ADVERTISEMENT

    Curtis Stitt Discusses the Future of Public Transit in Columbus

    ADVERTISEMENT

    (Interview continued from Page 1)

    WE: Another big transit issue over the past year has been the proposal to study and potentially add new parking meters on High Street through Downtown. That implementation would require COTA to realign some bus routes to accomodate. What are your thoughts on that proposal?

    CS: My understanding, from COTA’s participation on the Downtown Action Plan Committee, which is focused currently on parking on High Street, is that there will be parking meters on High Street before the end of this year. COTA has been active on that committee, and I have attended one of the meetings. The key is to figure out how the parking and the busses can coexist on High Street and what adjustments COTA has to make to its service and the alignment of its routes. Our participation on the committee has urged that we should incrementally add parking so we can see how it works first, and then add more if what is implemented works out. We are working through a process with the committee and a contracted consulting firm to create a plan for which blocks will have parking only, which blocks will have space for busses only, and which blocks will have a combination of both. The reports I’ve gotten back, and what I’ve been shown, shows that this is a plan that will work. There may be some bugs still to work out, but don’t be surprised to see parking meters going in before the end of the year.

    WE: There are two nonexistent COTA routes that I very often hear people make requests for. One is a Downtown loop, which I believe we used to have not too long ago.

    CS: Well, I don’t know how much of a ‘loop’ it was. I think they used to call it ‘The B Line’ when I first came to town, but I don’t know why. It ran during lunchtime, up and down High Street. I don’t know where it turned around, but I remember that I used to work in the Franklin County Courthouse Complex, and I would catch that bus occasionally. I think it was only a quarter, and I’d ride it up to the north end of Downtown to grab a bite to eat for lunch, and then ride back. That would be convenient to have again. But we do already have a lot of service on High Street. Almost every bus runs on High Street. So if that’s what people want to do, there’s already busses that are there. Now the question is how can we get creative and figure out a way that a Downtown worker or a Downtown resident can jump on and ride from during certain hours from one point Downtown to another point. We’d have to have some sort of honor system, or get creative and create a system of paying an appropriate fare for that short trip. Or do we just put more busses out there on High Street, and congest High Street even more so that you have busses that are clearly identified as the ‘fifty cent bus’ to get you from one end of Downtown to the other.

    WE: I do think that an unfamiliarity with the system could be a hinderance as well. I regularly ride from Gay Street to the North Market or Short North, and as you said, there are quite a few routes to choose from and a bus departing every minute or two that can get you where you want to go. But many people are nervous to get on a bus that might turn off High Street if they’re not familiar with the route.

    CS: Well, one of the things we’re working on is to get more smartphone-friendly internet applications for our schedules and route maps so that people can quickly figure out where they are going. I recently met with four people from Leadership Columbus. One of the members said she lived in Dublin and she had a meeting with Marty Stutz, our Vice President of Communications. I think Marty talked to her group of classmates in Leadership Columbus this year and gave them some COTA materials. She took the materials and said she figured out how to get from Dublin to Downtown, looking at the schedule. The trip is about the same time as it would take her to drive, and we argue that it’s shorter because you don’t have to park and you can get off nearer to the front door of your office building. But she said that she’s intimidated. So Marty gave them all a day pass to try it out for a day. But she does not know what to do with a day pass when she gets on the bus. If you’re a regular rider, you think it’s all very simple, but if you’re a non-rider, it’s intimidating. And this is a lady who has a CPA and she’s well-educated, so there’s no doubt about her capabilities. But she’s intimidated about getting on the bus, even though she’s figured out the routes and how to use the fare when you get on the bus. We’ve got to break through that to get those riders of choice. Those are the people who have the means but may be intimidated because they don’t know how to use it.

    WE: The other nonexistent COTA route that I often hear requested is a Downtown to Airport shuttle.

    CS: That’s something that we need to revisit. Several years ago, around 2001-2002, we had a shuttle that went directly to the airport on I-670 and circulated through Downtown to all of the hotels. If you needed to go to the airport you could go to one of the stops at the hotels and board and ride to the airport. It then brought passengers from the airport and circulated them around to the hotels and dropped people off. But it wasn’t very well used. New service always takes awhile to generate ridership, and if we’re talking about airport service it’s even more difficult because you’re often talking about bringing in people from out of town, and it’s harder to market to those folks. But we should be marketing in conjunction with the airport, the convention center and Experience Columbus.

    WE: With the airport, you’re also competing with taxis. I can’t imagine that busses are always just sitting there waiting for you like the taxis are.

    CS: Right, there’s a line of taxis waiting for you. So that’s why I say that we need to revisit the idea and maybe be committed to it a little longer. At a certain point when the ridership isn’t there, it’s not productive and we’ve got to cut it. That route was one that was easier to cut because we weren’t hurting people who really needed it. But it’s something that we need to revisit and look at how we could re-establish something like that, make it as efficient as possible, make service as quick as possible and cost-effective, and market it in a way that the people arriving from out of town know that they’ve got that option.

    WE: Personally, I’d rather pay to $2 to ride a bus to the airport instead paying $20 for a cab ride.

