While the Central Ohio Transit Authority wants to expand and improve its bus routes with the proposed LinkUs sales tax levy increase this fall, Delaware County Transit has done away with all bus routes in recent years — and it's not going back.
The pandemic forced Delaware County Transit to switch to an on-demand ride service like Uber or Lyft in the city of Delaware, a program that has "gone gangbusters," said Andy Volenik, the agency's executive director. Unlike COTA, where ridership still hasn't fully recovered since the pandemic, Delaware County Transit has increased its ridership above pre-pandemic levels.
In light of this success, Volenik doesn't see Delaware County Transit bringing back buses anytime soon. Instead, the transit agency wants to expand on-demand rides to communities in the southern part of the county when they can get the funding.
Where does this leave public transportation connectivity between the two most populous counties in the region?
Franklin County leaders pushing for LinkUs, the initiative to build bus rapid transit lines and expand other COTA services, often point to the region's growing population, not just the population in the COTA service area. The idea is that people from outside the service area will also use COTA buses. In the coming years, Delaware County is expected to see the most drastic population growth by percentage in central Ohio. But while Delaware County used to have a bus route that linked Delaware to COTA stops by Polaris, that's gone now.
COTA has a few stops in southern Delaware County, including at Polaris Fashion Place and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. But there's no plan to expand COTA services further into the county or connect Delaware County Transit and COTA again via fixed routes.
Volenik said Delaware County Transit only receives a couple of calls each week from county residents wanting to get to a COTA bus stop and their call ahead service gets them there.
Pam Miller, executive director of the Powell Area Chamber of Commerce, said some residents adamantly oppose connecting Delaware County and COTA.
"If you talk to the people of Powell, they'll tell you no because they feel like COTA brings crime to the area," Miller said. "I don't know that COTA is the answer. The Delaware Transit (vehicles) are so much nicer than the COTA buses."
Uber-like Flex rides popular in Delaware
Delaware County Transit operated a handful of bus routes from its inception in 1995 through mid-2020, but the arrival of COVID-19 tanked bus ridership like it did everywhere. So the agency transitioned in the middle of 2020 from five routes to a cheaper, on-demand service in the city of Delaware similar to Uber or Lyft called Delaware City Flex.
Riders within Delaware can use an app to summon a Flex ride within about 10 minutes and get anywhere within the city. These rides cost $2, or $1 if you're 65 and over or 18 and under. Flex rides are offered Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and earlier this month, expanded to Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Delaware County Transit provided about 73,000 trips in 2019 when it had fixed bus routes, and about 118,000 trips in 2023 (about three-quarters of those were Flex rides).
Besides Flex, the rest of the rides are arranged at least a day in advance and are available across the county at rates based on the distance traveled. The cost caps at around $29.
In the fall, Delaware County Transit plans to extend its Flex rides program to Sunbury. Across the county, Volenik said they're projected to operate 150,000 total trips this year.
"We're proving that this model of micro transit works," Volenik said.
Meanwhile, COTA provided more than 11 million rides last year, down from about 19 million rides in 2019.
COTA has an annual budget of nearly $200 million while Delaware County Transit has an annual budget of about $5 million, mostly from federal transportation funding. Delaware County hasn't leveraged a tax levy for funding and doesn't plan to, Volenik said.
To expand flex services into communities larger than Sunbury in the southern part of the county, Delaware County Transit is seeking funding partners, Volenik said.
Delaware County Transit is playing catch-up, Volenik acknowledged.
"I feel like we're five years behind, but I've got 18 months to catch up," Volenik said. "In the next two to four years, we have to service Powell, we have to service Orange Township, we have to have integrated service with COTA in and out of the Polaris area and the northern Westerville portion and their Medical Mile."
But Delaware County Transit hasn't figured out yet how to best integrate service with COTA, Volenik said.
"And that takes time to do so. It's appropriate for us to grow our Delaware County presence and then we go toward that bigger portion (integrating with COTA) because it's going to be a lot, a lot of folks, a whole other undertaking we're going to have to be prepared for."
Jeff Pullin, a spokesperson for COTA, said COTA and Delaware County Transit have a great working relationship.
"We must work together because the region is growing and that will certainly lead to increased demand for our services," Pullin said. "It will be critical to view moving people efficiently through a regional lens, and we will jointly work with our regional leaders to help create the opportunity for successful partnerships."
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