Are we really safe on the road?

[Chicagojack]

Just last week I was riding the L when I watch a CTA bus take off the mirror of a mover truck without stopping.   Unfortunately for the mover truck, his vehicle was not fast enough to catch the bus.  I actually feel bad for the driver since mostly her will get into trouble or possibly lose his job since he really had no proof.  

So my question is, is this the type of bus drivers we can trust our lives with?

PS, now at Im posting this, I looked online for the Chicago mover which is Devon Moving Company.  I think Im going to call them and possibly save a man's job.

If anyone else witnessed this event, please step up and call the company. 

Devon Moving Company

4973 N Elston Avenue Chicago, IL. 60630

(773)829-7174

Sound off welcome  

[Pace831]

20 minutes ago, Chicagojack said:

 

So my question is, is this the type of bus drivers we can trust our lives with?

Elaborate more on this "dangerous type" of bus drivers. Have you witnessed other incidents that make you feel unsafe on buses? You make it sound like the passengers on this bus were in a life threatening situation when the accident was minor. It is difficult, to say the least, to maneuver large vehicles on tight streets. Are you sure this incident was caused by the CTA driver's carelessness, or whether he/she even noticed? The back of a bus I was on struck a car while turning a sharp corner, and neither the driver nor passengers in front realized it until the people in back got the driver's attention. You also state you witnessed this from the L, which probably isn't the best vantage point. (I assume your train was stopped).

Calling the moving company probably can't hurt, although I suppose there is a chance they will think you're a buddy of the truck driver trying to back up his alibi.

[BusHunter]

There alot of stuff that goes on, but you don't know if it was called in or not down the street. I know I remember when bus #7365 hit a light pole where I was waiting for the bus and knocked off the streetlight fixture 10 feet from my head and probably certain death. The bus drove on, I got on the follower but his bus was messed up in the front and he had broken reflectors/turn signals. i remember thinking how was he going to pass off that at the garage. I never saw that operator again, he might have got fired. Failure to report an accident is bad news if your trying to keep your job.

[Pace831]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

There alot of stuff that goes on, but you don't know if it was called in or not down the street. I know I remember when bus #7365 hit a light pole where I was waiting for the bus and knocked off the streetlight fixture 10 feet from my head and probably certain death. The bus drove on, I got on the follower but his bus was messed up in the front and he had broken reflectors/turn signals. i remember thinking how was he going to pass off that at the garage. I never saw that operator again, he might have got fired. Failure to report an accident is bad news if your trying to keep your job.

That reminds me of when a school bus hit a light pole at my old school. The school had a rectangular parking lot which the buses would drive around the perimeter of. One driver cut the corner short and hit the pole head on, knocking it over. I don't know what he/she was thinking, because there was plenty of room to make the turn. The driver must have been unfamiliar with the lot, distracted, under the influence, or some combination of those, because that is worse than a "normal" mistake. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

[strictures]

One thing I become aware of & am annoyed with, are the drivers on the North Lake Shore Drive express routes, staying in the #4 lane the entire way. Far too many do that. At least the 147 driver today, Run 701, did move over & stay there.

This is the slow lane, but it's also the lane with anyone exiting or entering LSD. More than once I've been on a bus where the driver has had to slam on the brakes, due some nitwit zooming in front of the bus to exit.

The CTA should require the drivers to move to the #3 lane as soon as it's safely possible & on southbound runs, stay there until they cross the LaSalle Dr. bridge & then move to the #4 lane to exit at Oak St.

For northbound runs, they should move to the #3 lane after entering at Oak & in the case of the 147s, stay there until they pass Lawrence Ave.

What's stranger is, I also ride the 192 on occasion & almost all of them going southbound move to the #3 lane by 18th St. Most of the northbound drivers also do that.

[BusHunter]

11 hours ago, Pace831 said:

That reminds me of when a school bus hit a light pole at my old school. The school had a rectangular parking lot which the buses would drive around the perimeter of. One driver cut the corner short and hit the pole head on, knocking it over. I don't know what he/she was thinking, because there was plenty of room to make the turn. The driver must have been unfamiliar with the lot, distracted, under the influence, or some combination of those, because that is worse than a "normal" mistake. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Just keep in mind in Chicago when a pole gets hit, the light fixture will pop off or dangle and pop off if the pole doesn't come down. I'll be looking for that now, probably for the rest of my life. The driver was obviously fatigued and he just misjudged his bus clearance. He spun the newspaper cans around like a top and he must have glazed the pole, it was leaning afterwards. This happened long ago, I believe it was 2001, I had got on a man standard #4300 after this which was following behind him, telling the driver damn this guy's trying to kill me!! Just joking but in a way it was a serious thing. He just seemed shocked. This happened at Addison/Nordica. When the light fixture hit the ground it made a deafening piercing sound, my reaction was to put my hands over my ears and squat down cause it was like you were under attack. The guy at the meat market Joseph's came out in his butcher uniform to see what happened cause it was a real loud sound. I believe the same pole still exists today, they just called someone out to straighten out the pole and put a fixture back on and that was it.

