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More Screwed Up Destination Signs


trainman8119

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In addition the return of that renamed LaSalle/Belmont route that has appeared

on some of the new 4000 arrivals here is another one that is really mind boggling,

seen on a number of Flxibles and New Flyer buses:

47 47TH/TH

(flip) CICERO/ARCHER

It took me 3 days to verify this one since I couldn't believe what I saw and

thought my eyes were playing games on me in the dark. With a little more

light yesterday and a clear look at a bus arriving at Lake Park, that is the

current signage. Great proofreading !!!!

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In addition the return of that renamed LaSalle/Belmont route that has appeared

on some of the new 4000 arrivals here is another one that is really mind boggling,

seen on a number of Flxibles and New Flyer buses:

47 47TH/TH

(flip) CICERO/ARCHER

It took me 3 days to verify this one since I couldn't believe what I saw and

thought my eyes were playing games on me in the dark. With a little more

light yesterday and a clear look at a bus arriving at Lake Park, that is the

current signage. Great proofreading !!!!

You mean it doesn't run on TH Ave.? :rolleyes:

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I saw a 6000 Flxibles a few days ago on the 54A at the Skokie station on Monday. It displayed a weird message.

"CTA Program"

(Flip)

"12/22/08"

What does this mean?

I've seen these many times, although don't truly know exactly what that means. But I assume that's the name of the program when they program all those runs when the new run assignments period goes into effect. I've seen a sign on a bus that states "CTA Program"-"6/18/06".

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Here's some more destination sign weirdness. I was going south on Pulaski just south of Foster and going north was a Flx 6000 (didn't catch the actual fleet number but it was defnitely a 6000). The destination sign read 53 PULASKI <flip>53 31/KOSTNER..Not 31/KOMENSKY. Also odd because usually the sign just reads 53 PULASKI-31st

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Here's some more destination sign weirdness. I was going south on Pulaski just south of Foster and going north was a Flx 6000 (didn't catch the actual fleet number but it was defnitely a 6000). The destination sign read 53 PULASKI <flip>53 31/KOSTNER..Not 31/KOMENSKY. Also odd because usually the sign just reads 53 PULASKI-31st

This refers to the school runs that serve Little Village School at like you said...31st and Kostner. They DO NOT enter the 31st and Komensky terminal. They may do so northbound...but most of them then return via 53 to Erie and pullin.

Meanwhile...I'm sure that most of you have noticed the others like most of the 147s running northbound with "147 TO MICH/BALBO" by now.

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This refers to the school runs that serve Little Village School at like you said...31st and Kostner. They DO NOT enter the 31st and Komensky terminal. They may do so northbound...but most of them then return via 53 to Erie and pullin.

Meanwhile...I'm sure that most of you have noticed the others like most of the 147s running northbound with "147 TO MICH/BALBO" by now.

Ah okay. Not so weird afterall then. Just never saw that one before.

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Meanwhile...I'm sure that most of you have noticed the others like most of the 147s running northbound with "147 TO MICH/BALBO" by now.

Which brings me to another question that has been burning in me for about 4 years:

As a driver, do you have any feedback to supervision or maintenance on that the sign programming is wrong? Or do you just have to take what the CD puts up there?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This refers to the school runs that serve Little Village School at like you said...31st and Kostner. They DO NOT enter the 31st and Komensky terminal. They may do so northbound...but most of them then return via 53 to Erie and pullin.

The Pulaski trips that go to 31st/Kostner DO NOT enter the terminal at 31st and Komensky in either direction.

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Which brings me to another question that has been burning in me for about 4 years:

As a driver, do you have any feedback to supervision or maintenance on that the sign programming is wrong? Or do you just have to take what the CD puts up there?

Well most operators don't care or even pay attention to details like that. Well those of us on the list do catch these problems and report them to another co-worker on this forum since that person has better luck in getting results!

