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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Table of Contents

Project Introduction and Objective pg. 1 Analysis Results pg. 13

Pertinent Background Information pg. 2 Conclusion pg. 14
Process and Methodology Overview pg. 3 Reflections on the Project pg. 15

Process and Methodology

Phase One:
Study Assignment pg. 4
Phase Two:
Experience Mapping pg. 5
- Darwin pg. 6
- Vel pg. 7
- David pg. 8
- Danielle pg. 9
- Laura pg. 10
Phase Three:
Co-creation of an Ideal
transportation service pg. 11

Data Analysis pg.12

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Project Introduction and Objective

I chose the topic of “An Ideal Transportation System in

Columbus, OH” as my student led event primarily because I am
interested in the design and development of services for the
public sector, but also because I feel that Columbus is a very
good example of an average sized city that has experienced
the advent of urban sprawl. With factors such as the increase
in travel and living expenses by comparison to earned income,
the trend in people returning from the suburbs to the city centers
just as many public transportation services have diminished
or been terminated, I am interested in how Columbus and
municipalities like it can address these pressing issues.
Through this project, I hoped to discover and explore ideas of
what an “ideal” system, or network of systems, could be.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Pertinent Background Information

In addition to the observations from my time spent in Columbus,

OH, much of the background for this project comes from
personal experiences in cities across the United States such
as Manhattan, Los Angeles, Portland, OR, Chicago, as well as
cities in other countries such as Frankfurt, Germany and Seoul,
South Korea. All of those cities have systems that are widely
accepted to be much better and more efficient systems of
transportation (public and private) than Columbus. And, in the
case of Manhattan, it is routinely ranked at the top of the list for
U.S. cities as having the best and most efficient transportation
systems as well as one of the best systems globally.

Sources:
Fast Co-Exist. “The cities with the best public transportation in the U.S.”
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025623/the-cities-with-the-best-public-transpor-
tation-in-the-us
CNN Travel. “What are the world’s best metro systems?”
http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/10-best-metro-systems-746919

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: overview

To begin this project I first explored topics based on my interests

and considered who was in the class that would be participating
in the event and how much I thought that they might be able to
contribute based on their known current, and passed,
experiences. This was a consideration in choosing the topic due
to the fact that I was interested in as much diverse and varied
experience experiences as was possible for my topic. Based
on those factors I sought verbal feedback from my professor,
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, Ph.D., who helped me finalize the
project focus down to transportation experiences in and around
Columbus with a second layer of participant co-designing of an
“ideal” transportation system or service. After the topic had been
chosen, it was decided that it made the most sense to break the
group participation in to three phases consisting of an individual
homework phase, an individual experience mapping phase to
be done in class and a co-creative, group phase, done in class
immediately after the experience mapping phase.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Example of experience mapping

Process and Methodology: phase one

Study Assignment

The homework phase consisted of a study assignment that was

a PDF slide presentation, emailed to the participants two days
before hand and consisting of two types of “mapping” examples.
The first example was the mapping of experiences or “journeys”
and consisted of a definition of what it is and examples of maps Source: https://asset.uie.com/articles/img/experience_map/RailEurope_CXMap_
with various levels of complexity. Before moving on to the next FINALV1.png
mapping example the participants where prompted with the
Example of service mapping
statement that experience mapping can be used as a research
tool in many different applications but that it has recently found
a valued home as a process used in the design of services. The
next series of slides consisted of a definition of what service
design is and examples of various service maps, just as had
been done with the section on experience mapping. The final
slide in the study assignment asked the participants to pay at-
tention to how they traveled around in their daily activities. What
was their day like? What were some of the services that they
used, if any? How did they get from home to school, from home
to the grocery store or to dinner with their friends? The plan
was to have them think about what a “typical experience” was
for them, what they liked, what they didn’t like and be
cognizant of those experiences over the next couple of days
leading up to the group event.

