CTA Tattler

It's very obvious that the CTA is deliberately leaving the North Park garage until last to get the bus tracking.
They know that the routes assigned to North Park have the worst bunching problems in the entire system.

On another front, total nitpicking on the captions with two photos on the blog.
Is it really necessary to write that they were taken in "Evanston, Illinois"?
Is there anyone reading this blog that might think they were taken in Evanston, Wyoming?
I don't think so!

UCc:

Those pictures are in other pools on flickr besides just ours. the captions come from the website, not Kevin.

The pictures and their associated captions are from another website (Flickr) which is more international in nature than this blog. People posting pictures on that website and putting them in that pool may or may not be aware that they are being viewed here. I post pictures to that pool myself from time to time and, since they might be viewed by people unfamiliar with Chicago and/or the "L" I often post captions that include information that would be obvious to locals.

UC, could that be because many of those buses are among the oldest in the system and slated to be retired, so there's no point in upgrading the entire garage until that's done, or is it really just to torture you personally?

Thanks to thoise who told me why the captions say Illinois, but when put here, you could edit them. Anyone who reads the Tattler knows it's about Chicago & environs.

As to Bob S.: Why does the CTA put some of its crappiest buses at North Park.
As for them not having the equipment, since the automated stop announcement is done by GPS, then bus tracker uses the same system. All CTA buses have GPS.
The reason North Park will get bus tracker last is that CTA management is desperately delaying the PR disaster that's going to come when the riders of buses that come from NP are shown to be the worst performing in the system.
And it's not just the long runs, like 22, 36, 151 that are bad, it's also the 155, which I once saw all 5 buses assigned to it one Sunday afternoon running in a pack. The 155's run is less than 5 miles each way.

I'm very disappointed to find out that I'm not the only one that the CTA is torturing personally....I like the "death of a thousand cuts" analogy that someone put up here....lol

KevinB

Not to light a firestorm, but ever notice how poor service in more affluent areas is typically blamed on the culprits of mismanagement and poorly run organizations, while in less affluent areas it's considered concious neglect of that socio-economic group.

The CTA is fair and balanced in that respect. Bus Bunching for All!!!!

UC, are you for real? Really? If you have a flickr account I encourage you to go to the offending photog's pics and leave your comment there so they can roll their eyes and say, "uhsurethanksbye."

UC, they were new once, and when they're retired, there'll be new buses again; I'm already seeing some of them. Just hang on for a bit and accept that riders who aren't you deserve some love from the CTA too.

Given that most of the Forest Glen routes are east-west routes that feed tremendous numbers of commuters to the Blue, Red, and Brown lines every weekday morning and take them home every weekday evening, I think you're just going to have to accept that the greater good's been served here.

It took a couple of seconds to find the references on this site, UC, but your assumption that "As for them not having the equipment, since the automated stop announcement is done by GPS, then bus tracker uses the same system. All CTA buses have GPS." means they can immediately join the tracker is wrong:

http://www.ctatattler.com/2008/02/cta-planning-gr.html

http://www.ctatattler.com/2007/04/cta_expands_bus.html#comment-67476646

Perspective: UC also thinks trains should run over the bodies of suicides and fleeing criminals on the tracks to save commuters time.

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Thanks to thoise who told me why the captions say Illinois, but when put here, you could edit them.
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Why does the CTA put some of its crappiest buses at North Park.
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The reason North Park will get bus tracker last is that CTA management is desperately delaying the PR disaster that's going to come when the riders of buses that come from NP are shown to be the worst performing in the system.
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As for them not having the equipment, since the automated stop announcement is done by GPS, then bus tracker uses the same system.
<<<

No, it's not the same system. It's entirely different equipment with different capabilities.

If all it took was "GPS" to do the Bus Tracker, then if you're carrying a cell phone made in the last two years, they could add you to the Bus Tracker, too. And you could make your phone give you automated stop announcements, too.

Any electronic device can pick-up GPS signals. That doesn't mean those devices all can use those signals to do the same things. Nor does it mean they're capable of transmitting back information about themselves to a system that can do something with the information they transmit. (Most GPS devices don't transmit anything!)

The site again ate some of my comments. Apparently it doesn't like quoting with standard angle brackets.

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Thanks to thoise who told me why the captions say Illinois, but when put here, you could edit them.
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Kevin isn't sitting someplace 24/7 to post those pictures and their captions. It's automated. What is put on Flickr is pushed here, no manual intervention. So, no, he couldn't edit them.

