Red, Green, and Blue Lots

Daily rates under $10 make the Red, Green, and Blue Lots the budget play at CMH

These remote lots sit next to the T terminal complex and run about $5–$10 per day, undercutting the main garage by a good margin. Blue is physically closest to the terminal side, Red sits in the middle, and Green stretches farthest out, but all three feed into the same shuttle system.

CMH runs 24/7 shuttle buses with an advertised loop of about 15–18 minutes between the Red, Green, and Blue Lots and the terminal. In practice, locals on r/Columbus tell people to pad 20–30 extra minutes at peak times, especially for early Monday mornings and Sunday evenings. If you’re tight on time, aim for Blue first to shave a few minutes off the ride.

Pricing is simple: you pay the airport’s remote-lot rate, roughly $5–$10 per day depending on demand and duration, with no separate “premium” charge for Blue versus Green. Flyers who take a lot of weeklong trips often skip Blue entirely after day four or five and target Green for the lowest on-airport cost, trading cash for a slightly longer shuttle ride.

There’s one major difference for EV drivers: CMH lists charging stations in the Red Lot only, not in Blue or Green. If you park electric in Green to chase the cheaper long-stay bill, plan to arrive with enough range to get home because you won’t find backup charging in that section.

Watch out for late-night bunching: travelers report waits of around 20 minutes for a return shuttle after 11:00 p.m., especially on lighter flight banks. Holiday peaks and OSU home-game weekends can also fill one color section, pushing you to circle into another lot before finding a space.

Regulars have a system: they snap a photo of the nearest row marker and shuttle stop sign the moment they park, then set a phone note labeled “Blue C5” or “Green G12.” Do the same and you’ll skip the 10-minute luggage-drag through the wrong section at midnight.

Practical tip: build a 30-minute buffer into your arrival time over what you’d plan for garage parking to account for the 15–18 minute shuttle loop and occasional waits.