4 Source: www.makinguse.com/tdx/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/system_map.png
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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Personal Experience Mapping

For the second phase of the project, the participants arrived and
were organized around a group of tables so that they where all
facing in towards the center. Each of them was then presented
with curated toolkit consisting of a large, blank piece of paper,
scissors, glue sticks, purposefully selected images, silhouette
paper cutouts, and shapes that all represented expressions,
actions or things, in addition to round sticky notes and markers.
The participants were then asked to utilize the materials of the
toolkit to map out there typical, daily, experience as they travel
from “home, to campus, to home” and were given
approximately twenty-five minutes to do so. After the prescribed
time had elapsed, all of the participants were asked to tape their
experience maps to the wall, and in turn, describe to the group
what they had created. The purpose of this sharing exercise
was to have each individual verbally talk through and explain
their experience, helping to create empathy among all of the
group members for the third phase of the session.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Sharing of “Home, to Campus, to Home” Experiences

“I walk from home to the bus stop and

most of the places I walk, they don’t
have sidewalks.”

- Darwin
First year Design Research and Development, MFA candidate.
Originally from Indonesia, has lived in the U.S. for over ten years

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Sharing of “Home, to Campus, to Home” Experiences

“You see some weird stuff... very

strange people are on the bus...”

“Glad I don’t have to drive though... It’s

faster to take the bus.”

- Vel
First year Design Research and Development, MFA candidate.
From the U.S., has lived in many cities across the country.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Sharing of “Home, to Campus, to Home” Experiences

“Columbus is the first city that I’ve lived

in that I feel I actually need to own a
car.”

- David
First year Design Research and Development, MFA candidate.
Originally from Scotland, taught English for three years in Korea.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Sharing of “Home, to Campus, to Home” Experiences

“Because I’m usually rushing I drive

more frequently... its faster than the
bus.”

“[Buses] kinda become this, yucky

place...”

- Danielle
MBA student
From the U.S., relocated to Columbus a few years ago from Brooklyn, NY

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase two

Sharing of “Home, to Campus, to Home” Experiences

“There’s two really big lanes for cars, if

they redesigned the street they could
easily have a bike lane.”

- Laura
First year Design Research and Development, MFA candidate.
Originally from Columbia, has lived in the U.S. for almost ten years

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase three

Co-creation of an Ideal Transportation Service Map

Having just shared each of their individual experience maps for

how they got from “home, to campus, to home”, the participants
where then asked to come together as a group and map out an
“ideal” transportation system or network of services for
Columbus. They were given a large white sheet of paper taped
to the wall to map out there ideas and were free to use as much
of the previous toolkit supplies, markers, and glue-sticks as they
felt necessary. Of note is that the participants took advantage of
an unplanned, but available, white-board and dry erase markers
to make initial notes and collectively brainstorm before
beginning the mapping process.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Process and Methodology: phase three

Co-creation of an Ideal Transportation Service Map

After approximately twenty-five minutes, the group was

wrapping up the mapping session and it was growing close to
the end allotted time period for the session. Although photo and
video documentation had been ongoing throughout the whole of
the second and third phases, the participants were asked if they
had any additional comments or thoughts that they would like
to share in regards to what would be “ideal” for a transportation
system or system of services in and around Columbus.

Once the participants had completed their comments they were

thanked for their time and after they had left the room all of the
artifacts that they had generated were gathered for latter
analysis.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Data Analysis

To document the data generated from this project, photo/audio/

video files were captured for later analysis as well as participant
created artifacts in the form of individual experience maps and a
group generated service map.

To analyze the data, all of the audio/video files where carefully

reviewed to pull out key quotes, as well as all of the positive and
negative experiences. This process began first with the personal
“home to campus to home” experiences that the participants had
mapped out and shared with the group and after those files had
carefully been reviewed, the same method of analysis was
applied to the video file of the co-created service map. The
participant generated maps were also reviewed on their own to
gather any insights that may not have been captured otherwise.

Some additional research was needed after analysis of the videos

though, and this was done to gain a better understanding of some
of the transportation services mentioned such as Washington,
DC’s “slug lines”, and Berlin’s U-Bahn and S-Bahn systems.

