CTA Tattler

Seriously? You're citing the Chi-Town Daily News? Seriously? When the same information is available in the headline and lede of the Trib's story? and in the CTA's press release on the topic? and in multiple other legitimate news outlets? Maybe it's just me, but their stories generally reek of I-want-to-study-journalism-when-I get-to-college (and then maybe get good enough to work for the Enquirer).

Sorry. I just re-read my comment above and it come off as a criticism of the Tattler blog owner. That wasn't my intent. I apologize.

I let my disgust with what purports to be journalism emanating from the Chi-Town Daily News color my comment. It's just that finding inaccuracies, or blatent editorialism, or just poor reporting in most "articles" in the Chi-Town has become a regular activity.

Wow - the 148 on Bus Tracker? So we can see just how few of them they actually run?

Seriously - watching nearly empty, full accordion-bus size 135's pass me on Clarendon every morning at the rate of one per minute (not joking), while 148's show up 20 minutes apart (in smaller buses, much more crowded) - it just drives me crazy sometimes.

And still no #36 on the tracker, I see. How many times have I waited for one of those at, say, Clark & Diversey for a while, only to give up, start walking, and make it all the way home to Irving Park before one actually catches up to me?

BBQ: Just fyi, I know some of the editors at Chi-Town. They are all professional journalists with years of news experience, including at the Tribune.

Dare I say it?

In addition to no #36, still no #22 either.

Kevin:

How about asking your sources the actual cost to add the modem to a bus that already has the regular vehicle tracking system that they already log into and shows the stops and minutes late/early, etc?

KevinB

I ride the 147 to and from work. Lately the bunching on the 147 in the morning has been horrible. I got to Sheridan/Catalpa at 7:25 this morning and a 147 showed up at 7:30 but it was packed all the way to the front door so I waited for the next bus. Finally at 7:45 a few 147's appeared. Of course they were all full also but I squeezed on. I already waited 20 minutes and didn't want to be late for work. I think I'm going to try the red line again. I was avoiding it due to 3 track but, hell, I'd rather wait to pass through Belmont station than wait 20 minutes+ for a 147 I can get on, much less find a seat. Anyone ride the red line downtown in the morning lately? What is your morning commute like on it?

And no 29 either.

/moan

Wait. 156 but no 151???

Excited about having the 156, but I'm not sure how much it matters, since that bus is supposed to run on intervals of less than 5 minutes during rush, I think. What WOULD be nice is if the 156, 22, and 36 were all on bus tracker so those of us who could theoretically use any of the 3 could know if walking 1 block away would be faster.

Oh well, in due time.

And no 96 either, but that's no surprise.

The 96 represents the CTA's other approach to bunching and other bus problems (to be fair, a policy enthusiastically applied by Frank "The Hatchet" Kruesi all over the outlying neighborhoods, the consequences of which Ron Huberman has inherited): 1. Take a simple, straightforward, and heavily-used route. 2. Make service on the route so incredibly and inexplicably lousy that riders are compelled to seek alternatives. 3. Once ridership is extremely low, commission a study of ridership that will confirm--gosh!--that ridership is extremely low. 4. Use the study to justify slashing service to below-skeletal levels or eliminating the route altogether. Presto! No buses --> no bunching!

Rant aside, though, I hope this improves conditions on those routes still more or less intact. My hopes for more than minimal CTA service in my own neighborhood will have to wait a few years, or decades ...

The 147 is indeed bad in the mornings. I was on one last week that insisted upon pulling up within inches of the stopped bus in front of us, so at each stop even though nobody was getting on or off the bus I was on, we had to wait until the bus directly ahead of us finally started moving before we could move. No room to pull around it. This practice added a good 5 minutes to get down Michigan Ave. I also love 147 drivers that refuse to get out of the right lane on Lake Shore. So that at each entrance when a line of cars enters the Drive, we have to slow down to 20mph to safely let everyone merge. For Pete's sake, move over 1 lane! A dedicated bus lane on Lake Shore with some center entrance/exit ramps at certain places would be a huge return on investment.

