CTA Bus Rapid Transit (take two)

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, Juniorz said:

To clear up some of these preconceived notions, here's the grandfather of all documents related to the USTC.

G22-16--Union Station Transit Center Bulletin.pdf

• Confirms (despite what BH was implying, at least explicitly with respect to Rosemont) is that buses are to move up when the preceding bus leaves.
• Also confirms that buses are supposed to stop 10' behind a standard bus to allow for passing, so passing is allowed.
• 7 and 126 aren't mentioned, and the bus stop lists for those indicate that the stop is before the River. Again, it seems kind of strange that the TC is underinclusive of what stops around Union Station.
• It seems bad planning on CDOT's part that the bike lane is on the east side of Clinton and crosses the bus entrance.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

• Confirms (despite what BH was implying, at least explicitly with respect to Rosemont) is that buses are to move up when the preceding bus leaves.
• Also confirms that buses are supposed to stop 10' behind a standard bus to allow for passing, so passing is allowed.
• 7 and 126 aren't mentioned, and the bus stop lists for those indicate that the stop is before the River. Again, it seems kind of strange that the TC is underinclusive of what stops around Union Station.
• It seems bad planning on CDOT's part that the bike lane is on the east side of Clinton and crosses the bus entrance.

On the 7 and 126 point, it seems to confirm that the terminal was meant more for buses terminating at Union Station than those passing it. 

[Busjack]

28 minutes ago, jajuan said:

On the 7 and 126 point, it seems to confirm that the terminal was meant more for buses terminating at Union Station than those passing it. 

True, but if a passenger is trying to get to Michigan and Jackson, you have to take the crapshoot that 1 or 28 shows up, or have to know to walk a block to get 7 or 126. No 1 or 28 outside rush hour.

[jajuan]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

True, but if a passenger is trying to get to Michigan and Jackson, you have to take the crapshoot that 1 or 28 shows up, or have to know to walk a block to get 7 or 126. No 1 or 28 outside rush hour.

Yeah that's a good point. 

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

Smart idea to have a transfer tunnel directly to Union Station. I wonder where you pop out in the station once you exit the tunnel...

[Pace831]

23 minutes ago, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

Smart idea to have a transfer tunnel directly to Union Station. I wonder where you pop out in the station once you exit the tunnel...

Probably the passageway next to Track 2 that goes to the parking garage.

[Juniorz]

The LoopLink Pilot Begins! 

[Busjack]

34 minutes ago, Juniorz said:

Were there any visible means of enforcement, or were you there outside those hours?

[jajuan]

9 hours ago, Juniorz said:

The LoopLink Pilot Begins! 

In addition to Busjack's question, where is the Ventra card reading equipment situated? Or better yet are they using something portable given the prepaid area is only in effect PM rush?

[Busjack]

15 minutes ago, jajuan said:

In addition to Busjack's question, where is the Ventra card reading equipment situated? Or better yet are they using something portable given the prepaid area is only in effect PM rush?

That one was excluded by the alert, which pointed out to go to a subway station or Walgreens.

Quote

You can reload your Ventra Card anytime at ventrachicago.com, using the free Ventra App (available for download and use on Apple and Android smartphone and tablet devices via ventrachicago.com, the App Store and Google Play), at a Ventra vending machine, or at hundreds of Ventra retail locations. Ventra vending machines are located at all CTA rail stations – the Washington Blue Line, Monroe Blue Line, and Monroe Red Line stations are closest, all located within one block.

You can also reload or purchase Ventra cards at retail locations throughout the city – a Walgreens is located next to the station, on the northwest corner of Madison and State, which sells Ventra cards and where fare value or passes can be purchased and loaded onto your card. Other Ventra retailers can be found at ventrachicago.com/retailers/locations/.

 

[jajuan]

18 minutes ago, Busjack said:

That one was excluded by the alert, which pointed out to go to a subway station or Walgreens.

 

Thanks for the link. But the notice says you go to a subway station or Walgreen's to reload your Ventra card, not to pay your fare. The actual setup itself according to the notice will be similar to at an L station in that they're saying you tap your card to pay right there before being allowed on to the bus stop platform and that there will be CTA personnel to assist. So it sounds like they have portable Ventra reading equipment in play during the prepay hours. 

[Busjack]

45 minutes ago, jajuan said:

In addition to Busjack's question, where is the Ventra card reading equipment situated? Or better yet are they using something portable given the prepaid area is only in effect PM rush?

On further review, I misread that post. The alert says to tap on the yellow dot, but didn't say where the yellow dot was.

So I leave it to someone else to answer.

[jajuan]

1 minute ago, Busjack said:

On further review, I misread that post. The alert says to tap on the yellow dot, but didn't say where the yellow dot was.

So I leave it to someone else to answer.

I went back and checked the #77 Belmont/Blue Line stop prepaid boarding thread and saw that BH reported in that thread that they have a street level Ventra machine in place for that prepaid pilot. So perhaps something similar is being done for the Dearborn-State/Madison Loop Link stop during its prepaid hours.

[Pace831]

15 hours ago, Busjack said:

Were there any visible means of enforcement, or were you there outside those hours?

 

6 hours ago, jajuan said:

In addition to Busjack's question, where is the Ventra card reading equipment situated? Or better yet are they using something portable given the prepaid area is only in effect PM rush?

This article shows a picture of the setup of the portable Ventra reader with CTA employee standing nearby.

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, Pace831 said:

 

This article shows a picture of the setup of the portable Ventra reader with CTA employee standing nearby.

Thanks. However, I wonder if there is any security personnel presence, say, near the back of the 56 bus, given the warning about fine and/or arrest. Someone could be at Madison and Western before the police arrive.