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Why does the CTA put some of its crappiest buses at North Park.
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First, you want to keep particular models of buses at as few garages as possible. This means you don't have to have duplicate repair parts inventory, or specialied tools at every garage.

Second, you want the oldest buses where they will be used the least. You put new buses on runs that are out all day. You put the crap on runs that are only out for a few hours a day, and North Park has the most rush hour trippers of any station. (And that's because of it's size and location.)

It makes logistic sense to have the oldest, crappiest equipment at North Park.

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The reason North Park will get bus tracker last is that CTA management is desperately delaying the PR disaster that's going to come when the riders of buses that come from NP are shown to be the worst performing in the system.
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The tracker gives real time information. Historic information is already available. If there was going to be a PR disaster, it would have already happened.

The story says they need a modem and a router...these are not real high ticket items.

I'm with those who say its going to be a PR disaster once the North Park garage goes online. It's raw data that Ron and his minions can't "massage" or "spin" just plain falsify.

KevinB

I doubt that even with a room full of unpaid summer interns that there is anyone who's going to manually record the information observed on Bus Tracker to the point that they'll get data that can be used to draw any better conclusion than what the CTA's own pre-crunched reports already show.

There's a little more involved than a simple modem and a router. There is equipment that needs to be installed on each and every bus.

The GPS equipment that's already on the bus just tells the systems on the bus where it is. Special equipment on each bus then uses run information entered when the driver starts his/her run, and then operates the signs and stop announcements, and records information about the trip. It doesn't transmit information back in real-time to anywhere.

In order to get the Bus Tracker to work, information about where the bus is located has to be sent somewhere, and then that information needs to be processed in real time.

There's a lot more equipment involved than some data transport equipment like a modem and a router.

Also, we're not just talking about simple GPS data here. It's not just a matter of using the satilites to triangulate a position on a map. The equipment used for the tracker also uses odometer information to determine positions, speed and direction. And that's not as simple as plugging something into a jack on the side of the odometer.

There are just so many reasons why North Park isn't online, and won't be online for some time that have nothing to do with some imaginary consipiracy related to PR, or the affulence of the people who live in the areas served by North Park.

The President of the CTA is a master spin doctor, but that doesn't mean that some of the things coming out of CTA aren't factual. There are still a lot of people there who deal in the reality of logistics. Just because Ron likes to use Powerpoint to obscure the fact that he has no clue as to what he's doing doesn't mean everything at CTA is in fantasyland.

Sometimes it really is logistics and technology, and not some big political game.

Except that the rush hour trippers that are on the LSD routes are mostly new articulated buses.
Clark St., Broadway & Sheridan have large numbers of buses all day long.
As for a lot of number crunching interns to log the the bus tracker results of the NP routes, no, all that's necessary is are a lot of people checking out the route they want to take & realize that 3-5 buses are running a block apart & they have a 30 minute wait at Clark/Foster or wherever & fuming!
And they get to see the mess that Wrigley Field creates because of the inability of both the CTA & city to figure out how to manage traffic after a Cub game.
Like sitting on an EB X80 at Southport for 10 minutes because the cops have taken over & are manually controlling the lights at Clark/Irving Park & letting all the NB Clark traffic go without a break for the entire 10 minutes. Then exactly at 6PM, the cops unplug the manual control & leave & wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, all the traffic moves perfectly, even though there is still a large number of idiots that drove to Wrigley driving home & increasing traffic on Clark!

Curious that Huberman doesn't announce the order of which garage gets BS next [perfect acronym].
North Park will be the last garage to get bus tracker.
Then the shitstorm begins!

Also, KevinB, granted, you got your modem free from your cable company, probably, and picked up a cheap router at Best Buy or even Walgreen's these days. The CTA's requirements are going to be a little stricter. I'm sure they're getting a volume discount (geez, if they aren't, that alone deserves to be investigated), but we're still talking about some coin here.

The cost of the hardware is probably insignificant compared to the cost of the labor, though. There is, I'd assume, a team of installers who go to each garage, install the equipment, test it, and certify it.

And that's the only way to do it, because putting a route on the tracker is absolutely useless if every single bus on the route isn't using it. What would be the point of installing it on half the Clark buses?

And yeah, I have no idea where this crush of negative PR is going to come from or why. What knowledge is hidden from everyone now?

The only reason the Clark bus is the CTA's worst is that it's the one you take. Load up some of the route displays already on the tracker and you'll get a pretty decent reality check; if the bus bunching that happens on many other routes hasn't caused any riots yet, your Clark bus isnt going to either.

