Fox Valley Restructuring a Mess

[Busjack]

The Daily Herald reported that Bus route makes sloppy debut {might become a paid link in a couple of days} referring to Route 529 Randall Road-5th in Aurora. This is only the top of the iceberg. While the North Shore Initiative had the problem that the consultants were reaching into communities not initially included in the study area, at least the implementation (with the exception of the sign on one route still being wrong after 7 months) was o.k, but the implementation in Aurora is a total mess.

One obvious problem was caused by having routes interlined through the Transportation Center, but not having operative signs, being complicated by the fact that this is the first Transportation Center I have seen at which buses going in both directions use the same stop. (Compare to Jefferson Park, where the 85 Northbound and Southbound have separate berths.):

• On one route 530 bus (#6611), the only sign that worked was the run number. There was a paper banner in the windshield indicating that it was a route 530, but not the direction, so a rider could not tell from the sign whether it was EB or WB.
  
• 2 Route 529 buses appeared within 10 minutes, each displaying 529 RANDALL RD {flip} RANDALL-IL 38. Since it runs once an hour, one of them must have been the southbound bus. If the weekday schedule applies, the first one must have been, and should have been labelled 529 5th Street/Settler's Landing, there was no 529 schedule posted in the shelter or available in the train station, and the one on the web was weekdays only. I suppose one could ask the driver, but would not be surprised if the SB bus left empty.
  

Other sign goofs:

• 521 had a sign for a short turn school run.
  
• 528 had a sign for 5TH ST COPLEY HOSPITAL, although it now uses union (5th Street was the old route).
  

Since Pace is there running the identical type of vehicles, why can't they get them all correct?

Finally, I noted that 535 was apparently being run with a paratransit vehicle, which would make sense, but was not marked as being that route.

If the initiative flops, we know the reason.

[MetroShadow]

Wow. At least with the North Shore, things were fixed ASAP. And the signs took not that long to be adjusted.

[Busjack]

Wow. At least with the North Shore, things were fixed ASAP. And the signs took not that long to be adjusted.  

The sign to which I referred still has not been fixed (the 7 months is from the date of implementation in March).

[MetroShadow]

which route was that?

[Busjack]

422; some drivers display Northbrook-Metra Only instead of Northbrook Ct (covered in Who to contact--wrong destination sign). I have been too busy to make this a personal crusade.

If you were referring to the street corner signs, those were changed in the North Shore area before the restructuring; however, some of the Aurora ones had not been as of Saturday (i.e. those on Route 59 were still 530, not 535).

Note, I saw all of this within about 1/2 hour on Saturday; no telling how many goofs there actually are, especially on weekdays.

[trainman8119]

Looking at the changes that were made out there, I can't decide if they did a good job on this or not. That was my home as a driver, and what it apprears they did was change the system from a pulse system where all routes met at the same time to a grid system, where they may meet along the way. For a long time, people wanted later service and the grid set up, which, in some cases, it appears they got. But looking at the design of the routes, I am not sure anything really got all that improved in terms of actual service.

It appears Pace did a real good job in Elgin with the changes there. I question some of the changes at Northwest, with the 208, 209, 226 and 250 route changes. Only time will tell for sure.

I just don't understand the real strong desire for all the talk with the 1 bus setup talked about from Evanston to Elgin. Pace has had a tough enough time keeping the 554 running west of Woodfield, often times on the cut hitlist. Why make a longer route than needed if the ridership isn't there now on the shorter route ??????.

The apparent confusion in Aurora once again spells the need for more reliable destination signs.

[Busjack]

I just don't understand the real strong desire for all the talk with the 1 bus setup talked about from Evanston to Elgin. Pace has had a tough enough time keeping the 554 running west of Woodfield, often times on the cut hitlist. Why make a longer route than needed if the ridership isn't there now on the shorter route ??????.

Some of this may just be the consultants talking (i.e. they didn't implement 290 to Rosemont, as proposed). Also, a lot of this has to do with the politics of getting funds in the latest highway bill for BRT; one of the routes high on Pace's list is 208. The most nonsensical of these earmarks is a traffic signal priority system for Rand Road, which has no bus service.

[trainman8119]

You know, I have a real problem with the traffic signal priority being used for buses. I think that the priority should be limited to emergency vehicles only. All it does in terms of buses is allow Pace to operate using less equipment...which is okay, I guess, but I feel that by allowing the buses to preempt signals is wrong...something like that should be used in emergency only..thats all.