The red line from Berwyn to Monroe has been averaging 35-40 minutes lately if I get on it around 8:15am. The 3-tracking adds maybe 3-4 minutes and the looong slow zone from tunnel entrance to Clark/Division seems to add 3-4 minutes as well. It was doing really well last month or so with maintaining the intervals, then this week its been bad again. 10-12 minute gaps at morning rush southbound, then two or three trains back to back. This bunching caused a somewhat longer backup of trains entering the 3-track at Fullerton this morning.

I regret moving to Edgewater because of how the CTA has declined over the past 5 years. The other night I waited 25 minutes for a Brown at Merchandise Mart. It was jam packed and moved very slowly. Same with the Red at Fullerton. Took me almost 90 minutes to get to Thorndale. Yesterday after work I got on the 135 at Jackson/Franklin to visit a friend at Sheridan and Belmont. It took 1 hour and 10 minutes, probably due to Cubs traffic and the ridiculous concept that it's OK to let thousands of lone-motorist commuters clog LSD. Bastards. This city needs to come up with some innovative ideas to fix this mess. LSD should be HOV-2 during rush hours. Let the lone-motorist commuters adapt they way they have in so many other cities. It's crazy how many people suffer so people can exercize this outdated right to live, work and drive wherever they want -- alone.

Mornings are very different on the 147 just in the last month. I mentioned here a couple of times not long ago that the buses they were sending from Devon were almost always pretty empty. Apparently everyone caught on, because nowadays the buses from Howard are emptier -- today I got the last seat on my Devon-to-Harrison 147, all the way in the back. Like Bruce E, I'm considering going back to the Red Line, even though the construction at Grand is really annoying to me.

I am very excited about these new bus routes - living in the South Loop #7, #8, #12 and #18 are all ones I plan to use a lot more now. Its not perfect, but its progress!

I saw in the RedEye sometime this week about how the system isn't being installed in older buses that will be retired soon. Since the 22 and 36 both have a pretty good amount of those old MAN's still running, that could be why the routes are coming later.

That, or they're afraid Kevin B will crash the system... :)

It'll be December 33, 2010 before they add the #36, #22, #3 and #4 buses to the Bus Tracker.

Patrick: The old MAN buses have been gone for at LEAST THREE YEARS! True, there are some old buses there but you would all complain if the CTA were putting new equipment on buses about to be retired.
KevinB et al. I would think that there's a bit more to it than just slapping a modem in the bus. Think of an old computer that was probably designed just to call out stops, sure its got GPS, probably some wi-fi and data logging (keep routes updated and get status data off) to get that on an always on network... probably takes some connections to a switch and with somekind of cell phone connection, and all that has to be built to withstand the crap a bus has to endure. We take for granted how some people slip a Sprint card in their laptop and poof they are on the internet, imagine doing that to older equipment in a harsh environment over 2,000 times. I'm not defending them for not putting things on your blessed route, but even if one bus doesn't have it and you use the tracker find out you have five minutes till the next bus and end up missing that old hunk of junk bus while you are getting your Starbucks, you'll rant here anyway. Think about it. (my rant is complete)

Every 36 I ever get on seems to be held together by band aids, so that might have something to do with it not being on the bus tracker yet.

I also regret that I moved to Edgewater 3 years ago. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been worth getting used to a smaller place and live within a 10 minute bus ride of my office in the Loop. It used to be 30 minutes via Red line unless there was a major problem, lots of times I could make it in 25 min even. Lucky if its 35-40 now. PM rush is a joke lately and its not all 3 tracking issues either. Has anyone else noticed how much they have slowed down the Brown line from Sedgwick to Armitage last few weeks? Its 15mph entire way tops. Yea, we all know there are curves, but they used to go along at a decent clip between the curves. Is the CTA trying to find a reason to permanently slap a maximum 25mph across the entire Brown and Red lines? Now its extra slow on Red around Wilson and Lawrence again too. I'm so fed up with 50-60 minute commutes when I live 8 miles from work.