I take several buses lines and none of them are as bad as the 22 Clark.

As far as the modem/router thing, I understand they aren't something you pick up at best buy but at the same time, it's not freaking rocket science. There's already some communication involved in the systems that are already in the buses since they are smart enough to know what route they are on, what the stops are and if they are early/late/on-time. I've heard them connect up and if it's not a standard modem tone, I'll eat my hat.

I'm not talking riots, but some "come to jesus" reckoning like the block 37 crap hitting the fan.

Also, have you ever tried to get information out of a govt agency? Not easy. If they do give it to you, they give it to you in such a way as it's unusable. Now, the bus tracker info is unmassaged/spinned information in electronic format tht can be captured and compare with printed schedule information which can be used to show exactly (in powerpoiint if you wish) exactly how bad the service is. I know a few alderman around wrigley who would love to get this sort of information.

KevinB

KevinB & I are on the same page regarding electronic info being sent from the buses to CTA control. If that info is already going to the control center, & it is as that's how the stop PA announcements are made, there can't be a lot more necessary to add the North Park routes to Bus Tracker.
And to beat Rusty to the punch, most of the buses I see now on Clark, Broadway & Devon are all new NABI buses, 1400 & 1500 series. They're definitely equipped for it.

But here's another example of CTA incompetence:
Most of the day, both the SB 36 & 151 each leave the Clark/Arthur terminal at THE SAME TIME!
This causes a backup of traffic at Clark/Devon because only one bus can fit at the stop at the SE corner of Clark/Devon [in front of the diner], often blocking NB Clark buses. It also cause backups for the next half-mile of EB Devon. Now since both routes are running on 10 minute headway during non-rush hours, common sense would be to alternate the SB schedules of both routes so they leave at 5 minute intervals thus spacing them out.
Since they run often enough that there's no need to co-ordinate the schedules with other intersecting routes, the question is why doesn't the CTA do this?

I'll leave the incompetence of the Fullerton & Howard station reconstructions to another thread.

Now its MY turn to complain about my buses being late! The 151 and 36 are nearly as bad as the 22! I can't even begin to count have many times I was waiting at least 20-30 minutes, even at rush hour, waiting for the 151 which it supposed to run very frequently and then 2-3 arrive at the same time. This happened to me last night. Waited over 20 minutes at Broadway and Sheridan and it was no surprise at all I see two northbound 151 buses coming towards me. I was unlucky and picked the one with no air conditioning and windows that were locked. Now THAT really pisses me off! Can't the driver unlock the windows if the a/c fails? It was hotter inside the bus than outside and it was pretty warm out last night too.

Now, does this have anything to do with the fact that the Addison bus has been extra horrible the last few days? And why the bus that I got on at the Red Line today didn't actually come from LSD (I believe it made a right turn from Halsted)? If it does, then I don't want it.

Usually I'm off the train at about 9:13 and the bus swings by at 9:18-9:22. I've never had to wait 20 minutes for it while having three pass going east until the last two or three days. =\

The buses in the 1400 and 1500 range are New Flyers. NABIs are the articulated deathtraps.

You know, I really find it ridiculous when people complain simply about having to wait a long time for and the bunching of #22, #36, and #151 busses. For Christ's sake, those busses all run through increadibly heavy traffic and travel enormous distances. How in the world do your expect them to operate perfectly? It is amazing to see some of the comments from people who don't seem to understand that having a large amount of traffic and having many passengers will cause a bus to be late. How on earth are there people who don't understand that? And if they do understand that, then why would they blame everything on the CTA? Do they think that the CTA should not allow passengers to board a bus if it is causing it to fall behind schedule? Do they think that the CTA is at fault for traffic congestion? Face it, if you are going to take a #151 or #22 bus it will not always be reliable. There always has been and always will be delays. And what I truly love is when these people are finished complaining about waiting a long time they then complain about the busses being bunched. You guys do understand that your travel time will be shorter if there are bunched busses, right? So you should be happy when you see more than one bus coming. There sometimes are bus delays that one could blame on the CTA. I once noticed eight #72 busses go by within a minute a half during rush hour after roughly forty-five minutes of no busses. Fortunetely, I was not waiting for the bus. I was next to the window of a coffee shop on North Avenue and just happened to observe this and a number of frustrated people at a bus stop. At other times I have seen three busses bunch on routes where they are supposed to operate every twenty minutes. These are things which are the fault of the CTA and is worth complaining about. Heck, Unindided co-conspirator might actually have a legitimate complaint if the CTA's schedule itself causes delays to more likely occur. But it is utterly silly to complain about waiting twenty minutes for a #151 at a location where the bus likely would have already served hundreds of passengers and travelled a long distance through some of the heaviest traffic of the city.

