COTA Line Review: 31 Hudson

actually a really cool route

what is this

Let’s start off with this: the 31 is a strange yet nice route. It snakes through neighborhoods that have faster and more direct service on other routes, but nevertheless, it exists. For example, Northeast Columbus is served by the 9 as well as the 31. The 9 quickly makes its way downtown after serving the area, but the 31 seemingly aimlessly wanders through North Linden and the University District before coming close to downtown (which it never actually goes to). This is just one of the many odd deviations that this route takes, but these deviations are what make the route interesting.

okay, where does it go

easton transit center with lots of buses

My journey started at the Easton Transit Center. After departing from the transit center significantly earlier than I was expecting to, we made our way through Easton, doing the first of many deviations along the way. We picked up one rider in Easton, and we reached the highest number of riders we had, a whole 3 riders. Note that I did take this route on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which may have impacted ridership.

easton, again

After our spin through Easton, we passed through a rather rural part of town as we made our way down Sunbury Road. To the west there was a small valley, at the bottom of which lay Alum Creek. We continued to head south past lots open for future development and single-story houses that sat on multiple acres of land.

north linden

Eventually, we turned west onto Mock Road and entered North Linden. We made a deviation (albeit a necessary one due to road work) on Weber Road, where we passed many Somali-language businesses (Columbus has a sizable Somali diaspora), and a surprising amount of auto shops mixed in with small single-family homes. Note that at the time of publishing this article, this deviation will not occur anymore, and the bus will operate along Hudson Street instead of Weber Road. Despite a noticeable amount of this neighborhood’s population choosing to walk, we had no one get on or off as we continued westward towards Clintonville.

university district

We abruptly turned south onto Interstate I-71, which we stayed on for a very short period of time before exiting the highway into the University District onto Hudson Street. Everything became denser: houses got closer together, there were wall-to-wall businesses, and there were also well-placed bike lanes, which I found to be a nice touch to the area.

the oval at ohio state

Not long after entering the University District, we turned onto High Street, which abuts THE Ohio State University. Along High Street, interchange is available to the 1, 2, and 102 routes. Single-family homes become duplexes which become apartments situated above local businesses, many of which restaurants frequented by college students. Soon, we turned west into the university proper, running along 11th Avenue. We then turned south, then west again onto Medical Center Drive. This area had lots of university facilities, including the main medical center at Ohio State.

olentangy river

After our spin through the University, we crossed over the Olentangy River into Grandview Heights. The density very quickly dropped off, and we were now serving areas with single-family homes again. The route takes a very circuitous path through Grandview Heights, the route turns north to run along Kenny Road, then turns west onto Kinnear, turns south onto North Star, then wiggles its way down to 1st Ave. Eventually, we came up to an area with some restaurants, and the bus route terminated. The route ends at the intersection of Rail Street & Baldwin Drive, where interchange is available to the 22.

terminus at Rail Street & Baldwin Drive

so what

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the route. For what it is, a local bus to provide easy short hops between adjacent communities, it is good. Could it have better frequency? Yeah, probably, but most of the neighborhoods it serves have other bus routes with higher frequency that go to places where more people would want to go, like downtown. The 30-minute headway is likely sufficient for this route.

final rating

I’ll give the 31 a 7/10. It’s a convenient route for making very specific journeys, but it doesn’t really serve people trying to travel longer distances; it doesn’t feel like a route that you are really supposed to ride end-to-end. If you do take it end-to-end, the neighborhoods that the route goes through are all very different from each other and it’s really rather interesting. This entire route feels like a deviation, but I’m here for it.

how would i improve this

There really isn’t a whole lot you can do to make this a better route; it serves its intended purpose very well. As always, shorter headways would be nice, especially on weekends where the current frequency is every hour, but I believe this is included in COTA’s long term plan. It also would be nice if it continued south from Grandview Heights down into Franklinton, as there is no route that does this right now.