The City of Columbus is spending 112 thousand taxpayer dollars to help fund a program giving free bus passes to an estimated 45 thousand qualified downtown Columbus workers.
The C-pass program will also be funded with money from businesses in the Capital Crossroads area and the Central Ohio Transit Authority. Columbus Development Director Steve Schoeny says the program is designed to increase ridership and ease parking problems in the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District downtown.
Capital Crossroads says 83 percent of Downtown employees drive to work, and the resulting crowding has hurt the job market and the area's office vacancy rate. C-pass will run for 2-and-a-half years, starting in June.