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I saw run P083 (151 Sheridan) with a head sign that read "151 SHERIDAN to CLK/DVN VIA ORANGE LINE" Why would this say VIA ORANGE LINE?

via ORANGE LINE is a P/R (public relations) or public service message that the operator can set him/herself. Why the driver would do that is beyond me. But it would also explain why you see GET IN THE GO LANE, CLEANER/GREENER, CHICAGO 2016, and so forth

Quite frankly that 151 SHERIDAN TO//151 CLK/DEVON bugs the crap out of me. I understand that some busses now have the correct sign, but many are still running around with incorrect signs for not just that but any route. It just bugs me to see it. The 36 has it right with 36 BROADWAY//36 to DEVON/CLARK.

Let's not forget my personal favorite irritant of past......62 ARCHER//62 to DEAR/KINZIE. Thankfully that was fixed. Sounds like the beginning of a love letter....DEAR KINZIE, blah blah blah.... :P

It reminds me of the days when the RTSs had their signs programed from 77 BELMONT//77 to LAKE SHORE, to 77 BELMONT//77DIVESEY/LKSHR.

DIVESEY????

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via ORANGE LINE is a P/R (public relations) or public service message that the operator can set him/herself. Why the driver would do that is beyond me. But it would also explain why you see GET IN THE GO LANE, CLEANER/GREENER, CHICAGO 2016, and so forth

Quite frankly that 151 SHERIDAN TO//151 CLK/DEVON bugs the crap out of me. I understand that some busses now have the correct sign, but many are still running around with incorrect signs for not just that but any route. It just bugs me to see it. The 36 has it right with 36 BROADWAY//36 to DEVON/CLARK.

Let's not forget my personal favorite irritant of past......62 ARCHER//62 to DEAR/KINZIE. Thankfully that was fixed. Sounds like the beginning of a love letter....DEAR KINZIE, blah blah blah.... :P

It reminds me of the days when the RTSs had their signs programed from 77 BELMONT//77 to LAKE SHORE, to 77 BELMONT//77DIVESEY/LKSHR.

DIVESEY????

It bugs the hell out of me too. I know the 151's are being reprogramed to read 151 Sheridan to Devon/Clark (Northbound) and 151 Sheridan to Union Station (southbound). There are still a couple that linger out there that read CLK/DEVON.

Im from St. Louis and the used to have a great best practice with Destionation signs, they would stack the route and destination all together in one viewing. A false example is listed below:

151 SHERIDAN

TO UNION STATION

The fonts on here wouldnt let me do a complete example, but you should get the idea...

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Im from St. Louis and the used to have a great best practice with Destionation signs, they would stack the route and destination all together in one viewing. A false example is listed below:

151 SHERIDAN

TO UNION STATION

The fonts on here wouldnt let me do a complete example, but you should get the idea...

Pace used to do it all the time, but supposedly that didn't meet ADA requirements when the orange LED signs came in. However, you still see a few, such as on the 272 when not via Buffalo Grove.

The ones like 77DIVESEY/LKSHR were basically because the old style flip dot signs could only take 15 characters. You got 3 more characters when the route numbers were put on a separate sign. The fonts on the LED signs are more variable. Maybe CTA can clean some of them up now because the buses with the real old flip dot head signs are now gone (the 5800s got replacement signs, and most of 6400-6708 got combination flip dot LED signs).

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It bugs the hell out of me too. I know the 151's are being reprogramed to read 151 Sheridan to Devon/Clark (Northbound) and 151 Sheridan to Union Station (southbound). There are still a couple that linger out there that read CLK/DEVON.

Im from St. Louis and the used to have a great best practice with Destionation signs, they would stack the route and destination all together in one viewing. A false example is listed below:

151 SHERIDAN

TO UNION STATION

The fonts on here wouldnt let me do a complete example, but you should get the idea...

The Novas that still have flip dots use that format on some destination codes.

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It is good to see that someone has woke up and started putting full streets on many of

the destination signs vs that silly abbreviations. I still wonder where Dear and Kinzie is

in Chicago (since corrected). This does not apply only to CTA, since someplace out there,

Pace has buses going to someplace called CMBLD CTA, Homewood PNR and Chicago LP.

I see that CUMBLD sign and think that the CTA is crumbling (how profetic).

