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CoGo Bike Share Sees Record Ridership in 2023

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CoGo bike share

Columbus’ CoGo bike share system has been in operation since July, 2013. After a decade of ups and downs, the system seems to be finally hitting its stride.

CoGo bikeshare total trips by year

As the chart above shows, total CoGo trips were generally up between 2013-2017, and then saw a fairly steep decline 2018-2019. It’s unclear what caused that decline, but everything from system disruptions to weather could have played a role. Regardless, the pandemic, protests and general chaos of 2020 didn’t seem to matter as total trips for the year rebounded strongly. After another down year in 2021, 2022 saw CoGo’s highest ridership since the system opened, and 2023 continued that trend by blowing out 2022’s record. There were an extra 33 trips per day in 2023 vs. 2022, which added up to more than 12,000 more for the year.
Hopefully, the increase in ridership will prompt another expansion of the system into new areas soon. And some actual protected bike lanes would be nice, as Columbus- to date, anyway- has been less than stellar on this issue.



Failed Project- Ohio’s Atom Collider

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Ohio's atom collider

The approximate location of the proposed atom collider tunnel.

Today’s failed project is a short, but interesting one- Ohio’s atom collider.

On August 9, 1985, the Columbus Dispatch ran an article about an “atom tunnel” to be located underneath parts of Delaware, Marion, Morrow and Union counties. This 60-100 mile long tunnel was to be one of the first of its kind, an early version of the Hadron Collider in Europe. The $3 billion dollar tunnel was to be buried 200 feet down and be about 10 feet in diameter. Ohio was not the only state vying for the project, but Ohio was considered to be near the top of the list. Ohio would’ve had to spend $66 million to get the site ready, anchored by a 5,000 acre project laboratory in Delaware County. The project, expected to bring 3,000 construction jobs and 6,000 permanent jobs, was expected to put the state at the forefront of scientific research.

This project largely failed for one reason: The Reagan Administration. Though the Department of Energy and the science community wanted this and other science advancements funded, it never went through, so the funding never became available. Instead, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) took the lead and built the now famous Large Hadron Collider, between 1998 and 2008. While Ohio’s “atom tunnel” would by now be far outdated, who knows what kind of research and technological advancement, even to this day, would’ve taken place under the Columbus metro’s northern counties.