Ahead of the Buckeyes game against Penn State, a stretch of North High street from Lane Avenue to Dodridge will be reduced to three lanes on Saturday, with the fourth dedicated solely to bus bike and scooter traffic.
The so-called "game day mobility lane" is part of a pilot program from the city and COTA.
The southbound curb lane will be set off with traffic cones starting at 10 a.m. When the football game starts at noon, the dedicated lane will move to the northbound curb lane, and car traffic will be reduced until the game concludes.
Columbus City Council president Shannon Hardin says this follows a similar test the city did downtown.
"We had very little to none negative feedback on the first one. I do not expect that to be the case for this second one because it will be a very new idea to a lot of folks at the same time," he says with a laugh.
Hardin says they are already planning a third test in a residential neighborhood.
"And the question that we're trying to ask the data we are trying to ascertain is can we be more efficient, can we be safer in moving more people in and out and around our community," he says.
The pilot is intended as part of long-term transit planning to accommodate projected population growth.
"Right now this is a car centric community, which is O.K., but it won’t be O.K. when we add a million more people to the city,” Hardin says.
