According to Toppharmacyschools, Columbus is the capital of the state of Ohio in the United States. The city is centrally located in the state and has 907,000 inhabitants. The agglomeration has 2,151,000 inhabitants (2021).
Introduction
Columbus is very central to the state, almost in the middle and not on a major river. Columbus is located in Franklin County. The city is 160 kilometers northeast of Cincinnati, 205 kilometers southwest of Cleveland, and 260 kilometers south of Detroit. Named after explorer Christopher Columbus, the city had a population of 711,000 in 2000 and 893,000 in 2018, making it one of the cities in the Midwestern/Northeast United States that has not been hit by a population decline, like many other cities in the United States. region have experienced this. As a result, Columbus has been Ohio ‘s largest city since the 1990s. Today the city has a modern business center. Between 2000 and 2010, Franklin County grew nearly the US average, but significantly above the Ohio average. Columbus has less of a ‘rust belt’ image than Cleveland. In recent years, Columbus has been one of the best performing cities in the Midwest.
Road network
Columbus’ highway network.
The road network around the center is mainly a dense grid pattern, but this does not apply to the outer districts and suburbs. Major highways I-70 and I-71 run through the conurbation and serve east-west and north-south connections, respectively. The city has a complete ring road, the I-270 and the I-670 forming an east-west connection that mainly connects downtown with the airport. In addition, there are some State Routes and US Highways that have short highway stretches in the metropolitan area. Most highways have at least 2×3 lanes, but many stretches with more than 2×4 lanes do not exist.
Freeways
| Name | Length | first opening | last opening | AADT 2017 |
| West Freeway / East Freeway | 39 km | 1965 | 1975 | 149.000 |
| 43 km | 1960 | 1965 | 163.000 | |
| The Outerbelt | 88 km | 1965 | 1975 | 202.000 |
| 17 km | 1964 | 2002 | 150.000 | |
| 11 km | 1969 | 1969 | 87.000 | |
| Southeast Expressway | 11 km | 1965 | 1965 | 73.000 |
| Frank Refugee Expressway | 8 km | 1973 | 1978 | 52.000 |
| New Albany Expressway | 11 km | 1996 | 1996 | 93.000 |
| Olentangy Freeway | 19 km | 195x | 1980 | 115.000 |
History
In 1950, Columbus was significantly smaller than Cleveland, with a population of 375,000. Not much is known about the exact history of Columbus’ highways. Presumably the first highway was State Route 315, the first part of which opened in the early 1950s, before the creation of the Interstate Highway system in 1956. Most of the highway network was built in the late 1950s. By the late 1960s, I-70 and I-71 through Columbus were completed, and in 1975 the last section of I-270, which forms the city’s ring road, opened. Some suburban connections opened to traffic in the 1980s and 1990s, following the growth of the city. The I-670 had a missing link at downtown for a long time, it only opened to traffic in 2003.
Congestion
Columbus falls under the category of cities in the middle of the United States with little congestion. Unlike cities on the east coast, Columbus does not suffer from geographic obstacles such as large rivers, coastlines or mountains and therefore the city has grown in a balanced way with a good highway network. There can be some traffic around downtown at exit ramps, especially on I-70 and I-71. The traffic volumes are nevertheless not very high, with the busiest point on the I-71 north of the center with 166,000 vehicles per day, which is not particularly high for an agglomeration of 2 million inhabitants. The city has a small public transport system with buses. There are railway lines, but they are intended for long distances.
