COTA Line Review: 2 E Main/N High

this should be a light rail

The 2 E Main/N High is one of the big workhorses of COTA’s route network. It is one of the busiest lines, traveling along main roads going north and east out of Columbus. It’s also one of COTA’s longest routes, clocking in at slightly under 2 hours end to end.

okay, where does it go

We started our trip on the 2 at the Delawanda Park & Ride, proceeding to head south from there on North High. Interchange at or near the park and ride is available to the 11, 33, 34, or 102 (although the 102 interlines with the 2 for half of the route).

delawanda p&r

The 102 Polaris Parkway/N High is a special route for COTA — it runs west along Polaris Parkway from Westerville to North High, where it turns south. Once the 102 passes the Delawanda Park & Ride it makes limited stops, usually at intersections with other routes. It gives a quick way to get downtown from the northern suburbs and is a big reason why this route isn’t completely overcrowded.

The 33 diverged from us as we crossed Henderson, which has a 102 stop. We entered Clintonville and passed near the Columbus Park of Roses, approaching North Broadway. Interchange at North Broadway is available to the 32 and 102. The bus was getting more and more full, and for riding mid-day on a weekday, it had pretty high ridership.

THE ohio state university

Passing Hudson St, where interchange is available to the 31 and 102, we left Clintonville and entered the University District. Passing along the western edge of OSU, we passed by the main GoBus stop for Columbus. GoBus is Ohio’s largest intercity bus operator.

We passed through the Short North, over the Cap, and into Downtown. This stretch of N High is the busiest in the entire network, with service on the 1, 2, 5, and 102. Along this stretch, buses arrive about every 3-5 minutes. We made the only turn of the entire route, turning east onto E Main. After this point, the 102 does not interline with the 2.

Leaving downtown heading east, the bus was less full than it was through the Short North, but still pretty full. We entered Bexley as we crossed over Alum Creek, and the bus began to steadily empty as we got further from downtown. Interchange is available to the 22 at Ohio Ave, 11 at Alum Creek Dr, and the 23 at James Rd.

whitehall

We ultimately left Bexley and entered Whitehall. This stretch of the route is sooo slow it feels like I could walk faster than it. Eventually, we reached Hamilton Road. Interchange here is available to the 24, and every other 2 terminates early here. This means that past here, the 2 has headways of every 30 mins.

end of the route in the middle of nowhere reynoldsburg

Past Hamilton, we pass Brice Rd (interchange to the 25) and continue into Reynoldsburg. The density slowly dropped off from dense single-family homes to your typical American suburbia. We terminated at E Main & Oak Valley.

so what

The 2 is very frequent, running every 15 mins on weekdays, every 20 on Saturdays, and every 30 on Sundays, making it COTA’s second-most frequent route. Despite this, it just feels very slow. It simply just gets stuck at a lot of red lights and stops very frequently. The 102 along North High is such a nice touch to make it faster for people who don’t want to wait for their bus to stop at every little street along the way to downtown.

final rating

I will give the 2 a 6/10. Despite it being a frequent route that is very accessible by sidewalks, it just is slow, the scenery is okay but nothing spectacular.

how would improve this

I would extend it a little bit further north to the Crosswoods Park & Ride near Polaris to provide easier access to this area, especially on weekends where service on the 102 is only hourly.

The frequency is already really great, but I would make it every 10 minutes on weekday rush-hour runs. I would imagine that this route gets very busy during those times.

Also, I don’t know how much COTA can do about this, but add bus lanes on North High and East Main until at least OSU and Bexley. Those are the slowest parts of this route, and if they were sped up, it would 100% bring this route up a few points.