    CS: I take public transit whenever I go anywhere now if there is an option. Especially if there is rail, since busses don’t have the same sexiness as rail transit. People feel more certain about the rail line because you can look at a map and see the rail line and see the destinations points. You can do it on the bus route maps as well, but until last year when we started changing our timetables and our schedules, our maps were terrible to read. They’re much better now, but I find that to be the case across the country. Train maps and schedules are so much more user-friendly than bus information, so people are much more likely to use that. When I travel, and there’s a train that gets me close to where I’m going, that’s my mode of travel. Even when I’ve got my big suitcase and a computer bag.

    WE: Well, since you brought up rail…

    CS: Since *I* brought it up? [Laughter]

    WE: You did! As you know, we’ve had several different rail transit proposals over the past decade…

    CS: Over the past thirty years!

    WE: Well, I’ve only been really monitoring things for the last ten years or so. There was the light rail north corridor proposal, the streetcar proposal, and the 3C Corridor. Columbus is a city that’s continuing to grow fairly steadily. When do you think Columbus will be ready for some sort of rail infrastructure and what mode do you think is going to be our first step?

    CS: When? I don’t know. What rail mode? I don’t know. The city of Columbus can’t sustain rail just by itself, I don’t think. When we begin to plan transportation systems comprehensively through the region and the state is when we will see rail in Central Ohio. I think the best way, and this is just my opinion, is by focusing on how we can build a transportation system that is not just a highway system, and not just a transit rail system and not just a bus rapid transit system. We’ve got to figure out how all of these modes work together and plan them together. When we begin to do that, it will happen.

    Now, could we build rail without a comprehensive plan? Sure. It’s happening all over the country and it always has. Again, this just my opinion, we need to demonstrate that we’ve planned something for rail and highways and busses that all work together, and then we can begin implementation and get funding for it. I think with all of the modes working together, it’s going to be more likely.

    WE: COTA is currently studying a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system for Cleveland Avenue. What is the current status of that project?

    CS: I know we’re still looking at options on alignment, going north from Downtown to Morse Road and 161. One of the alignments goes east to Karl Road and then north, another alignment goes up Cleveland Avenue to another terminus around 161, another alignment takes that all of the way up to St. Ann’s Hospital, and another alignment runs east on Morse Road. I think that last one even loops through Easton and goes on over to our transit center. So we’re studying the options on all of that.

    The FTA Regional Administrator’s going to be visiting COTA, and we’ll take the opportunity to give her a detailed briefing on what we’re doing with our BRT project. Really, it’s not even technically a BRT project. It is an ‘alternatives analysis’ and looks at what kind of transportation improvements can be made in that corridor. All of the indicators so far suggest that BRT would be the best, but our board has to take an action to approve BRT as the transportation improvement that we select out of the alternatives we’re looking at.

    So the project continues. Cleveland Avenue is a unique stretch from Downtown all of the way up to St. Ann’s. You go through many different demographic areas. Some where there’s been decline, and some where there’s been a little bit of resurgence in small pockets. You run through different jurisdictions, so we have to deal with all of those in looking at the alignments. But we continue to work on it. We’ve got a full-time person, in house who’s leading that effort and we’ve got outside consultants who are working on it. We think it makes sense and it would be a great first start. I think what we need to do as we explore this is project out into the future. How many other areas are we going to look at and study to see if a BRT might be the best transit improvement that we can make in those areas? What other options are there, and how does this overlay affect potential rail transit in the long term? If you’re putting in BRT infrastructure, do you replace it with rail at a certain point, and if so, how do those things work together? COTA needs a comprehensive plan so that we can go out and talk to the other transit modes and work on developing a plan for the entire transportation system for the region.

    WE: I think that answers all of my main questions. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

    CS: We’ve got some interesting times ahead of us. We’ve got some challenges and a levy that we’ve got to get renewed by 2016. That’s very important. Everything that we do influences how people will vote. Whether it’s good or bad, or even small things like like that sideways bolt that people can look at and say ‘that’s how I view COTA.’ We try to stay out in the community, and project as positively as possible. And reading the discussions on Columbus Underground helps us, whether people have good or bad things to say about COTA. Because if you say something that you observe that you think needs to be improved, we’re certainly going to look into it. We’re going to make those improvements if we think those improvements need to be made. Eyes and ears out in the community is what we need, and folks doing that work are a great help to us.

    CLICK HERE for the latest COTA news.

    CLICK HERE to participate in ongoing COTA messageboard discussions.

    More information can be found at www.cota.com.

    Photo of Curtis Stitt provided by Chris Walker Photography. Chris Walker works as a on-Location commercial photographer working with cooperate, advertising, and editorial clients. If you would like to connect with Chris Walker Photography, email [email protected], or visit www.CWalkerPhotography.com.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Subscribe

    More to Explore:

    COTA Hires New CEO

    Just over a month after Joanna Pinkerton announced she...

    COTA Lands $42 Million Federal Grant for First Transit Corridor

    The Central Ohio Transit Authority has been awarded $41.9...

    COTA to Study Dublin-to-Intel Transit Connection

    The Central Ohio Transit Authority plans to use a...

    COTA CEO Announces Plan to Leave Agency

    Joanna Pinkerton, who has served as the President/CEO of...

    COTA Looks Back on 50 Years as it Faces Pivotal Tests in 2024

    The Central Ohio Transit Authority will spend 2024 celebrating...
    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
    ADVERTISEMENT