I often go to the OSU Medical Center's Eye and Ear Medicine facility at 931 Olentangy River Rd., which also houses the urology and dermatology practices as well. It's a good quarter-mile walk through hot parking lots from the East Third Street bus stop just west of Olentangy River Road that I call the Bus Stop to Nowhere.
It also gets an honorable mention as one of "Our Filthy Bus Stops." It's not so much a stop really as a dirt trench along the side of the road, with no shelter available, no nearby pedestrian walkway, assorted litter (plastic bottles and cigarette butts), and it's dangerously close to traffic. (I was going to take more detailed pictures of the trash at this stop, however, the monsoon in which I was standing at the time made me afraid that my camera would suffer water damage.)
The photo above is of the Westbound bus stop. As you can see, there is a well-worn path to the patch of ground marked by a sign that is supposed to be a bus stop, so I suspect that means quite a few people use this stop, including patients at the clinic. Nearby is a new strip mall with nouveau cuisine fast food restaurants that probably provide employment for many a No. 3 Northwest Blvd. rider. At the next stop on the line is the ginormous new Grandview Yards Giant Eagle store.
It seems to never fail to rain, snow, hail or sleet by the time I've finished my visit to the clinic, so I trudge through the elements for the Eastbound No. 3 bus stop just right across the street. Today was no different and I was caught in a downpour that lasted the entire time I had to stand and wait (about 13 minutes). I was soaked from head to foot, and the ground underneath me at the stop started to get spongy--good and muddy. I had the choice of two wonderfully welcoming manhole covers--which also double as seats on nice days--to stand on to avoid the encroaching mud.
Meanwhile, that picnic patio at the police station just behind looks like an inviting place to escape the downpour. Trouble is, if you're standing there, the bus won't see you, and will just barrel on by, leaving you to wait for the next one, which should come, oh, in about 30 minutes or so....
My suggestion to COTA (for what little it's worth): Please put a bona fide bus stop WITH a shelter at this and other stops along the No. 3 line. The burgeoning Grandview Yards area, which includes hundreds of units of new (market rate, natch) housing, will ensure that ridership on this line will increase--if you want it to. But you must first make waiting for the bus a pleasant waste of time instead of a chore in which one may be called upon to do battle with the elements. A couple of shelters, equipped benches and timetables, would be wonderful. Especially for those of us who might be needing to go to the doctor and not want to risk our lives and well-beings doing so.
Stay tuned. I'll discuss another aspect of the COTA commuters' dilemna in an upcoming post: Loop the Loop.
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