Later on I had heard on the news of a fixture coming off a pole and hitting someone in the head on south Halsted, they had died of head trauma. It was then that I knew how dangerous my situation could have been. Sometimes you just have dumb luck and I'm glad I had some that day. 

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

5 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Just keep in mind in Chicago when a pole gets hit, the light fixture will pop off or dangle and pop off if the pole doesn't come down. I'll be looking for that now, probably for the rest of my life. The driver was obviously fatigued and he just misjudged his bus clearance. He spun the newspaper cans around like a top and he must have glazed the pole, it was leaning afterwards. This happened long ago, I believe it was 2001, I had got on a man standard #4300 after this which was following behind him, telling the driver damn this guy's trying to kill me!! Just joking but in a way it was a serious thing. He just seemed shocked. This happened at Addison/Nordica. When the light fixture hit the ground it made a deafening piercing sound, my reaction was to put my hands over my ears and squat down cause it was like you were under attack. The guy at the meat market Joseph's came out in his butcher uniform to see what happened cause it was a real loud sound. I believe the same pole still exists today, they just called someone out to straighten out the pole and put a fixture back on and that was it.

Later on I had heard on the news of a fixture coming off a pole and hitting someone in the head on south Halsted, they had died of head trauma. It was then that I knew how dangerous my situation could have been. Sometimes you just have dumb luck and I'm glad I had some that day. 

Yeah, you would think that a fixture that was knocked down in the first place would be light enough that it wouldn't hurt you that much. But then you have to remember that there's just a lot of force going on everywhere in a situation like this. Those poles and fixtures aren't light at all, but buses and trucks aren't light either. They also just happen to have a lot of force behind them. On the other hand, you don't. You're just standing on the sidewalk minding your own business, so it's a rational thing to think about. I live out where it's both very windy at times, and where construction sites have required traffic lights on strings. On those windy days it really gets you thinking about what would happen if the cables holding the lights up snapped...

[Pace831]

 

2015 Street view of Addison/Nordica, showing the pole in front of Joseph's Meat Market.

The fixture falling off probably applies to any street/highway type light, not just in Chicago. I don't know there are any requirements for newly installed poles to have the fixture attached more strongly to prevent incidents like these. If not, it sounds like there should be! The arm attaching the fixture to the pole doesn't weigh much compared to the fixture itself. The arm is made just strong enough to hold the fixture up, you can see the arm moving on a windy day while the pole appears not to move. To illustrate this, imagine holding a 20lb weight with your arm perpendicular to your body. The instability of this setup is what causes the fixture (weight) to fall off if the base is hit. The parking lot lights that I mentioned are closer to the pole and more rigidly attached, so the analogy for those would be holding the weight at your side with your arm bent.

[strictures]

2 hours ago, Pace831 said:

 

2015 Street view of Addison/Nordica, showing the pole in front of Joseph's Meat Market.

The fixture falling off probably applies to any street/highway type light, not just in Chicago. I don't know there are any requirements for newly installed poles to have the fixture attached more strongly to prevent incidents like these. If not, it sounds like there should be! The arm attaching the fixture to the pole doesn't weigh much compared to the fixture itself. The arm is made just strong enough to hold the fixture up, you can see the arm moving on a windy day while the pole appears not to move. To illustrate this, imagine holding a 20lb weight with your arm perpendicular to your body. The instability of this setup is what causes the fixture (weight) to fall off if the base is hit. The parking lot lights that I mentioned are closer to the pole and more rigidly attached, so the analogy for those would be holding the weight at your side with your arm bent.

The bases of poles that are on a raised base are frangible. That means that raised base will shatter when hit with the force of a moving vehicle & the pole will fall down, most likely away from the vehicle, but don't be a pedestrian in its way or in the back of a car when it comes down. That's to prevent the pole from crushing the vehicle front end.

[BusHunter]

Also when the plastic housing that surrounds the light (that grayish piece) comes off it picks up force as it falls and increases speed. You couldn't have slammed it down that hard if you wanted to. The housing once it falls on the ground is quite big a foot and a half to 2 feet. It hit hard enough to bust up the plastic housing. I was looking at a light today. From the ground it looks like it is mounted by one nut. I bet some of those are just pushed on the stem. If so that's dangerous.  You would think even in a collision how could that nut snap if the force is at the bottom of the pole but if its wacked hard enough I bet it could come off the stem if it isn't fastened correctly. 

