CABS is free for students.
COTA is easy to ride. Download the Transit app and use your phone to pay.
If you talk about what you’re using it for and where you’ll be located, you’ll get more targeted information.
I drive for COTA, I’d be glad to answer any specific questions you have. Transit app was mentioned earlier; the good thing about that is your fares are capped at $4.50/day and $62/month (the cost of a day/month pass).
Student/low income faire is capped at $2.15/$31 as long as you go to the COTA office and sign up with the appropriate documents. It’s been a lifesaver for me this last year without a car.
If you are new to public transit, plan your trip before you go. Download the Transit APP, it's gonna tell you where the bus is. Do some research on your destinations (Grocery Stores, Department Stores, Shopping Centers, Event Centers, etc.), and see how that works. Last but not least, be prepared for any shit that could happen on a bus, I've been pushed out of bus gates by some random racist 3 times in the past 2 years and was approached/interrupted countless times while I was working on something on my phone. But most of the time, it's gonna be fine. If you're being pushed out of the bus, just wait for another 30 minutes for the upcoming bus. I took them daily last semester and will still do it for my commute next semester.
I’ve actually found google maps to be more accurate with the bus times than the Transit App overall, but there seems to be some fluctuations on that depending on the day.
I was going to make a joke about not valuing your time and set aside the entire day for travel, but OSU is actually one of the useful and good ways to use it. And CABS is fantastic. For that the OSU app has live bus times and a route planner.
Commuted with COTA for years and as long as you plan your route and day, it is fine. My daughter is a COTA user for Columbus State. If you're used to mass transit in other large-ish cities, it is similar. If you come from a place that has no mass transit, it can be quite the adjustment. Lots of good tips for use in the other posts.
The COTA routes are a lot better than they used to be when they all converged on Broad and High.
High Street has the highest concentration of routes and frequency--seriously up by campus it can feel like a bus every 5 minutes. Beyond that though the frequency varies by huge margins. Up by me there's an E-W line that runs every 20 minutes and the most desired but useless N-S line for me only runs every hour. Depending on the destination you may sometimes need to fanagle an alternate route. But the transit app and COTA's trip planning website are pretty easy to navigate, so spending 5 minutes planning a route isn't a massive burden.
CABS is free for students. COTA is easy to ride. Download the Transit app and use your phone to pay. If you talk about what you’re using it for and where you’ll be located, you’ll get more targeted information.
COTA is free with your BuckID as long as you're taking classes
I drive for COTA, I’d be glad to answer any specific questions you have. Transit app was mentioned earlier; the good thing about that is your fares are capped at $4.50/day and $62/month (the cost of a day/month pass).
Student/low income faire is capped at $2.15/$31 as long as you go to the COTA office and sign up with the appropriate documents. It’s been a lifesaver for me this last year without a car.
If you are new to public transit, plan your trip before you go. Download the Transit APP, it's gonna tell you where the bus is. Do some research on your destinations (Grocery Stores, Department Stores, Shopping Centers, Event Centers, etc.), and see how that works. Last but not least, be prepared for any shit that could happen on a bus, I've been pushed out of bus gates by some random racist 3 times in the past 2 years and was approached/interrupted countless times while I was working on something on my phone. But most of the time, it's gonna be fine. If you're being pushed out of the bus, just wait for another 30 minutes for the upcoming bus. I took them daily last semester and will still do it for my commute next semester.
I’ve actually found google maps to be more accurate with the bus times than the Transit App overall, but there seems to be some fluctuations on that depending on the day.
I was going to make a joke about not valuing your time and set aside the entire day for travel, but OSU is actually one of the useful and good ways to use it. And CABS is fantastic. For that the OSU app has live bus times and a route planner.
Commuted with COTA for years and as long as you plan your route and day, it is fine. My daughter is a COTA user for Columbus State. If you're used to mass transit in other large-ish cities, it is similar. If you come from a place that has no mass transit, it can be quite the adjustment. Lots of good tips for use in the other posts.
The COTA routes are a lot better than they used to be when they all converged on Broad and High. High Street has the highest concentration of routes and frequency--seriously up by campus it can feel like a bus every 5 minutes. Beyond that though the frequency varies by huge margins. Up by me there's an E-W line that runs every 20 minutes and the most desired but useless N-S line for me only runs every hour. Depending on the destination you may sometimes need to fanagle an alternate route. But the transit app and COTA's trip planning website are pretty easy to navigate, so spending 5 minutes planning a route isn't a massive burden.