Anita Rosvanis, 38, lives in the Linden neighborhood on Columbus鈥檚 North Side. She commutes to Gahanna to work as a home health care aide.
That鈥檚 a journey of several miles, undertaken entirely by bus.
Reliable, efficient and affordable transportation is key to securing and keeping a good-paying job. Most Central Ohioans still get around by car, but not all.
For residents dependent on public transportation, commuting to work is a costly endeavor 鈥� both in money and time 鈥� and one that poor Columbus residents can seldom afford.
Three Buses And A Walk
Rosvanis walks to her COTA stop weekday mornings around 10 a.m. The single mother of three starts her journey by checking the bus schedule with an app on her smartphone.
鈥淚 hate this because I could be at home spending time with my daughter, but the bus wants to come later and later and later,鈥� Rosvanis says. 鈥溾�楥ause at the house it said, what, 10:07, and now it鈥檚 saying 10:13. And I don鈥檛 like missing this bus because then I鈥檒l miss the second bus and have to wait longer.鈥�
The bus arrives at 10:14.
Rosvanis rides the first bus for about 7 minutes, gets off at Cleveland and Innis, then waits about 10 minutes before the second bus picks her up.
A 30-minute ride takes Rosvanis to the Easton Transit Center off Morse Road near I-270, where she waits several minutes for a third bus. This bus takes her to her last stop north of Morse on Hamilton Road.
By the time Rosvanis arrives in Gahanna, she has traveled on three buses. But her trip is not over. She still has to walk about half a mile on Morse Road to the apartment complex where she works.
There is no sidewalk.
鈥淣ow I just have to walk on one side of the street, because on the other side it鈥檚 a real narrow path and when cars come you get sideswiped,鈥� Rosvanis says.
Rosvanis鈥� one-way trip takes her 1.5 hours. At work, she makes $9 an hour.
鈥淢ajority of my money goes toward child care and a bus pass, and the rest will go on utilities, or food, or whatever I need for the house or for my kids,鈥� Rosvanis says.
No Car In Columbus
The most recent Census report shows 89 percent of all Franklin County commuters take a car, truck or van to work. Just under 3 percent take public transportation.
The average commute time in Central Ohio is about 20 minutes. For Rosvanis, it takes about four times as long.
During those three hours a day, round-trip, she could otherwise be caring for her kids, going to school or training for a better job.
[infogram id=鈥�3e5d3a55-3b46-48f8-ba29-ddc84c8301a8鈥� prefix=鈥漰in鈥漖
Jason Reece, an Ohio State University assistant professor in city and regional planning, says being dependent on the transit system can limit people鈥檚 job prospects, especially for African-Americans.
In the city of Columbus, 19.7 percent of African-American residents don鈥檛 own a car. That鈥檚 compared to 7.6 percent of white residents and 9.1 percent of Latino residents.
鈥淚f you think about issues like employment and economic empowerment for that community in particular, transportation is going to be a tremendous barrier,鈥� Reece says.
Even looking at the entire Columbus metropolitan area, the disparity still exists. African-American households are three times more likely than white households to go without a car.
When using public transit, African-American commuters also have longer travel times, on average, than white commuters. That gap has only increased since 2000.
Reece says Columbus鈥� transportation problem only grew as jobs moved to the suburbs, places traditionally underserved by COTA buses.
鈥淔or those folks who are really dependent on those, that really used to be kind of the bread and butter jobs of a middle-class economy, they鈥檙e seeing their employment opportunities kind of push further and further out into some of the exurbs and really out to the farther parts of the region,鈥� Reece says.
Direct bus service to jobs outside of Columbus is critically lacking, too. found that Columbus is the second-largest city in the country without intercity public transit 鈥� neither bus service nor light rail.
鈥淲e鈥檝e not had the investment in public transit that we鈥檝e needed probably for several decades now,鈥� Reece says. 鈥淎nd as a form of infrastructure, we really need more resources directed to transit.鈥�
Suburbs Vs. Downtown
COTA is certainly aware of the city鈥檚 shift to suburbs. When the organization relaunched its , then-president W. Curtis Stitt said their goal was to shift the focus away from downtown.
鈥淲e are trying to make better connections to where people work,鈥� Stitt said. 鈥淭here are more and more jobs further and further out.鈥�
One of these job centers is in the Groveport area, now a hub for warehouses. Many warehouse workers, though, had to walk up to 2 miles from the nearest bus stop.
In response, the communities of Groveport and Obetz stepped up to provide a shuttle to take workers from the last COTA stop to the warehouses. They call the initiative : Groveport Rickenbacker Employee Access Transit.
Groveport鈥檚 transportation director Bob Dowler says the cost to operate the shuttle, $500,000 a year, is just a good investment.
鈥淚 think that what we really have to look at here is that the majority of tax revenue for both the Village of Obetz, and I can speak more to the city of Groveport, comes from income tax revenue from the people that work in these businesses,鈥� Dowler says.
Employers see the impact as well. Tony Malone, a manager at Radial Corporation, a product distributor in Groveport, says the GREAT shuttle helps him retain employees.
[infogram id=鈥漛66dd031-4e4d-4eed-acaf-f04a6cefe3b2鈥� prefix=鈥�6BO鈥漖
鈥淲e were in a situation where we had associates that couldn鈥檛 stay on full-time because they either lost the ride or didn鈥檛 want to walk,鈥� Malone says. 鈥淪o this makes it much easier, much more accessible.鈥�
"You Have To Work"
While opportunities increase in the suburbs, downtown Columbus is itself seeing more jobs in the service industry. And those janitors, security guards, kitchen staff and others still struggle to get to work.
A pilot program, which starts next spring, will try to improve public transit in the core of downtown. Building owners in the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District plan to raise about $4.5 million to provide
The hope is to encourage some 45,000 employees to take the bus, freeing up parking spaces to lure more businesses.
鈥淩ight now, less than 5 percent of the people in downtown take transit to work,鈥� says executive director Cleve Ricksecker. 鈥淚f we can double that or triple the number of people who ride the bus downtown, the impact of that is significant in many, many ways.鈥�
Free downtown bus service, however, won鈥檛 help Rosvanis on the city鈥檚 North Side. She continues to pay to ride a bus 鈥� or rather, three buses 鈥� to work.
鈥淚 want to provide a good life for myself and my children,鈥� Rosvanis says. 鈥淵ou know, and just staying at home, bills aren鈥檛 going to get paid, my kids aren鈥檛 going to get new clothes or shoes or anything. So you have to work.鈥�
