COTA Line Review: 23 James/Stelzer

what the 34 morse could have been

(substack is giving me issues with adding images to this article, images will be added within a week of posting)

The 23 James/Stelzer is one of COTA’s only arterial routes that do not touch downtown, acting as the main route for north-south trips across east Columbus. It largely uses James Rd and Stelzer Rd to go from Easton to the Eastland Mall (rest in peace).

okay, where does it go

We started our trip at the Easton Transit Center. We went south onto Stelzer, then east onto Easton Way. From there, we went south onto Morse Crossing then back south onto Stelzer. We went pretty quickly down Stelzer and the bus was pretty full for a mid-day trip on a weekday.

Passing the airport but not entering it, we met the airport branch of the 7 at E 5th Ave (where you can connect to the airport). This way of connecting from Easton to the airport is much better than doing the 24 to the 7, even if it might be a bit slower.

Crossing over 5th, Stelzer turned into James and we entered Whitehall. Interchange in Whitehall is available to the 10, 2, and 1 as we turned east onto Livingston then south onto Courtright. This part of the 23 felt a lot slower than the section just south of Easton where it felt like we were zipping down Stelzer at light speed.

Leaving Whitehall, we crossed over I-70 and turned northwest onto Kimberly, then south onto… Kimberly again, then east onto Macsway, then finally south onto Hamilton before turning into the Eastland Mall. The stop at Eastland is a bit of a small hub for COTA, with interchange available to the 5 and 24. As the Eastland Mall closed years ago, much of the traffic at this stop were people interchanging to other routes (myself included).

so what

This route is really quite nice. Service-wise, it is very similar to the 34 Morse, a frequent route that serves high-ish-density development that does not go downtown. However, the 23 is a much more pleasant ride than the 34, mostly due to how the road it runs on is laid out. Unlike Morse, Stelzer and James are usually less than six lanes, and yet they still feel faster than Morse. It’s almost like building huge nine-lane roads doesn’t work…

final rating

The 23 James/Stelzer will get a 7/10. The frequency of every 15 minutes is really nice for a route that does not touch downtown, and James Road is much more pleasant than Morse. There are only a few things that I can think of that would make this route much better, speaking of…

how would i improve this

I would make the route longer. Extend every other bus from Easton first west along Morse, then north along SR-3 (Westerville Road). North of Uptown, at Polaris Parkway, this route would turn west and terminate shortly after at the OhioHealth on Africa Rd. Delaware County needs transit too!