Game Day Horror

Service on the buses yesterday, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, was absolutely abominable. Why? Beyond the fact that it was Saturday, and COTA tends to adopt a somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward service on the weekends, it was also GAME DAY--that day when Ohio State has a home football game and everything in Columbus (including seemingly time itself) comes to an utter and complete standstill.

I've bitched about how events like marathons and festivals downtown tend to have a paralyzing effect on what passes as Capitol City's public transportation system. While it doesn't seem to do any good to do as far as getting the suits running COTA from their downtown atelier to listen, it does help me vent--and perhaps prevent an unwanted coronary.

Yesterday, I attempted to go from East Main Street (Carpenter Street stop) to the Short North (Fourth Avenue stop). I just about gave up trying to go. The bus was supposed to be at Ohio Avenue, right up the street within easy view, at 7:16 P.M.. Finally, about 10 minutes later, it arrived, just as I was just about to call it a day. I was late for my 7:30 appointment.

Trying to get back was even more of a nightmare: I ended up walking part of the way home. At 9:30, with the after-game party still in full swing and traffic in the usual Saturday night swirl, I was standing at the downtown-bound North High Street stop at Fifth Avenue, looking forward to escaping post-game Ground Zero. A downtown East Main Street bus was due to arrive at 9:41. I waited, and waited. Nothing showed. At least two No. 2s whose terminus was Broad and High streets came by, and a couple of No. 21s, the Night Owls that run through downtown on to the German Village and the Brewery District. One of the drivers told me and a friend, also trying to get out east, that the eastbound bus was "running late, but behind me aways." We continued to wait, the vitriol starting to build. (While still standing and waiting, we saw the same bus and driver rolling up North High Street about half-an-hour later.)

No eastbound bus ever came. My friend said earlier in the day, he was on a northbound No. 2 when an unscheduled detour around High Street occurred. The bus ran up North Fourth Avenue, returned to High Street at Fifth Avenue, then went back to N. Fourth for a detour that was to run all the way through to Hudson Street. I suppose the strategy helped the driver avoid traffic bottlenecks from the game at Ohio Stadium letting out. But it sure didn't help the passengers any.

Finally, at around 10:20 P.M., after standing on the corner for nearly an hour, we decided reluctantly to board a downtown-bound No. 5. The logic was that if COTA were doing impromptu reroutes to avoid High Street--and by that time all post-football game traffic had thinned out--then we might have a shot at catching an eastbound bus once we got downtown. We arrived downtown at about 10:30, and I decided I was not going to stand around downtown for another half-an-hour to wait for the 11:00 lineup to roll out. The kind driver (a Syrian immigrant from New Jersey--I do complement when it's deserved) told us his route ended at Mound Street and Grant Avenue and we stayed on his bus to go as far east as we could. Never saw an eastbound No. 2 the entire time.

So, we ended up walking the eastbound part of the trip, for me a good quarter-mile, and for my friend, who had to go about six blocks further, even longer. I got home just before 11 P.M., and about 15 minutes later I heard an eastbound bus zoom by. I was pissed but glad I was home-albeit over an hour later than I should have been. My friend called to let me know he got home around the time the bus went by my place.

The exasperating, maddening experience was really unnecessary, and brought a few questions to mind for COTA planners: First of all, why aren't riders notified and provided alternatives when you decide to make an unscheduled detour? Why couldn't have at least one of the four downtown No. 2s and Night Owls we watched go by while we waited been pressed into service to pick up slack left by non-existent eastbound service? And why, oh why, don't you have an effective, cohesive plan to provide reliable, adequate service during the large events that the city is increasingly fond of hosting (in its continuing effort to become a "destination" city)?

I don't know whether the suits at COTA read this blog--the only one of its kind in central Ohio as far as I am aware--or if they do, just chuckle at it with amusement. Most of them probably never have to ride the bus. But if Columbus hopes to be a top-rate city, it needs to be able to handle large events like OSU games. The game was long over when the second incident occurred, and shouldn't have had any effect on nighttime service. As long as Columbus is unable to provide timely and effective bus service, the dreams of ranking with other cities like New York and Chicago will remain just that--elusive dreams.