Cleveland Avenue becomes fast track

For years, Robert Barksdale has watched his Milo-Grogan neighborhood struggle.

Barksdale lives in the distressed Columbus neighborhood just north of Downtown and east of Italian Village. He also is a member of the MiloGrogan area commission and believes that help is on the way with a new COTA program that starts Monday.

That’s when COTA starts its Bus Rapid Transit program called CMAX, the bus company’s introduction to higher-speed transit. COTA is using that system to target the Cleveland Avenue corridor to help commuters and create business opportunities.

“I think it’s very positive because it allows people to get to the jobs,” Barksdale said. “A lot of the corridor itself has been blighted for a long, long time.”

CMAX is a limited-stop route from Downtown to the OhioHealth Westerville medical campus on Polaris Parkway. It makes commuting to and from Downtown to major stops at East Dublin-Granville Road and Polaris Parkway faster — about 20 percent faster, COTA estimates — compared to now.

“It will help us get from Milo to the jobs in Easton and even in Westerville,” Barksdale said.

The $48.6 million program — $37.6 million from the federal government and $11 million from COTA — creates a route that will be faster thanks to technology and planning.

COTA predicts a 35-minute CMAX trip from Downtown to East Dublin-Granville Road. It will run every 10 minutes during weekday morning and afternoon rush hours. It will run every 15 minutes midday, evenings and weekends and every 30 minutes early in the morning and late evening.

From East Dublin-Granville Road to the Westerville medical campus on Polaris Parkway, CMAX will run every 30 minutes daily.

The trip from Downtown to Polaris Parkway will take about 50 minutes — without what COTA officials call the frustration of driving.

“Once they see how fast it is, they’re going to gravitate to it even more,” said Mike Bradley, COTA’s head of planning and service development.

CMAX aims to help ease tight parking for the 26,000 students at Columbus State Community College, which flanks Cleveland Avenue and is on the route. It plans to get 170,000 workers to jobs and 210,000 living near the corridor to businesses, schools and medical and government offices while encouraging development.

“What COTA really does is drive economic success for the region,” Emille Williams said. He is COTA’s interim CEO and being considered for that job full-time.

Williams points to a 2014 American Public Transportation Association study that shows each dollar invested in public transportation sees a $4 economic return. Williams predicted properties along the corridor could increase in value by 40 percent.

For the regular $2 fare, CMAX will serve the 15-mile route between Downtown and the OhioHealth campus at Polaris Parkway in Delaware County.

Time savings come because CMAX has limited stops. There are 63 stations along the CMAX route, most of them new. Most local lines have 160 or more stops both ways.

The buses also have transponders on them that communicate with traffic lights, easing traffic flow for CMAX.

The 15 CMAX buses are new and specially designed for the route. Running on compressed natural gas, they are lower to the ground than regular buses to allow easier, faster loading and unloading. They have 38 seats and are equipped with free Wi-Fi and electrical charging.

COTA officials began working on the project in 2010. They predict a 20 percent increase in ridership along that corridor in the next five years.

COTA bought 44 properties that allowed them to put in the new stations, an 11th Avenue Linden Transit Center, the Northern Lights Shopping Center Park and Ride with its 120-vehicle parking lot and the Northland Transit Center — adjacent to the hundreds of jobs at the Huntington Gateway Center — where six bus bays allow for easy transfers to other bus routes.

Roadway improvements, including recent paving, were made for CMAX. Six miles of fiber-optic cable also was laid for the stations.

Most of those stations are glass-enclosed and have bright lights and security cameras

COTA didn’t develop the CMAX program on its own.

In addition to working with the other governments, COTA also engaged residents along the corridor with public meetings and a marketing campaign.

For example, 33 of the 63 new stations on the route are either decorated by local artists or have displays about the history of neighborhoods the line runs through. The art, chosen by residents, seeks to reflect the culture and past of each of the participating neighborhoods along the corridor.

“I think people will relate to it better,” Bradley said of CMAX. “It’s theirs.”

To encourage ridership, CMAX will have no fares its first week.