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Bus Accidents


rotjohns

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Im just poking fun at you. And wonder why you are so blind to realize the high crime rate in that area? Im just stating facts, if you choose not to see them that is your own problem. Im not gonna go back and point out every incident on this message board regarding accidents, but open your eyes and see that this is a very high rate of accidents involving buses in that area.

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On this site, we talk about everything from bus building to bus accidents! :)

I think the reference was more to Mikey's crime reference.

Of course one could also point out where the shooting at the bus terminal occurred (not on the West side), or that two teens speeding in a Porsche on the Regan Tollway hit a mini-van, but only killed themselves. It is kind of hard to hit a CTA bus in Naperville.

Of course, as a firefighter, you have to clean up the aftermath of all those messes.

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Yup, the crime there is out of control. Its like a warzone over there. I stay away from there. It kinda stinks that its not very safe to go photograph buses there. I usually go to FG because thats outside. Archer was good for some pictures but its closed now. NP really has no good spots to get pictures. 77th is ok if you dont mind standing on the roof of yor car to shoot the scrapyard over the fence. 74th is tucked back off the street, I've never even tried getting back in there. But I'm glad I found this group because it seems like good people who really know their stuffrolleyes.gif

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Yup, the crime there is out of control. Its like a warzone over there. I stay away from there. It kinda stinks that its not very safe to go photograph buses there. I usually go to FG because thats outside. Archer was good for some pictures but its closed now. NP really has no good spots to get pictures. 77th is ok if you dont mind standing on the roof of yor car to shoot the scrapyard over the fence. 74th is tucked back off the street, I've never even tried getting back in there. But I'm glad I found this group because it seems like good people who really know their stuffrolleyes.gif

I always thought that NP was a better spot than 77th to get pictures, because at NP I got my last shots of their MAN Artics 7300s and Americanas 4000s in summer 2004 before the Americanas took off the fleet and some of remaining 7300s transferred to 77th for Rt. 6.

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I like Forest Glen just cuz its an outdoor garage. There were times (pre 9/11/01) where with permission you could get access to 77th just by being friendly towards the workers there. But now its gated and you cant get in unless youre a bus. Car traffic is pretty much not allowed.

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At one time, there was a Dominicks store where you could get decent shots at 77th but thats been closed at least 2 years. I never drove behind there but had done so with some friends. Now there are barricades in front of that lot, but I guess you could walk back there if you really wanted to. But that goes back to the trespassing issue again

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I heard on WLS-AM a government report that said CTA buses have the highest accident rate of any transit system in a major metropolitan area. The rate mentioned was an average of one a day. I find that hard to believe, unless minor bumps or fender benders are factored in. Unfortunately I don't have a link to this report, I only heard it on the news.

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I heard on WLS-AM a government report that said CTA buses have the highest accident rate of any transit system in a major metropolitan area. The rate mentioned was an average of one a day. I find that hard to believe, unless minor bumps or fender benders are factored in. Unfortunately I don't have a link to this report, I only heard it on the news.

It was also in the Tribune. However, it was real confusing, (1) because the threshold of reporting was changed, and (2) it didn't seem to make any difference whether the bus driver or other party was at fault; in fact they mention that 4 were someone hit the bus and 4 were that the bus hit something, resulting in significant damage.

There was also the reference to "after the CTA added rides," but the statistics are from 2009, not 2010 when they cut service.

You get into the real foggy area when they say that "fender benders" are not tracked. Also, if there were only 8 over the $25,000 threshold, there must have been 263 with at least one person taken to a hospital, but we all know how immediately people want to be taken to the hospital to buy a lawsuit. It doesn't say how many of them had serious injuries.

So, while I thought it had some bearing on mikey's assertions, the statistics are too nebulous to really make a conclusion, other than that once in a while, a bus demolishes a house.

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It was also in the Tribune. However, it was real confusing ...

I was confused. It seemed like the headline and the first three paragraphs were a completely different story than the remainder of the article. The beginning was about where the CTA rates nationwide, but doesn't show any specific stats other than "CTA buses have been involved in more collisions annually since 2008 than buses operated by the nine other largest public bus systems in the United States, according to records compiled for the Tribune by the Federal Transit Administration." Is that because CTA has the third largest bus sytem in the US and therefore has more buses and rides? Or are the stats based on "per bus" which would give some parity to the fleet size of the nine largest. (and the size of those 9 agencies range dramatically - 900k+ rides in NYC, 300k+ in CHicago and LA, and 90k+ in the ninth largest, King County Metro in Seattle.)

As the story goes on, it doesn't answer any of those questions, but starts a new article about how the CTA's accident rate has improved more than 9 percent since 2008. It's almost as if the Trib buried a good story beneath a confusing headline and lede.

Then I looked to see how other media outlets were handling it, but it looks like they were all reporting on the Trib article.

I'm still confused.

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... but doesn't show any specific stats other than "CTA buses have been involved in more collisions annually since 2008 than buses operated by the nine other largest public bus systems in the United States, according to records compiled for the Tribune by the Federal Transit Administration." Is that because CTA has the third largest bus sytem in the US and therefore has more buses and rides? Or are the stats based on "per bus" which would give some parity to the fleet size of the nine largest. (and the size of those 9 agencies range dramatically - 900k+ rides in NYC, 300k+ in CHicago and LA, and 90k+ in the ninth largest, King County Metro in Seattle.)....

There is a graphic with the comparative information you seek. Originally there was a link to it on the home page, but there is still a link in the blue area under Hilkevitch's picture in the main story.

Basically, in a 1.5 year period, CTA is #1 in the raw number of accidents, but #4 in the number of accidents per 100,000 passenger trips (each trip is an unlinked one). In the "per passenger trip" category, Atlanta, Detroit, and Washington are worse.

In that the search of the Tribune site for CTA also brings up two AP stories, I guess your surmise that the others got it from the Tribune is correct, indirectly speaking.

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There is a graphic with the comparative information you seek. Originally there was a link to it on the home page, but there is still a link in the blue area under Hilkevitch's picture in the main story.

Thanks, busjack, for the link. I had completely missed that link and without it the "reporting" in the article was frustrating. That link put the accident stats into perspective, though it still seemed like two different stories (bad CTA, good CTA).

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Here's a classic CTA photo provided by David Wilson via flickr. Bus #7899(GM Fishbowl) suffered severe front end damage due to a truck parking in it's right of way suddenly. I wonder if it reentered service after this or was retired. Not sure of the date, perhaps 1984???

Side shot w/possible Bus Operator extraction

I took a look at some other pics from this, the author says it happened in Feb 1984.

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