COTA Line Review: 22 OSU/Rickenbacker
its uh. a route
what is this
The 22 OSU/Rickenbacker route starts at the intersection of Rail Street and Baldwin Drive in Grandview Heights. From there, it follows a sort of circular path around downtown serving communities and areas such as Ohio State, Milo-Grogan, King-Lincoln, and Olde Towne East before crossing I-70 to serve the South Side of Columbus. It then runs along Alum Creek Drive, making a few stops in Obetz. After this, it runs locally through a business park and terminates at the intersection of Alum Creek Drive and London-Groveport Road, just north of the Rickenbacker Airport. Due to its rather circuitous route, it feels more like a route to provide short-distance trips between adjacent communities (and it was used this way too, I was the only rider on it for longer than 30 minutes-ish).
okay, where does it go
Starting at Rail Street and Baldwin Drive at a bus stop that was just a pole sticking out of the ground, we turned west onto Goodale, then north onto Bobcat. This neighborhood, Grandview Heights, has mostly single-family homes, but there are a few restaurants and businesses sprinkled in here and there as well. After a few stops on Bobcat, we turned east onto 5th, then north onto Olentangy River, then east again onto King.
We crossed the Olentangy River on King Avenue and entered THE Ohio State University, the namesake of the line. We turned onto Old Cannon, then Medical Center Drive, then 9th, then Neil, then 11th, then College, then High. On High Street, interchange is available to the 1, 2, 8, and 102. We turned east back onto 11th and ran local through the University District. This area is mainly either tightly packed single-family homes or apartments. Also, this is the most-utilized part of the route, mainly by college students. We reached a peak of 6 riders, which is very good for the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s (rode on 29 dec 2024).
After running on 11th for a while, we turned onto Fields Avenue, where we passed the COTA Operations Center. Along Fields, interchange is available to the 12. We turned east onto 5th Avenue and entered Milo-Grogan, a neighborhood that is very industrial, but also has single-family homes scattered throughout. Then, we turned south onto Joyce, which becomes Champion after it crosses over I-670.
We continued south along Champion for a while, entering the King-Lincoln neighborhood, a slightly denser neighborhood with less spacing between the houses. We jumped west over to Ohio Avenue, where we continued south. It is important to note that the northbound 22 runs along Champion and does not make the jump over to Ohio. After crossing Broad Street (where interchange is available to the 10), we entered Olde Towne East, yet another neighborhood that has slightly more density than the prior few.
Crossing over I-70, we entered Columbus’s South Side, continuing to run along Ohio Avenue. This area, much like the past neighborhoods, contains tightly packed single-family homes with some infrequent commercial hotspots. We turned east onto Frebis Avenue, where interchange is available to the 4, and later along Frebis, the 5 as well. In addition, in the South Side, COTA//PLUS is available. COTA//PLUS is COTA’s microtransit (door-to-door) service, and it operates in various areas around Columbus, including the South Side.
After running along Frebis for some time, we turned onto Alum Creek Drive. The area we traveled through is very industrial, and the bus made very limited stops at some industrial parks and small isolated neighborhoods in Obetz. In some places, Alum Creek Drive becomes a divided expressway, and for the most part, the bus did not stop while it is on these types of roads.
The route then enters Groveport and crosses over I-270. We turned off of Alum Creek and turned west off onto Toy, then Amazon, then Port, then finally London-Groveport, where the route terminated at the intersection of London-Groveport Road and Alum Creek Drive, just outside of walking distance of the passenger terminal at Rickenbacker International Airport. At the terminus, transfer is available to the 24. Throughout this entire area, we ran through business park after business park after business park, terminating near a Marathon and a Subway.
so what
As you may have noticed while reading this review, this route is rather monotonous. 90% of the route is either single-family homes or warehouses and factories. The only part that isn’t like this is the section near Ohio State, where the route runs through the campus for about 10 minutes. In addition, the route runs every 30 minutes, which I believe to be suitable for an industry-heavy route that runs in areas served by other routes. It would be nice for it to run every 15 minutes during the morning and evening rush, but I suppose it is fine as it is.
final rating
I will rate the 22 a 6/10. It’s just an okay route. Nothing too special about it. It also feels very slow, likely due to its very strange path. Akin to the 31, it feels like a route that is not meant to be rode from end-to-end, but a route that offers short hops between communities. It would also be nice for it to run all the way south to Rickenbacker Airport (COTA has a plan for something like this I think).
extra note!
I have felt like my numerical ratings of lines have been too subjective, so I have made a rubric! I’ll link it in the “Every COTA Bus Route Review” tab once I release this article. In case I forget to do that, I’ll put it here.
how would i improve this
I would run it south from Grandview Heights to Franklinton to bridge a gap that has no connection as of now. In addition, in the morning and evening rush, it runs on 15-minute frequencies from Olde Towne East to Rickenbacker. If you extended the operating time of those 15-minute runs to every weekday, you could brand it as a frequent line. Better yet, run it every 15 minutes over the whole line!
As I had mentioned as well, extend it south to Rickenbacker Airport!
This isn't a line I've ever taken, but it sounds like it goes right by where your aunt is teaching at Champion MS. It might be a good transfer to pick up in case I ever have to get down there for her! I could pick it up in the campus area really easily from a #2 transfer, as you pointed out.