COTA Line Review: 52 Canal Winchester
in which i realize oops! i haven't posted in three weeks
(i had final exams and ap tests in school over these past few weeks so thats why i haven’t posted in a while but theyre FINALLY mostly over so we will get back to the weekly schedule)
The 52 is rather unique among rush-hour routes in that it makes part of its journey on regular streets and another part on limited-access expressways. This route completely exceeded my expectations and was a really fun ride, however, despite this, I can see how it wouldn’t be convenient for people who live in Canal Winchester.
okay, where does it go
We started our trip outbound at the Spring Street Transit Terminal. There was a rather large amount of people waiting for the bus, probably around 15-20 people. We left the terminal and headed south along High, passing by the statehouse. We picked up more people as we went through downtown, reaching a max of around 25.
We left downtown and went south along South High through German Village. This part of Columbus is really cool, with tightly packed brick houses. Continuing through Hungarian Village, we turned east onto SR-104. Sailing over the South Side of Columbus and over two railyards, we made our way over to US-33, which we turned onto headed south. After a while, we left the suburbs of Blacklick Estates and Groveport, and we entered an area dominated by farmland. Before long, we got off of US-33 at Canal Winchester and terminated at the Canal Winchester Park & Ride.
This Park & Ride is close-ish to the center of Canal Winchester; however, you cannot actually walk there as it is on the wrong side of US-33. The only bridge over US-33 in Canal Winchester annoyingly has no sidewalks, isolating this area from the rest of the town.
so what
Between the railyards, German Village, the rural land near the end of the route, and the hills off in the distance, this route is very scenic. There’s just something about these routes that take you far away very quickly that is unmatched by any other routes.
Despite this good scenery, there is no way to walk from this Park & Ride in Canal Winchester to the city itself. This factor, combined with the rather average headways when compared to other rush-hour routes, bring the route’s rating down.
final rating
I’ll give this route a 5/10, but despite the score, this route is a far from average route. This seemingly average score is only as such because it has very nice scenery but low levels of convenience.
how would i improve this
I decided to add this section (and will be adding it to other route reviews over the course of the weekend) because I realized that simply complaining isn’t gonna do anything. I’ll update the 34 Morse post soon as well with the new extension.
Anyways, how would I improve the 52? To start, I would extend it (and the 25) to the central part of Canal Winchester, making it transit accessible. Another thing I would do is add limited stops along South High so people along that segment can use it as well.