After one experience driving through THE Ohio State University’s campus, you may begin to feel the frustration of navigating this massive campus. The truth is there really is no good way to navigate this campus. The buses, parking, traffic, and transportation system as a whole often leave students and faculty filled with confusion and thousands of questions just like these. Here are ten questions for Ohio State’s transportation situation.
No matter where you may venture on Ohio State’s massive campus, you will find there is essentially nowhere that includes free parking. A lack of free parking is semi-usual nowadays, but it can also be super inconvenient. Moving into the dorm and having nowhere close to temporarily park for free while you unload is a nightmare. You would think with half the undergrad students in residence halls, there would be a better planning for this that extended beyond a few turn arounds here and there!
Student safety rides, a free service, is ideally meant to give students safe, reliable rides on campus. The issue with student safety is you cannot simply call right when you need them, rides must be booked ahead, they may cancel rides on you, they will not make more than one stop, and they will fill the car to the brim with miscellaneous people. Because many use student safety as a free version of Uber, the services are limited and fill up fast. So unless you plan to call at 2 PM for a 2 AM ride, student safety is probably not your best bet.
Thompson Library and the RPAC are two of the most well known landmarks on campus, so why is there no form of transportation to get students there!? The closest bus stop to the RPAC and Thompson is either 12th and Neil or the stop before Morill and Lincoln Tower. The small street running between these two attractions is often blocked off to cars, so it is rare to get any type of transportation through there. Some take this lack of transportation as a perfect excuse not to go to the gym or the library!
North campus is one of the newest additions to our campus, including many nice dorms, dining halls, class building, courtyards, etc. The issue is, north campus literally has two streets that allow access to the area: Woodruff and Lane. All of these residence halls lack driveways, and both of the two streets do not offer parking. Lack of roads make north campus seem extra “residential” but it’s also extra frustrating not having anywhere specific for Ubers to come, parents to drop off, places for food delivery, etc.
Student parking passes are often impractical simply due to the price of keeping it a car in a campus deck or lot, the inconvenience of walking to certain parking decks, and the gamble of if you will even get a pass or not. Like everything else, there is only a limited amount of parking spots and staff gets first priority, students get priority by class ranking. Decks vary location and price, so the whole ordeal can be a gamble. For these reasons many people choose to purchase alternative off campus parking passes.
Okay, let’s be honest, students technically do not have the right of way but they sure like to think they do. Students feel entitled to j-walk across the street whenever they feel, so they will get highly offended when cars or bus drivers try to run them over. Don’t the cars realize we are late for class?!
Students we are blessed to have the OSU app as a resource to nearly anything and everything they do. The app includes CABS bus time arrival updates, making it super easy to catch a nearby bus. Or so you’d think… What you may not realize is that the app is easily a few minutes off. That minute or two matters when you think you’re on time for the bus, when it actually left two minutes ago and you’re left to brave a long walk or an even longer wait.
A few buses, like the CLN for example, say they run at “all times,” but this does not necessarily mean ALL times. What I never realized, until dissecting the CABS bus schedule online, is that even the buses that run at all times have breaks. The online CABS schedule clarifies that due to driver breaks, “service will deviate from advertised intervals between 1 AM and 2 AM and or between 4 AM and 5 AM” AKA if you were planning to catch the CLN at 1 AM you may be waiting a while!
Figuring out bus times is like deciphering morse code. In order to get the times right, you must refer to the CABS online schedule for every last excruciating detail. Sadly, every single bus has a different time schedule, varying pick up frequency, and different weekend/holiday schedules.
Ubers are no longer a foreign topic, it’s 2017 and campus is crawling with Ubers! So why do vehicles on campus still get frazzled Ubers are pulled over on the side of the road, flashers on, waiting for their passengers? Newsflash: Uber isn’t going anywhere so vehicles should learn to go around, or better yet to just be patient!
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