@MK: Your post makes no sense whatsoever.
And you can't spell either.
I like busses, but only with pretty girls.
I do however ride the buses.
I also ride girls, sometimes they ride me & we are bussing at the same time.

To get serious now.
The buses are bunched because the CTA is unwilling, incapable or both in determining why the buses are bunched.
And as we all know, the CTA is incompetent in word, thought & deed!
On Clark St., it's a combination of traffic tie ups & load factors.
Loading a wheelchair throws a bus off schedule by several minutes, more if there's a problem with the lift or the wheelchair passenger is drunk [I've seen that a number of times, the driver didn't know that until the chair was already on the bus].
Then, all that's needed to really make a mess out of it is a Cub game!

Well, actually, there are reasons for bus bunching that are under the CTA's control.

First is how buses leave the terminal.

Of course the driver needs his/her required break, so if they arrive late, they may have to leave late. The CTA is balancing minimizing recovery time to minimize the time that buses idle. An idle bus collects no passengers. But when they slash scheduled recovery times too much, they increase the odds that the next trip will start late, and create bus bunching.

Second, they also know that the routes with the worst bunching are usually the longest routes going through the most congested areas, so why don't they plan for that?

Again, it's unrealistic scheduling.

Third, when the length of a route is wrong, instead of having a regular driver with a regular-sized shift, the runs on the route have irregularlly sized runs, and are filled off the extra board. When you have a different driver each day, you're more likely to get inconsistant results. There's more to piloting the bus than leaving the terminal on time, and then letting things happen in front of you.

If they can't change the length of the run, then they need to negotiate a better way of assigning drivers with the union.

Forth, there are decisions that can be made in the field to react to unusual situations. That example of the six buses on the 72 bunched together is a prime example. If all six of those buses went all the way to the regular terminal, chances are at least 4 of them would leave within minutes of each other. Maybe all 6.

The reality is that probably not all the drivers had a *required* break, but the follower of one with a required break might wait for his/her leader to leave first without supervisor intervention.

A supervisor could also short-turn some of those buses to get them back closer to where they should be on their return trip.

Those are things that Bus Tracker was developed for. Supervisors need real-time information in order to make these decisions. Until now, even if they happened to see all six buses bunched, it would be difficult to quickly make a decision as to what to do. With Bus Tracker, they can have information about the whole route, not just the parts they can see (or imagine based on what they see).

Now if you want to spend a lot of extra money, you could also position buses and drivers along the route ready to jump into any big gaps. But the better you get at putting those buses in the right place, the more you're into the realm of the need for a more realistic schedule. Once it gets too predictable, it should be scheduled for.

So while it's true that there are causes of bus bunching that are out of the control of the CTA, there are a number of significant factors that they *can* control.

Can bus bunching be eliminated? No. It can't. But the CTA has so many things they can do to reduce the amount of bus bunching, and minimize the adverse effects of bus bunching.

And as I've said in the past, the real value of Bus Tracker is how it can be used by field supervisors and control center supervisors to react in real-time to these situations.

There are few easy fixes, but the CTA hasn't been doing enough. Any single event might have causes that are out of their control, but in general, they aren't planning, and they aren't reacting as well as they could be. So yes, it is valid to blame the CTA for the severity and (especially) the regularity of bus bunching, especially in predictable situations.

Question: What do you call an unqualifed CTA head?

Answer: Huberman.

Solution: Fire the worthless dummy.

I wouldn't get too excited about the bus tracker anyway. I was waiting for the southbound #50 (Damen) bus this weekend and some poor soul waiting with his friends was using bus tracker. It reported a bus was coming in 8 minutes, then 9 minutes, then 7 minutes, then it apparently had come and picked us up and we were on our way. Only problem was, we were still at the bus stop and no bus had passed. Perhaps it was raptured away?

For the record, KevinB is hardly the only one waiting for the 22, etc. to get put onto the bus tracker.

I don't know if I agree with his theory as to why it is taking so long, but I am pretty skeptical of the "old buses" explanation.