Lake Shore is a disaster on Cubs night games and seems to be getting worse each season. Probably a decent number of people that used to take Metra into downtown then Red to Wrigley have given up and put up with the traffic and parking now instead. I see a lot of cars on LSD while on a stopped bus filled with Cubs fans in their blue.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that has lived on the Far North Side and took the L 25+ years ago. How long did the ride take from say Bryn Mawr to Washington during rush hour when they still had A/B skip stop trains?

I'll be the first to admit that things aren't always technically easy...however, since the CTA still hasn't been able to duplicate the CTA alerts system that the other Kevin has been able to pull off with all their technical, human, and monetary resources available, the smart money is on the fact that they just don't want to do it and they are using the age of the buses as an excuse to prevent some of their problem routes from being documented.

If it's such a problem then they could always reallocate some of the newer buses from some of the less traveled routes. It's all about how bad you want it and they just don't want it that bad....

KevinB

KevinB, I'm so frustrated that someone as intelligent as you has such a simplistic view of how resources are managed. I'm not going to flog the dead horse, because you just *want* it to be a conspiracy, but some of the things you say even in comments this short still lack internal consistency.

(As for the alerts system, keep in mind that by and large it looks like it's dead. There are a few posts every so often, sure, but after the abusive posters over the years, it's all but out of gas. And for bus travel, the bus tracker's a better solution.)

Bob:

Sometimes things are simple.

I'll give you a real life, true to form example about human behavior and how one tiny action can have a ripple effect that causes a big change.

Recently someone did something they weren't supposed to on the job. They got caught. They got fired. That's a very simple very direct thing. You wouldn't think that it would be a big deal except to the person involved. You can put out all the warnings and threats and notices that you want, but the very simple fact that someone was held accountable for their actions had a far more reaching affect.
Patterns have changed. People have changed. People don't do the things that they thought were acceptable before.

It's the old saw about how a butterfly flapping it's wings across the world can change weather patterns on the other side of the world.

As far as the alerts system goes, it has it's issues, but is still a useful tool. The CTA even posts alerts sometimes when they can be bothered to participate. It's updated and has 500% more useful information than the web site...and the bus tracker doesn't me things like the clark junction going kaput during a cubs game and the ensuing carnage.

Like I said, if I was in charge, I'd be embarrassed that someone like Kevin can accomplish what the CTA with all its resources can't seem to do. I mean, for gods sake, they can't even be bothered to put alerts on their web site....

Thats plain and simple. Of course I'd also be embarrassed that I've done such a poor job of communication, that I blame the customers for my problems, that I can't seem to even start to change the culture of a organization that sorely needs to be changed, I can't seem to get slow zones fixed in a reasonable amount of time, I can't seem to come up with alternatives that inconvenience the customer the least while still getting the job done (i.e. like using the NB redline tracks for SB travel during the morning rush period to at least kill one of the two slow as molasses zones on the daily commute).

Sometimes things don't work like you expect them, sometimes they do, sometimes things you try have unexpected positive results (Penicillin anyone?) but if you don't even try, then you are the problem...

KevinB

Oh, and just so you know I'm willing to put the CTAs money where my my mouth is, I'd be more than willing to forgo my regular career path for a while and for the same amount of pay that Carole Brown is getting for her "part time job" ($50K per year), I'd attend every board and planning meeting, and as an added bonus I'd become my own "mystery shopper" and spend the rest of the 8 hour day riding the transit system and looking for ways to improve.

How's that for dedication? A fulltime employee for part-time pay :)

KevinB

I meant to say TMC buses. Thank goodness "nobody" was here to jump all over my case and correct me.

[the smart money is on the fact that they just don't want to do it and they are using the age of the buses as an excuse to prevent some of their problem routes from being documented.]

I frankly don't think that's the "smart money" bet at all. For two reasons:

1) I really doubt anyone here has any real idea what the worst routes in the system are. I can't help but notice that the overwhelming amount of discussion here is over a handful of routes on the north side. There could very well be "problem routes" on the Tracker right now, and no one here would know.

