Impending COTA Strike Brings Questions

My plan of being a good citizen environmentally and traffic-wise by taking the bus is about to hit a possible snag: a strike by the Central Ohio Transit Authority, or COTA. It's the usual stuff - the workers don't like that the company is trying to cut pay and benefits to stay afloat. But in this case... it's affecting me. And not only is it affecting me, it's going to affect thousands of folks all over Columbus who rely on the buses to go to work, school, shop, etc.

The answers for me are simple - get a bike. I've rollerbladed home from work on occasion (when I felt like some extra exercise), no reason I can't bike it. I've been looking at folding bikes by Dahon so I could keep it in my office when I'm not riding. I've had one too many bikes stolen to go with anything else at this point. And for less than $500 they have some real good ones, it seems.

But what is COTA to do? My riding a bike isn't going to help them at all, rather it'll hurt them to the tune of $480/year if I stop buying monthly passes.

It boggles my mind that COTA isn't absolutely packed right now with gas prices rising out of control and sprawl concerns at the forefront of proper thinking. But people just seem to think that the bus is some sort of pariah. I actually talked to a guy who complimented me for riding the bus every day but then said there's no way for him to do it because he works downtown.

Um... hello? The bus the easiest way to get downtown! There are more routes running into and out of the downtown area than any other! I wish I'd said that to him, but politeness held my tongue for a change.

Anyway, the rant stops here. COTA needs to figure out a way that it can convince car-addicted Columbus that it's better to take the bus than to waste money and pollute the environment with their cars. Good luck getting through to this crowd.