We're talking about technology that's not much more advanced than a cell phone. The device should be largely self-contained, other than a power supply and a connection to the existing GPS equipment (assuming it relies on that, rather than duplicating it). How complicated an installation process could this be?

Put the darned things on the older buses now, and when the older buses get replaced, unplug the thing and put it onto the replacement buses. Although I know it's en vogue here to describe this as some kind of rocket science that most of us just couldn't possibly understand, but, uh... it's not rocket science.

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The device should be largely self-contained, other than a power supply and a connection to the existing GPS equipment (assuming it relies on that, rather than duplicating it). How complicated an installation process could this be?
<<<

Well, it doesn't interface with the other propritary GPS systems on the bus. And it's more than just a GPS device. It also takes information off the transmission like the odometer does, too. It uses a combination of GPS and distance traveled to calculate the position of the bus.

There far more involved than just drilling a few holes, and plugging something in.

Last month a whole bunch of buses were reassigned to different stations. You wouldn't think it would take long to change the little number/letter decal in the windshield that identifies what station a bus is assigned to. We're already a number of weeks out, and still a lot haven't been changed. If it takes that much time to change some decals, do you really expect a complex piece of technology that has to be physically installed, wired-up to the transmission, and tested is an easy task?

Sorry, but this is more complex than you think.

What does the CTA being slow to change some decals have to do with the price of beans? So the CTA was slow to do complete a task once, and therefore that justifies the CTA being slow to complete all other tasks for the rest of eternity? That's the logical conclusion of Rusty's "argument."

Notice that Rusty, ever a font of unsubstantiated assertions, has not bothered to enlighten us with what it is that is so "involved" that it renders the prospect of reinstalling some of the devices later in the year so horrific.

It's to the point that when Rusty says something, I almost consider it evidence that the opposite is probably indeed true!

Everyone knows that the #6 and #14 have the worst bus bunching in the system. And the #79, the busiest route in the entire system, there would be riots if people knew just how bad it really was.

What, doesn't jive with your North Side prima donna conspiracy fantasies? Geesh, grow up and learn that the world does not revolve around you -- and be thankful for the routes that you do take (and whine about! like the Addison!) which will be getting Bus Tracker soon. Several more weeks of waiting will not kill you. Really.

Bus Tracker's expansion really is a big step up in usability; last week, I honestly was standing in NYC, wishing they had it. (Yes, there are big parts of NYC without convenient subway service.) It's really sad that some people manage to be so relentlessly negative and whiny in the face of good news.

And hey, guess what else! The weather's perfect this week! I'm sure you guys can find the dark lining even to that silver cloud.

Hey, the temperature is going to get down into the 30's at night.

Eventually.

In the meantime, when it gets hot this summer, I don't want to hear ANY COMPLAINTS about the temperature being too high, because you ALREADY KNOW that cold weather is coming. So this summer there is absolutely no reason for you to complain about it being hot, ever, unless you are insane.

Make sense?

The reason traffic is so bad around Wrigley is that they have the "traffic control ****" stationed in the middle of residential street intersections where there is no traffic anyways off the Southport corridor rather than on Addison or other major streets....

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Notice that Rusty, ever a font of unsubstantiated assertions, has not bothered to enlighten us with what it is that is so "involved" that it renders the prospect of reinstalling some of the devices later in the year so horrific.
<<<

How detailed of an explaination do you want?

I think I've certainly explained it well enough even though I haven't gone into details about how many holes need to be drilled, where they need to be drilled, what needs to be connected to what, etc...

So if I do that, what's next? Will you say that it wasn't a good enough explaination because I didn't include time estimates for how long each step takes? Schematic drawings missing? Descriptions of the circuits on each chip, and why they're necessary missing?

There's always going to be some information missing. If my explaination of what's involved isn't good enough for you, it's a pretty good indicator that nothing is ever going to be good enough for you.

It's like dealing with a little kid who in response to your answers continues to ask "why" ad infinum. It's both annoying, and you're not even grasping the answers you're getting in the first place.

Consider that evidence that I'm getting very tired of your trollish crap.

My goodness, if Rusty is right, it sounds like the CTA is assembling these devices from scratch (and maybe the buses along with them!). One has to hope that the devices can be installed and uninstalled without someone at CTA having to be working things as intricate as the computer chips that comprise the thing.

Sounds like this is one of those rare instances, like web design and other highly technical things, where maybe the CTA could have economized by outsourcing.

Who says that oursourcers aren't the ones installing the devices?

