At the northbound bus stop at the intersection of Hudson Avenue and High Street, an elderly man sat on his foldable walker. Buses were fare-free due to the early September heat wave, but the man remained outside, baking in the late Friday afternoon sun. The 31 bus he needed to get to a friend’s apartment just a dozen or so blocks away hadn’t arrived on schedule. Nor was a single 31 bus showing on the live-tracking map. The man said this wasn’t the first time. Earlier in the summer, he said, COTA left him stranded for nearly four hours on the same route.
Frustrated transit riders have taken to social media in recent months to complain about scheduled buses that simply never show up. Those complaints prompted an August post by COTA apologizing for “missed trips, long waits, [and] last-minute cancellations” and calling fixing service “our immediate top priority.”
In July, the Columbus Dispatch reported “5-10 missed or delayed trips daily,” quoting COTA director of media and public relations, Jeff Pullin…