Columbus Neighborhoods
COTA's Cool History: The 1970s Red Dot Air Conditioning Signal
Special | 1m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
COTA’s 50th: How a red dot sign signaled bus drivers to turn on AC in the 1970s.
As COTA celebrates its 50th anniversary, we look back at a unique piece of transit history. In the 1970s, a red dot sign held by the assistant superintendent signaled bus drivers it was time to turn on the air conditioning. This nostalgic photo from Long and High streets reminds us how far Columbus transportation has come over the decades.
Columbus Neighborhoods is a local public television program presented by WOSU
Columbus Neighborhoods
COTA's Cool History: The 1970s Red Dot Air Conditioning Signal
Special | 1m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
As COTA celebrates its 50th anniversary, we look back at a unique piece of transit history. In the 1970s, a red dot sign held by the assistant superintendent signaled bus drivers it was time to turn on the air conditioning. This nostalgic photo from Long and High streets reminds us how far Columbus transportation has come over the decades.
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This is one of my favorite photos from the Columbus Dispatch collection.
This is a photo of a COTA bus in the 1970s.
And you'll see it's along the street here at Long and High along in the in the back of the photo, you see a guy standing in the window here, and this is the assistant superintendent of transportation, Harold Milliman, and he's holding a sign that has a it's a red dot black and white photo, but we know it's a red dot.
And what would have happened during the 1970s was that busses would have passed this point and they would have been able to look in the window.
And if Harold was standing there with the red dot sign, that was their signal that it was okay to turn on the air conditioning.
So if it was a hot, humid day, you had to wait until you saw Harold there with the sign to be able to turn that AC on.
This photo is also really important in that COTA celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024.
And it kind of brings back that sense of history and how transportation in the city has changed over time.
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Ohio Snapshots in Time is produced by WOSU Public Media in partnership with the staff of the Columbus Metropolitan Library.
Columbus Neighborhoods is a local public television program presented by WOSU