I think you'd be surprised at how much of what makes up a transit bus is fabricated on the spot even in their initial building. The assembly "line" is very different than for cars, and changes are made through-out a production run.

So, for example, the first bus in an order, may have three philips head screws holding a particular access plate in place, while the 50th bus might have five torques screws on the same plate, but in slightly different positions.

So even if the devices for the bus tracker come in identical kits, the installation can be slightly different even within the same fleet of buses.

And removing those devices, and reinstalling them on new buses means a lot more work than simply unplugging something, and moving it elsewhere. The devices have to be configured for the type of equipment they're being put on.

Everyone complains about how the CTA wastes money, so why are so many so willing to waste money here?

Oh the 22 and the 8, the 22 is the bane of Chicago Urban Travel, its common for me to sit at Hubbard and Dearborn waiting to go north for 20-25 minutes as 36 after 36 rolls by, then a 22 pulls up crowded as heck, I take it north and by the time I get off at Newport, There are two other 22's right behind it.

The 8 in the AM is a disaster, esp by fullerton, its totally routine to see 2-3 8's piled up

I ride the 147, and surprise surprise, it's not on the tracker, despite it being one of the most ridden from the North Park Garage. Not that it matters...I wouldn't trust the bus tracker for as far as I can throw it. That's not far.

As for bunching and old buses...well, my route has its fair share. We have major issues with large buses only going to Devon and short buses being delegated to the Congress-to-Howard route. During rush hours, that bus is full to capacity by Wacker. Bus break down season has started, too, as we have some of the eldest buses used. There are a couple of the new hybrids now on the route. Though they are also the short buses, I love getting them; haven't had one break down yet.

I leave work at 5:00PM, and walk a half mile south to catch the bus so I'll be earlier in the route and will have a chance to actually get on one. Normally, I don't catch one going to Howard until 5:40PM. That's with the website saying they come every 10 minutes. Lies.

"I ride the 147, and surprise surprise, it's not on the tracker, despite it being one of the most ridden from the North Park Garage."

You're working very hard at ignoring Kevin's main post:

"Now remember folks: The CTA is rolling out these routes for Bus Tracker by garage. They are methodically equipping buses garage by garage with the equipment needed to get the info to the tracker system."

and a whole ton of comments pointing that out too.

That said, I normally ride the 147 and, like you, walk to Randolph from further north because that way I can get a seat on one of the short-run buses to Devon. Today the bus I was on broke down at Superior, so after looking to notice that there weren't any 147s about to show up, I walked over to the Chicago Red Line stop, quickly got on a train with plenty of seats, and got home about the same time as I would have on the bus. It's the only 147 I've ever been on that broke down, and since that bus is rarely more than a block and a half from the Red Line once it hits Sheridan, it wasn't any big deal at all.

Yeah, definitely break-down season. The other day going North, there were 2 NABI 156 LaSalle buses broken down at Chicago, one on the SE corner, and one on the NE corner.

A few days before that (the day of the Red Line burglar incident), I was on a 156 at LaSalle and Wacker that sat there for about 20 minutes, with people getting on and off, frustrated at the lack of movement. During all this, the driver is just sitting in the seat...no radio communication, no communication with the passengers, no nothing. Finally, I ask "is this bus working or not?" to which she replies "I don't know." 10 minutes later, she turns it off and tells everyone to get off the bus. Total time wasted not moving one inch: 30 minutes.

Bob S.
"You're working very hard at ignoring Kevin's main post:

and a whole ton of comments pointing that out too.

That said, I normally ride the 147 and, like you, walk to Randolph from further north because that way I can get a seat on one of the short-run buses to Devon."
*ahem* Reading comprehension is the key to life, I suppose. I see "North Side garage" and think "North Park garage", somehow forgetting the rest of the story, which I did indeed read.

Yesterday, it took me four buses to get home. Four. I caught one to Howard at Randolph. It broke down, right around Superior (if you hadn't mentioned you were on one to Devon, I'd say we were on the same one). Then walked back a couple of blocks and caught another one. It broke down within the next block. I then waited. And waited. I waited some more. Finally, I went ahead and took one to Devon because at least it would get me somewhere. I then had to transfer to one going to Howard later in the route.

I have a month pass, thankfully.

I am riding an x80 right now because of tracker. This rules. It did not prevent bunching but it did let me know whether I had time to go to the express stop or not, and gave me more to make my decisions on that guess and hope.

I love it.

recognition you for sponsoring the materials, a lot of riveting low-down. paraphernalia-bye.