Rider-Citizen Suggestion to the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) in Columbus, Ohio
Below is a proposed convention to how bus routes are numbered in the COTA system.
It’s a small change from the legacy convention underlying COTA’s existing practices for assigning bus line numbers to its fixed-service routes.
Purpose
Avoid navigational errors in which user unknowingly takes incorrect bus route branch when traveling outbound, possibly resulting in significant delays and stranded riders.
Convention Proposed
Trunk: where all trips share the same route, the bus line maintains its assigned numbers.
Branches: after a split (traveling outbound), each branch is designated by appending a letter to the end, i.e. 7A/7B, 8A/8B
Continuity: minimal impact to COTA’s existing bus line number assignment; minimal disruption from implementing this change.
