Central Ohio Transit Authority

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Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)

Type	Government agency
Founded	1971
Headquarters	Columbus, Ohio

There is also the Council on the Ageing in Australia.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) is the transit agency serving Columbus, Ohio and surrounding areas.

1 History
2 Recent Events
3 Additional Information
- 3.1 Central Office Address
4 See also
5 External links
- 5.1 References

[edit] History

Photo of a COTA bus in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Photograph courtesy of the Central Ohio Transit Authority.

In 1971 the local governments of Bexley, Columbus, Gahanna, Grandview Heights, Grove City, Hilliard, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, Westerville, Whitehall, Worthington and Franklin County, threatened by the loss of bus service from the privately owned Columbus Transit Company (CTC), came together to form COTA. COTA began providing service in Franklin County on January 1, 1974.

A 13-member board of trustees oversees the transit system and appoints the president/CEO to manage the day-to-day operations of the authority. In November 1999, Franklin County voters approved a 0.25 percent permanent sales tax for COTA – the first time for permanent funding in COTA history. In 2006, voters approved another 0.25 percent sales tax for COTA. This raised the total funding for COTA to a 0.50 percent sales tax. Along with a 0.25 percent sales tax drop in Franklin County, this increases COTA's funding without raising the overall sales tax. The tax changes fully go into effect January 1, 2008.

[edit] Recent Events

In 2005, COTA provided approximately 49,000 weekday bus rides and between 3,000 to 3,600 weekly rides on Project Mainstream, COTA’s service for people with disabilities who can’t use fixed-route service. With a fleet of 234 buses, COTA travels throughout central Ohio on 53 routes, with 4,214 bus stops, 380 bus shelters, 24 park & ride locations, and over 1 million calls annually to the customer information center.

[edit] Light Rail Study

COTA has studied the feasibility of constructing a light rail line, a streetcar line, or a bus rapid transit line several times in recent years, but has failed to secure funding for any system beyond the current bus service. COTA's most recent attempt, FastTrax/North Corridor, was permanently tabled in the summer of 2006. Columbus did not meet current federal feasibility regulations, and did not receive federal funding, which was expected to cover over half the cost. No light rail lines are expected to be built in the near future, though the city of Columbus is still considering a streetcar system in downtown Columbus.

[edit] Biodiesel Project

On January 15, 2006, the Central Ohio Transit Authority began a program to test a 20% blend of biodiesel (B20) is it buses. Since that date, COTA has been running B20 in 33% of the buses. They used approximately 45,000 gallons of B20 through the test period, which ended mid-March, 2006.

With this testing program, COTA became at least the third major transit agency in Ohio to use a significant quantity of biodiesel, in addition to varying levels of use in the Greater Cincinnati METRO service and the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA).

So far there have been no gelling problems on recent cold mornings in February. Costs for B20 have been comparable with their on-road #2 diesel fuel.

In April 2006 COTA began using biodiesel fleet-wide. In addition to using B20 in the winter months, COTA is committed to using 50-90% biodiesel blends (B50 - B90) during the summer months. This is projected to decrease regular diesel fuel consumption by over one million gallons per year. This switch also will create a significant reduction in emissions of carbon monoxide, soot, and other greenhouse gas emissions. COTA is one of the first transit fleets to switch to biodiesel blends across the board.^[1]

[edit] Long-Range Transit Plan

On August 23, 2006, the Central Ohio Transit Authority Board of Trustees approved the Long-Range Transit Plan (LRTP).

The LRTP has four major components:

Expansion of fixed-route bus service
Increased service for persons with disabilities (paratransit)
Introduction of technologies to make transit more convenient and user-friendly
Planning for future transit investments (transit centers, park & rides, acquisition of rights of way in strategic corridors and other transit initiatives)