polaris, Easton. Office parks were built for personal vehicles, not transit. That's not the fault of COTA, thus it should not be their primary concern at this time.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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Just to throw it out there: If suburbanites shouldn't expect COTA service, should they pay for COTA service via taxes?

Posted 11 months ago #
SusanB
Hungarian Village, Columbus' fastest growing Gayborhood!
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COTA just makes me sad. To get from home to office:
via COTA- 44 minutes
Drive- 10 minutes
Walk- 59 minutes

Posted 11 months ago #
bucki12
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SusanB said:
COTA just makes me sad. To get from home to office:
via COTA- 44 minutes
Drive- 10 minutes
Walk- 59 minutes

It has a ways to go to say the least. I have my share of COTA stories. I am so glad I am a rider with other choices.

Posted 11 months ago #
gramarye
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rus said:
Just to throw it out there: If suburbanites shouldn't expect COTA service, should they pay for COTA service via taxes?

Yes, for the same reason that almost everyone (even those who don't own cars) have to pay to maintain the roads. It's the only viable system at the moment.

If we want to talk about a complete conversion to a usage-based cost structure for the entire transportation grid, I'm quite willing to talk turkey on that. However, the one thing that is clearly unfair is for that to be a one-way conversation in which only the more urban-oriented travel modes are subject to the question of who actually pays vs. who actually uses.

Posted 11 months ago #
rus

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gramarye said:
Yes, for the same reason that almost everyone (even those who don't own cars) have to pay to maintain the roads. It's the only viable system at the moment.

Eh. Not exactly. Roads benefit everyone even if they don't drive ( delivery of goods and all ), but if you don't drive you'll only pay gasoline taxes indirectly ( delivery / transportation costs reflected in prices ).

I get the previous discussion about suburban environment not conducive to public transport and the desire to improve COTA before expanding into non-ideal environments.

Just thinking that of COTA's official position to suburbanites is "move" then the next levy might be a hard sell out in the burbs.

Posted 11 months ago #
Analogue Kid
Olentangy West
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I agree that it doesn't make sense to serve places like Dublin and New Albany with transit service on 10 minute intervals, but I think it's still very important to service those areas where jobs are with at least some service. How do we as a city expect people to achieve upward mobility when transportation to a job is difficult or impossible? Although I also bemoan job sprawl, I don't think its fair for us to ignore those who need a job and rely on COTA as their only transportation option. This is a long term area wide planning issue, and it's not one that is easily solved.

Posted 11 months ago #