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An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus
Analysis Results
Key findings based on analysis of the data
- Being “green” is a concern for some people in Columbus
- Columbus makes people who move there feel as though they
“need to own a car” because of the lack of other transportation
options and how spread out it is
- Columbus is not set up in a way that currently facilitates
alternative forms of transportation
- Columbus is not a very bike friendly community. There are no
good bike lanes or other systems to facilitate the use of bikes
on main roads
- There are often no sidewalks where they are needed to
enable people to safely walk from one location to the other
- Even with “weird stuff” factors, people are often glad to take
the bus in order to save money and sometimes time
- For some people buses take much longer than if they drive or
take a taxi
- People don’t like to wait for the bus
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- People like to have multiple options for how the get around
- People would like to have a trolley, train, tram, or subway
system in Columbus
- People feel as though they can’t take the bus if they are in a
hurry
- Sometimes people will drive short distances to “park and
rides” because of concern for safety on return home,
especially at night due to an insufficient amount of lighting or
sidewalks
- Sometimes, if people use the public transportation system
they have to take extra steps due to the fact that the system
doesn’t completely facilitate their needs
- Public transportation is a “marginalized” way of getting around
in Columbus. People often ride the bus because they can’t
afford to have any other way to get around
- People in Columbus are used to the convenience of their cars
and have no incentive to use public or alternative forms of
transportation
An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus
Conclusion
Transportation systems and services for Columbus, OH are
currently made up of several different “layers” of options which
consist of: the public bus transportation system (Columbus
has no other form of public transit), personally owned vehicles
(POVs) which make up the primary means by which people get
around, taxis/Uber/Lyft, and alternatives such as biking or
walking. Based on the group’s co-created service map, this
layered system of transportation is the desired concept of public
and private options, but while the current layers of services offer
some of what the participants in the group speak of as an “ideal”
transportation system for the city and the area, there are some
points of opportunity that can be addressed.
Those points are:
- Lack or inefficiency of networked and interconnected layers in
the transit system
- Poor quality, timeliness and availability of it’s public transit
system
- Lack of alternative options as convenient as POVs
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All of the points listed, are actually quite intrinsic to each other
and in many ways point to two issues: the one dimensional layer
of public transit in Columbus which, in turn, influences the next
issue which is the dependence and preference towards
personally owned vehicles. Indeed, the efficiency and
interconnectivity of roads and highways for automobile use are
very good, however, that is only one layer of transit in
Columbus. As the data from the group participation project
suggests, that layer is not the only desired layer and it would
be preferred if more varied options of getting around where an
option. And while there are clearly areas for innovation in the
services that the private sector can offer to Columbus, there is
much that the public sector can do to improve the city’s
transportation services and it’s users experiences.
*been
Any proposals for improvements or redesigns of the topic at hand have
withheld until further research can be conducted.
An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

My Reflections

- Double-check the capacity of your memory card!
Luckily I had my iPad with me so I was still able to
capture the session!
- You should have some one to help you with documentation!
As the saying goes, “two heads are better than one” and
having a partner available to help capture all of the data
and have a second perspective is very valuable. Also,
because during my session I was busy digitally recording
what was going on, I wasn’t able to take notes. Having
someone who is focused on one of those aspects of data
collection while the other person focuses on either
another form or facilitation/question asking would be a
much more efficient and effective process.
- Complex topics require complex methods.
I had never, personally, utilized a research method before
that used several different processes in one session
towards a singular end goal (homework, make tools for
experience, and then facilitating a co-creation session)
and I find that it maybe the best method for really
complex issues that often have many layers of
complexity.
- Cities and Municipalities are really big, complex animals!
This goes with out saying but when you start to look at all
of the moving parts and their interconnectedness as
opposed to the overall big picture it can almost seem
overwhelming!
- My project was sufficient enough only to scratch the surface.
I was only able to gather the views of transportation
systems in Columbus from the perspective of a small
group of people. As Vel said, “ I’d say that this is the
beginning of a really good idea…” And while I do not feel
that a very large scale, bureaucratic study is necessary, I
do see the need for a larger and longer study in regards
to the topic, just one that is much more agile than current
practices.

Josh Morrow - 406 548 8044 - morrow.129@gmail.com

An Ideal Transportation System for Columbus

Thank you for your time!

If you have any questions,
feel free to contact me at:
morrow.129@gmail.com
406 548 8044

Josh Morrow - 406 548 8044 - morrow.129@gmail.com