2) At any rate, I seriously doubt that the public uprising would be anything like what you and UCc seem to expect. It's just not that big of a deal to 99.9% of the general public - they just want to see a bus within a few minutes of arriving at their stop, and they don't care about the rest.

Let's face it, the biggest flood of complaints is going to be right here on this blog. Come to think of it, while we're alleging conspiracies, perhaps Kevin is paying off the CTA to keep the Tracker off of its "problem routes", just so that he doesn't have to read the endless comments here every time there's a bunching as a result ("SEE!!! There's 3 22 buses right next to each other at Broadway right now!! I told you it was bad! Ron must go!")

Oh, and KevinB:

I'm willing to do that job for $45,000. Take that, punk!

KevinB, all I'm talking about is "they don't want to." You're too intelligent to think this can be rolled out across the system instantly (although maybe that would have been better because people wouldn't have whined for months about personally being ignored), you're too intelligent not to know that installing it on a garage-by-garage basis is the only logical way to go, you're too intelligent not to know that some rolling stock is being replaced and so there's no point in installing it on those buses. Every piece of this has been documented and explained by the CTA. Of all their riders, you (and UC-C) alone take it personally. That's all I'm saying.

The CTA says that all buses and bus routes will be on the tracker by the end of the year. From there, what's the big deal? Why do you keep saying they're hiding things?

Sometimes you aren't a cup-half-empty kind of guy; you come across more as a pour the contents of the cup out, smash the cup on the pavement, sledgehammer the pieces to dust, sweep up the remaining particles, and store them in a hyperbaric chamber so no water vapor ever reaches it again kind of guy.

The reasons that "using the NB tracks for SB travel during phase 2" wouldn't work were thoroughly discussed, including here. You're certainly free to disagree with them, but they made plenty of sense and, from all accounts, you're the one of an amazingly tiny minority (maybe one) who still thinks it should have been done. Sometimes you have to let go.

As for the Alerts, from the start it's been defined as rider-to-rider communication. If something happens on the tracks or streets, I'm willing to say that texting a warning to the system should be at the bottom of an operator's to-do list. But it just isn't true that they don't put alerts on their Web site; I check there as often as I check the Alerts UPOC page myself. Perhaps they don't document every bump and glitch that affects you personally, but UPOC is rider-to-rider communication; step up to the plate.

I'm not talking about butterflies here. I'm talking about the distinction between being a little unhappy for a few moments that they didn't do it the way you thought it should be done but that's the way it is so you let it go and turning it into a conspiracy theory.

Heheh, strannix. I think I owe ya a cold one; I've said that here a few times myself -- once you actually watch the Tracker for an evening or two, just have it open in the background while you're doing whatever else you do with your computer, it's pretty clear that the pet demons some of our fellow commenters struggle with just blend right into the highly bunched crowd. Talkin' to the walls, I am, but I'm happy to have company...

I am glad to see the #8 on here too. The other day, I walked all the way from Cermak to Madison on Halsted (for me about 40 minute walk) without seeing a single Northbound #8. It is feast or famine with the bus, as in the same time period, I counted five #8s going south.
Then, yesterday, I was taking the #21 Westbound from the Red Line to Halsted, and it took us 20 minutes. Traffic was not bad--we simply stopped at every single stop, whether or not there was a passenger to pick up or drop off, and we did a "Chicago roll" across the many abandoned railroad tracks that cross Cermak. I have noticed a real slowdown on the 21.

a few weeks ago, the Red Eye ran their contest for the worst bus route in the city. And the results are in...(drumroll, please)...

A tie between last year's winner, the #8 Halsted, and (surprise, surprise) the #22 Clark.
I'm trying to remember what was said, and what pops out is that there was a temporary improvement on the 8, and the 22 made it based at least in part on things I've seen mentioned here--Wrigley Field, the parking issues with trucks and parents, etc.

I can't find the link to post it!

Hey Guys new to this site. Love to see CTA enthusiasts such as myself. Glad to see that the 52 will be added in a few weeks as that bus can run slow only to see 2, sometimes 3 in a row especially those that are NB.