[BusHunter]

Why does the Madison Dearborn state station on the loop link have prepaid boarding? I thought that was only at the Washington Clark stop.

[busfan2847]

3 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Why does the Madison Dearborn state station on the loop link have prepaid boarding? I thought that was only at the Washington Clark stop.

It is only at Madison Dearborn not on Washington. Washington Loop link stops have more people getting off than on. Most routes are within a few stops of the end of their run. Any stops on Madison will have a higher number of boarding passengers in the afternoon. The pilot will run during fall 2016. The CTA then will determine whether to conclude the pilot, extend it or make it permanent based on analysis and customer feedback.

[TransitXan17]

I found this link of a possible Chicago Ave BRT replacing bike lanes. I think this is a good idea, tell me what you think!

Chicago Ave BRT

 

(Also I was wondering how to create a new thread if you could help me out that'll be great!)

[Busjack]

59 minutes ago, TransitXan17 said:

I found this link of a possible Chicago Ave BRT replacing bike lanes. I think this is a good idea, tell me what you think!

Chicago Ave BRT

 

(Also I was wondering how to create a new thread if you could help me out that'll be great!)

• It's only one writer's idea. It was part of a $183 million BRT proposal, but that went down in flames exactly 8 years ago (city missed the deadline on raising the parking tax to get a grant).
• On creating a topic, a restriction was placed on newbies doing so, although you can contact the administrator. Personally (and I think many members) don't think Streetsblog is worth doing it, but that's up to the administrators.

[TransitXan17]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

• It's only one writer's idea. It was part of a $183 million BRT proposal, but that went down in flames exactly 8 years ago (city missed the deadline on raising the parking tax to get a grant).
• On creating a topic, a restriction was placed on newbies doing so, although you can contact the administrator. Personally (and I think many members) don't think Streetsblog is worth doing it, but that's up to the administrators.

Thanks for the help! I'll keep that in mind for the future!

[garmon757]

13 hours ago, TransitXan17 said:

I found this link of a possible Chicago Ave BRT replacing bike lanes. I think this is a good idea, tell me what you think!

Chicago Ave BRT

 

(Also I was wondering how to create a new thread if you could help me out that'll be great!)

 

12 hours ago, Busjack said:

• It's only one writer's idea. It was part of a $183 million BRT proposal, but that went down in flames exactly 8 years ago (city missed the deadline on raising the parking tax to get a grant).
• On creating a topic, a restriction was placed on newbies doing so, although you can contact the administrator. Personally (and I think many members) don't think Streetsblog is worth doing it, but that's up to the administrators.

Yeah, that article is 100% based on opinion instead of news but I'll allow it for other members can state their opinions about it. 

[Busjack]

5 hours ago, garmon757 said:

 

Yeah, that article is 100% based on opinion instead of news but I'll allow it for other members can state their opinions about it. 

With regard to the administrator, I was only referring to whether this deserved a new topic, which a new poster is not allowed to create, not whether it was worth it to comment on opinion (if I wasn't clear on that). A big chunk of what we do is comment on opinion.

Back to the substantive point, besides the city having blown the grant, running artics also failed. Maybe some combination of a bus lane and artics might work, but this gets down to what is the scope of the West Towns area, as opposed to perhaps most of the passenger and vehicular traffic being east of the River. Personally, I don't see how choking River North and Streeterville more helps anything.However, since the shortest short terminal is Sacremento, maybe adding a bus lane in West Town does accomplish something.

[Tcmetro]

The CTA just started their "Bus Slow Zone" study, which will analyze changes to the Chicago and 79th corridors. Hopefully it amounts to something more than what happened on Jeffery, Western, and Ashland. 

http://www.rtams.org/rtams/planningStudy.jsp?id=3164

[BusHunter]

7 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

The CTA just started their "Bus Slow Zone" study, which will analyze changes to the Chicago and 79th corridors. Hopefully it amounts to something more than what happened on Jeffery, Western, and Ashland. 

http://www.rtams.org/rtams/planningStudy.jsp?id=3164

Probably it will. They need to find a better way to move the customers faster and an X route is it. I don't know if that translates into less buses. (I think we had that discussion before) but it makes the service more efficient. That's the problem with most of the longer routes like the #3. You start out not bunched but you get down to garfield and you are bunched. Same happens nb. They have some big packs coming north and end up short turning buses. That doesnt help the affected commuter and when you do that to downtown that's alot of potential customers but the same thing happens on #77. The cumberland and sometimes east of halsted customer gets affected. With some X routes maybe they could speed up service and not do so much cutting. The service would at least be more efficient.

[artthouwill]

4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Probably it will. They need to find a better way to move the customers faster and an X route is it. I don't know if that translates into less buses. (I think we had that discussion before) but it makes the service more efficient. That's the problem with most of the longer routes like the #3. You start out not bunched but you get down to garfield and you are bunched. Same happens nb. They have some big packs coming north and end up short turning buses. That doesnt help the affected commuter and when you do that to downtown that's alot of potential customers but the same thing happens on #77. The cumberland and sometimes east of halsted customer gets affected. With some X routes maybe they could speed up service and not do so much cutting. The service would at least be more efficient.

I'm not  on the X route bandwagon for either route.  As one who has traveled  79th, there is a glutton of stop signs, especially  between  King Drive and  Western.   No bus on any route  can overcome  the vehicular  traffic that it shares roadway  with. At least  79th short turns  buses at Western.  I believe  a similar  short turn  at Sacramento  or Pulaski  could help some on Chicago as well as short turns  at Fairbanks and Ontario (the original  terminal  for the 66).  Perhaps using some peak direction  expresses  from NP, K, and 103rd to run short trips from Chicago/Western  to Fairbanks and Ontario  help.