Commissioner Erica C. Crawley Congratulates COTA's Newest Graduates
A bus route is not a policy document. But for a lot of Franklin County residents, it is the difference between making rent and missing a shift.
That connection is why Franklin County Commissioner Erica C. Crawley was at COTA's McKinley Avenue facility Wednesday morning, when two new classes of bus operators completed one of the more demanding training programs in the region.
The graduates finished more than 360 hours of instruction across two tracks: the fixed route program and the COTA Plus program, which serves riders who cannot use fixed route services. They passed a required federal written exam with a 96% average, well above the 80% minimum the law requires.
Crawley did not come to cut a ribbon. She came because, in her view, what happened in that room is what county investment is supposed to look like when it works.
"How a city moves is how a city lives. You cannot talk about housing without talking about transportation. You cannot talk about employment, or healthcare, or solving the problems in our community without taking transportation into account."
The county has put money behind that argument. Driving Futures is a county-funded program that moves residents into stable careers in transportation. LinkUS, which the Board supports, is the regional plan to expand transit as Central Ohio continues to grow. Neither program makes headlines the way a budget vote does. But both shape whether a resident can get to a job interview, a dialysis appointment, or a school pickup on time.
The new operators begin service immediately. COTA Chief Operating Officer Alicia Ross and TWU Local 208 President Tyson D. Brown also addressed the graduates. Special awards recognized top performers, most-improved operators, and graduates who completed training despite significant personal hardship.