Columbus Public Transit

This map explores what COTA accessibility and service times look like for different areas of the city. Utilizing the American Community Survey 2022 5 year data for the census tracts there are five different kinds of tracts that were determined to be important customer bases for COTA. Only census tracts that had a COTA line running to them were queried.

First were the most population dense ones defined as more than 8,000 people per square mile (this works out to be the tracts above the 80th percentile) as population dense areas are ideal for public transit accessibility. The next three used the 90th percentile of tracts for the GINI Index of Income Inequality, the percent of the population that uses public transit for commuting, and those that fall below the poverty line that use public transit for commuting. The final group is the census tracts where 50% or more of the population falls below the poverty level. Census tracts centroid points are the exact origin location for service calculations.

Their potential destinations fall into three segments top employers in the city, high density business tracts and finally some popular locations since access to not just jobs is important as well. Top employers was based on multiple sources from how large they are to varios other rankings. Columbus city open data provided where industrial, medical, retail and office facilities are located and were condensed based on the census tract to get the densest business districts.

Using GIS Transit network software service accessibility was run for all the centroid points in the five census tract groupings. Based on 15, 30, 45, and 60 minute travel time frames for different time groups on Monday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then for each combination of start and end points an OD Cost Matrix was run in 10 minute intervals for the same time groups to determine mean amount time each trip would take. This has been visualized along a general route for each A to B trip though in reality the route may vary.