For 24 years, I have stood most mornings at the corner of Rieber Street and Whitney Avenue in Worthington to catch the No. 31 express bus Downtown.

That's almost a quarter-century. Bus riders really like routine.

My sweet arrangement — the stop is a four-minute walk from my house — will end Monday as a result of the Central Ohio Transit Authority’s system redesign. (For details, see COTA.com/tsr.)

The goal is faster, more-direct and more-frequent service. So more buses will stick to main thoroughfares, and fewer will travel through neighborhoods, including mine. Fewer buses will use High Street to ease the Downtown bus jams there.

To entice readers to give the new service a try, COTA is making all fares free next week.

The revamp, the most extensive in Columbus’ transit history, is designed to better serve a region where Downtown is no longer the only big job center and many people work nights and weekends.

“We’re trying to make the system match where people live and where they work today, as opposed to where they worked 43, 53, 103 years ago,” COTA President Curtis Stitt said.

OK, I can sacrifice some convenience for the greater good. But routines die hard.

On the 57 Hilliard Express, state employee Susan Parkins plans to retire rather than change buses.

After work, the 57 picks her up on Front Street, right outside her office at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in the old Lazarus building.

Its replacement, the new No. 71, will require an uphill walk of about three blocks. With back and knee trouble, she can’t see herself doing it.

Some of the social circles that form among riders will probably be broken up, too, as routines change — something Parkins laments.

“You’re glad to see them," she said. "You know all about their kids and their vacations."

On the Leonard-Brentnell route (No. 9) in northeastern Columbus, Dorothy Jackson worries about making it to her stop when she leaves the Rhodes Tower in the afternoon. The old stop at Broad and High is moving to 4th Street.

I can identify.

Thanks to the Statehouse tunnel system under High and Broad streets, I figured out that I could reach the office from my bus stop on a winter morning while taking only 58 steps outside.

Overall, I agree with Dee Dorst, another Hilliard Express rider, who said she will have to adjust her work hours to continue riding.

If the redesign makes the system better overall, she said, then it’s a good thing. “But would you rather have more convenience? Of course, you would.”

Joe Blundo is a Dispatch columnist.

jblundo@dispatch.com

@joeblundo