Call it Chicago Transit Anonymous–CTA rider Hallie Metzger’s 12-step program to get the woozy mass-transit system she relies upon daily back on the wagon.
Metzger, 63, who just returned from a trip to Paris, came up with a dozen ideas she would like to see the CTA adopt that she thinks would help everyone’s commute.
Some of her ideas include suggestions to reduce bus-bunching and getting buses through intersections more quickly, and efficiencies that might help improve the flow of riders getting on and off buses.
Bus service increasingly will be important to CTA customers starting in April when rail operations are expected to suffer as the CTA reduces track capacity 25 percent on the Red, Brown and Purple Lines for almost three years of “L” reconstruction on the North Side between Armitage and Addison.
CTA staff is expected to unveil plans for beefed-up bus service Wednesday to board members.
While critics have questioned the need to so severely cut rail service during the rehab of the Belmont and Fullerton stations–CTA officials warn that commuting times on trains could double–bus riders, including Metzger, who is communications coordinator at UCAN, a Northwest Side social service agency, are concentrating on solutions they want to see continued long after the construction dust settles.
Many of the ideas are simple and inexpensive, yet have produced positive results when tried elsewhere. One includes teaching riders to exit in the back of the bus to prevent boarding customers from having to wait while they disembark.
CTA officials say the bus-service improvements that will be offered to the transit board for review on Wednesday will build on earlier innovations.
They have included the placement of “Go Lanes”–extra transit-card fare readers on buses to speed up boarding and reduce congestion at the fare box. Half of the CTA’s 2,165 buses are equipped with Go Lanes, and more will be added, said CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney.
In addition, the CTA has worked with the city to relocate 2,404 bus stops to the far side of signalized intersections–instead of at traditional street-corner locations–to minimize the time buses spend waiting at red lights, Gaffney said.
Many CTA riders have contacted Getting Around to suggest other changes.
One rider thinks the CTA should update the Trip Planner Web site to allow for a bus-only option. Another thinks semi-express buses that stop at selected train stations would help.
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Bus stops here
About 1 million of the total 1.5 million rides the CTA provides each weekday are on buses. CTA bus ridership declined 1.6 percent in 2006, a loss of 4.8 million rides, in part because of declining on-time performance caused by worsening traffic congestion across the metropolitan area.