I do wonder some of the though processes when these are being done though. Although

these seems really trivial, I though I'd bring it up. For example, much as been made about

the 151 being corrected from CLK/DEVON to 151 Devon/Clark. It was noted by some that

they were happy Clark was spelled out. However, the true correction made here is that

the bus travels on Devon to Clark and not Clark to Devon. When I saw that, I thought

that was truely correct. Since then, though I noticed a change yesterday that the Route 3

buses now instead of having 3 MICH/CHICAGO which would be correct now display

3 CHICAGO/MICH. Technically correct in that the signage is stating where the bus is going,

but the excitement of Sheridan buses correctly stating where they are going, King Drive

buses now travel on Chicago to Michigan instead of Michigan to Chicago.

Silly and trivial, I know...but then I am tired of whining about misused and misspent

money, bus transfers, poor planning and raised fares. Why not find something else. ;)

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With regard to the Pace ones, it appeared that they regressed back to the 15 character display mode. I woudn't be surprised if the limitations on the signs on the 2300s set the standards. At least CTA appears to now be going beyond that.

Your mention of Devon/Clark instead of Clark/Devon reinforced that in the old days (as reflected in 5750's sign) the street on which it ran controlled. Apparently, now, it is whatever is on the public timetable, regardless of logic.

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I just noticed on Bustracker, when you click a stop for the next bus arrival times NB 145s are listed as '145 to Ravenswood/Wilson' and 148s are listed using '148 to Wilson/Ravenswood'. I'm not sure how this affects destination sign displays for these two. But I have noticed that what Bustracker has as destinations on the map arrival time lists is pretty much what bus destination signs display.

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I just noticed on Bustracker, when you click a stop for the next bus arrival times NB 145s are listed as '145 to Ravenswood/Wilson' and 148s are listed using '148 to Wilson/Ravenswood'. I'm not sure how this affects destination sign displays for these two. But I have noticed that what Bustracker has as destinations on the map arrival time lists is pretty much what bus destination signs display.

Interesting you bring up the 145/148. Lately I've been seeing the 148s displaying:

148 CLARENDON

148 MICH EXPRESS to

148 WILSON/RED LINE

Did something change here?!? Somebody decided to "MAGICALLY" cut the route short I guess.

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Interesting you bring up the 145/148. Lately I've been seeing the 148s displaying:

148 CLARENDON

148 MICH EXPRESS to

148 WILSON/RED LINE

Did something change here?!? Somebody decided to "MAGICALLY" cut the route short I guess.

They still go all the way to the terminal at Ravenswood/Wilson. The Tracker confirmed that today. You just happened upon another example of CTA goofiness like the 65 and 76 having destination signs displaying 'XX to Harlem' but actually terminating at Nordica. Unless there are short runs only to the Red Line station similar to those old 145 PM rush ones before the existence of the 148 and pre-Lake Shore restructuring.

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They still go all the way to the terminal at Ravenswood/Wilson. The Tracker confirmed that today. You just happened upon another example of CTA goofiness like the 65 and 76 having destination signs displaying 'XX to Harlem' but actually terminating at Nordica. Unless there are short runs only to the Red Line station similar to those old 145 PM rush ones before the existence of the 148 and pre-Lake Shore restructuring.

Actually, Diversey terminates at Neva 1/2 block east of Harlem. Before Neva became a one way

street southbound, the buses went into the terminal in a counter-clockwise direction and pulled up to the street less than 1/4 block from Harlem. Also, in the old days, Grand's destination was

Grand-Harlem Center. That changed in the days of the Helvetic signage.

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Actually, Diversey terminates at Neva 1/2 block east of Harlem. Before Neva became a one way

street southbound, the buses went into the terminal in a counter-clockwise direction and pulled up to the street less than 1/4 block from Harlem. Also, in the old days, Grand's destination was

Grand-Harlem Center. That changed in the days of the Helvetic signage.

Don't forget the #62, which also terminates at Neva I believe. ;)

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They still go all the way to the terminal at Ravenswood/Wilson. The Tracker confirmed that today. You just happened upon another example of CTA goofiness like the 65 and 76 having destination signs displaying 'XX to Harlem'..
No, it probably is a mess up more like the 147 N.B. to Balbo.

The Harlem ones are just because most people don't know where Neva is, which is a block or two short. Broadway (Red Line station) and Ravenswood Ave. are about a mile apart. More if the loop is actually through Damen/Lawrence.

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