COTA’s work extends beyond routes and schedules.
In 2025, COTA expanded access, deepened community connections and built tools to ensure transit works for everyone in Central Ohio.
Expanding Access
In 2025, COTA expanded accessible rider education through MagnusCards and Travel Training, creating pathways for more people to ride independently.
MagnusCards are audio, visual and text step-by-step guides that help neurodivergent riders and anyone who benefits from structured instructions navigate fares, routes and onboard etiquette. In 2025, COTA expanded its MagnusCards library to 10 decks covering essential transit skills. The decks are multilingual and available as printable PDFs for use in classrooms and community settings.
Travel Training continued to equip riders with practical skills to navigate COTA independently. The program serves K-12 and college students, older adults, people with disabilities, new Americans and others through collaborations with The Ohio State University College of Social Work and healthcare partners.
4,000
Participants In 2025
Public Engagement
COTA deepened its connection with the community through creative campaigns, transparent outreach and service collaboration.
Club COTA launched in summer 2025 as an integrated campaign combining digital engagement and live activations to connect with new audiences and promote COTA’s restored late-night service. Customers submitted lyrics for a chance to win Nelly concert tickets, which COTA brought to life through AI-generated music videos. The campaign also included on-the-street trivia and a concert activation that recreated a late-night club experience.
COTA advanced LinkUS community outreach through public meetings, tabling events, presentations and business-to-business conversations to share updates and gather feedback on upcoming Bus Rapid Transit corridors. Service change meetings — held online and in person — helped COTA improve existing routes based on rider input.
From digital innovation to community listening, COTA connected with residents both online and in neighborhoods across Central Ohio.
In Your Neighborhood
COTA’s Community Relations Team showed up across Central Ohio in 2025: in neighborhoods, at community events and alongside the organizations working to strengthen our region.
For riders who had never considered taking the bus, their presence made all the difference. The team worked with reentry programs and recovery centers, partnered with healthcare providers and schools and stood alongside the nonprofits already doing the hard work of supporting Central Ohio's most vulnerable residents. They put passes directly into the hands of people who needed them, walked first-time riders through the system and built relationships with thousands in our community. When Central Ohioans needed access to transit, connection to their community or the confidence to ride independently, COTA’s Community Relations Team made sure the path was clear.
Beyond this work, COTA launched new initiatives, delivered measurable impact and continued building for the future. Explore more of COTA’s 2025 achievements.
