Annoyed riders of Chicago Transit Authority buses can describe the problem simply: Buses arrive at their stops in bunches or not at all for long stretches of time.
And CTA officials say that problem, called “bus bunching,” has been one of the toughest to fix.
The CTA already has spent more than $12 million on new communication hardware for the entire Chicago bus fleet so control center operators can keep track of which buses are where. And it’s launching a pilot “empowerment program” for drivers on 11 routes so they can decide when to slow down–or even declare their vehicle an “express” and forge ahead–if they run up against a pack of other buses or spot a traffic backup.
Now, the CTA is considering an even grander plan: spending another $15 million on a satellite technology system to pinpoint buses as they traverse the city’s streets. Such hefty price tags have prompted even senior CTA officials to ask why “bus bunching” is so tough to solve.
“Can’t we eat away at this problem with some pretty simple principles?” CTA Chairwoman Valerie Jarrett asked of her planning staff during a Wednesday CTA committee meeting.
In recent years, bus bunching has launched dozens of ideas at the CTA, but few have had much impact on the vexing problem.
Under the CTA’s “Bus Watch” program, the fleet’s decades-old radio system was replaced with a new text messaging system for $12.2 million. Monitors next to drivers can relay information about traffic to the agency’s control center. So far, 1,400 buses have been equipped and another 300 should be outfitted by year’s end, officials said.
In theory, when buses break down or drivers happen upon an accident and need to detour around the area, they can relay that information to the control center by typing messages on a touch-pad. The information can then be passed on to other buses on the same route.
On Wednesday, the Planning Committee approved expanding the pilot empowerment program from three to 11 bus routes on which drivers will be allowed to make their own decisions about stopping, slowing down or detouring around accidents to avoid bunching.
But the CTA is also looking to the skies as it considers new equipment that would feature a global positioning system (GPS) with satellites tracking the exact location of each bus throughout the day.
It might sound like “Star Trek,” but with satellite technology the CTA may be boldly going where other–albeit smaller–transit systems have gone before. The American Public Transportation Association in Washington, D.C., said cities such as Phoenix and New Haven, Conn., have hooked up global positioning systems.
“A lot of transit systems are using GPS for what is called automated vehicle location,” said Amy Coggin, a spokeswoman for the transportation association. “They may be doing this for various reasons, not all of which would be used for bunching.”
San Diego, for example, is planning to install a system in its 300 buses.
“On our busiest route, we’ve had four buses together, and people get really annoyed,” said Carmen Sandoval, a spokeswoman for San Diego Transit. “We’ve tried other ways to alleviate the problem, and nothing works.”
Under the CTA’s program, satellites would transmit signals to buses, which would pass their location on to the control center at 120 N. Racine Ave. Theoretically, if GPS is used in tandem with the messaging system, the operators at the control center would be able to spot potential bunching and type instructions to drivers.
But the idea is finding some skeptics in key officials like Jarrett, who last March questioned whether the satellite system would improve the spacing problems or just chronicle clusters of buses for hapless operators who have no control over heavy traffic anyway.
Questions like Jarrett’s are keeping the idea on the drawing board, although she acknowledges that “bus bunching is the No. 1 challenge we want to tackle.”
While the future–and financing–of satellite technology on city buses remains hazy, the CTA is working on less expensive solutions, such as changing the way drivers and managers approach the bunching problem. Generally, bus drivers are told that their goal is to be at a certain stop by a specific time.
Asking drivers along the 11 routes to think for themselves is a change that may be more difficult to achieve than it may seem, said Robert Smith, vice president of bus operations. It’s a radical departure from rigid rules and schedules imposed on drivers for years.
“We are trying to create a different culture where operators take a sense of ownership over what is happening and work with each other on the route,” Smith said Wednesday. “The good news is, we are trying a new program, employees are responding and morale is high.”
