COTA Line Review: 1 Kenny/Livingston
in a rare move, i review a route that people actually ride
what is this
For most transit riders of Columbus, the 1 needs little introduction. It is one of only a few main trunk lines that run through the city, from Northwest Columbus to Downtown then running east to Reynoldsburg.
okay, where does it go
We started at the intersection of Pickforde Drive & Bethel Road, then turned east onto Bethel. We ran east on Bethel until Godown, then we turned south to go down Godown Road (ha. i like puns). Godown turns into Kenny, and we entered Upper Arlington. We passed by a secondary northern terminus of the 1, at Riverside Hospital. Every other northbound bus terminates at Riverside, meaning that the stretch past Riverside has half the frequency of the rest of the line. This entire area was filled with single-family homes and strip malls.
We then turned south onto Olentangy River Road, passing through the western end of the Ohio State campus. We turned east onto Lane, then south onto High, going through the heart of the University District. We continued south along High and entered the Short North. Crossing over the Cap over I-670, we entered downtown.
We passed near COTA’s Spring Street Terminal, the terminal for many rush-hour lines. Later on, we passed by the statehouse and the COTA Transit Terminal, another rush-hour route hub. We turned east onto Fulton then south onto Third to cross I-70/I-71, then east again onto Livingston, where we would run along for the remainder of the route.
This part of Columbus is technically within German Village, but it really does not have the German Village feel to it. There are massive parking lots and huge hospitals on the north side of Livingston, and on the south side there are residential and commercial buildings that are not reminiscent of the architectural style found along, say, south High Street.
We continued east along Livingston, crossing Alum Creek and entering Bexley (or Bexley-adjacent, I’m not sure where the southern boundary of Bexley is). This section of Bexley (?) is full of single-family houses, and it seems strange to me that a bus with 15-minute headways would run through this part of Columbus. But hey, I'm not complaining.
We passed through Bexley and Whitehall and we were now in Reynoldsburg. We turned south onto Brice, then east onto Eastgreen, then north onto Birchview, then we entered the Reynoldsburg Park & Ride. This eastern terminus of the route is quite possibly the best COTA Park & Ride I have ever seen. There’s a dedicated bus loop, a COTA-specific parking lot, and multiple bus shelters. Also of note, the parking lot had cars in it, signifying that people actually use this.
so what
The 1 is one of COTA’s main trunk routes, is among the busiest in the system, and runs along some of COTA’s busiest corridors, like north High Street through the Short North. Because of all of this, it is very frequent and fast, and it really should be the gold standard for what we should expect out of COTA.
final rating
This route is an all-around good route. It passes through interesting neighborhoods and is very frequent. Due to this, I will give the route an 8/10. Why can’t we have more routes like this?