[2200fan]

I live near Belmont & Cumberland. The poles on Belmont originally supported trolley wires and do NOT give way. They are set into the ground in concrete. If you're in my area, start at Pacific av (8000w) and go west. Almost every pole is on a different angle than it's neighbor. They've all been hit at one time or another.

[BusHunter]

51 minutes ago, 2200fan said:

I live near Belmont & Cumberland. The poles on Belmont originally supported trolley wires and do NOT give way. They are set into the ground in concrete. If you're in my area, start at Pacific av (8000w) and go west. Almost every pole is on a different angle than it's neighbor. They've all been hit at one time or another.

That's because they are at least 50 years old. That's alot of traffic. I was told by someone a pole actually fell over and killed someone around Irving Pk and Cumberland but I think that was a telephone pole.

[Busjack]

16 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

That's because they are at least 50 years old.

If from streetcars, more like 95. I bet the ones on Cottage Grove are 110.

Even if for trolley buses, about 85 (poles installed on Central in 1930). Any CTA extension of trolley buses would have been in the late 1940s.

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

If from streetcars, more like 95. I bet the ones on Cottage Grove are 110.

Even if for trolley buses, about 85 (poles installed on Central in 1930). Any CTA extension of trolley buses would have been in the late 1940s.

They probably will be hitting the main roads poles more now that most of the side street poles are pretty new. Some wards like around Sacramento and Addison have blocks and blocks of new poles as well as Wrigleyville, yet out by me it's only one street, 3 blocks max. I thought they got those by ward but I guess not.

One would wonder why the new LED streetlights have to be on brand new poles only, they can't seem to put those on the slightly older silver poles. I was looking those seem to have the stem and light housing separate where the brand new poles seem like it's all one piece built into the pole, so maybe that's it.

[jajuan]

On 1/6/2016 at 1:35 PM, strictures said:

One thing I become aware of & am annoyed with, are the drivers on the North Lake Shore Drive express routes, staying in the #4 lane the entire way. Far too many do that. At least the 147 driver today, Run 701, did move over & stay there.

This is the slow lane, but it's also the lane with anyone exiting or entering LSD. More than once I've been on a bus where the driver has had to slam on the brakes, due some nitwit zooming in front of the bus to exit.

The CTA should require the drivers to move to the #3 lane as soon as it's safely possible & on southbound runs, stay there until they cross the LaSalle Dr. bridge & then move to the #4 lane to exit at Oak St.

For northbound runs, they should move to the #3 lane after entering at Oak & in the case of the 147s, stay there until they pass Lawrence Ave.

What's stranger is, I also ride the 192 on occasion & almost all of them going southbound move to the #3 lane by 18th St. Most of the northbound drivers also do that.

I've noticed the same thing but mostly with operators who are a little ahead of schedule or too close behind their leaders. I don't notice it much with buses on the #136 though. Whenever I've ridden that route, buses in the AM get into the #3 lane and travel that lane until just past the S-curves at Oak before moving back to the #4 lane in prep for the exit at Grand, and those in the PM use #3 lane until just beyond the Belmont exit and merge back to the #4 lane staying there until Irving Park. 

[artthouwill]

Are the CTA vehicles still governed to 55 mph?  Perhaps traffic flow makes drivers stay in lane 4 as it's the slowest lane.  Unless the cops are out,  we know that traffic flow on LSD is about 60 - 65 mph.   CTA buses can't travel that fast.  In the words of Ludacris,  Move b--tch, get out the way!!!

[jajuan]

On 1/14/2016 at 8:43 PM, artthouwill said:

Are the CTA vehicles still governed to 55 mph?  Perhaps traffic flow makes drivers stay in lane 4 as it's the slowest lane.  Unless the cops are out,  we know that traffic flow on LSD is about 60 - 65 mph.   CTA buses can't travel that fast.  In the words of Ludacris,  Move b--tch, get out the way!!!

It's a possibility that the buses are because the developers of the Chicago add-on to the OMSI 2 game give their specs used to model the NF 1000s and 4000s in the game as both being governed to a max speed of 55 mph. 

[Martin153]

Just last week I was riding the L when I watch a CTA bus take off the mirror of a mover truck without stopping.   Unfortunately for the mover truck, his vehicle was not fast enough to catch the bus.  I actually feel bad for the driver since mostly her will get into trouble or possibly lose his job since he really had no proof.  

So my question is, is this the type of bus drivers we can trust our lives with?

PS, now at Im posting this, I looked online for the Chicago mover which is Chicago Moving Company.  I think I'm going to call them and possibly save a man's job.

If anyone else witnessed this event, please step up and call the company. 

[artthouwill]

11 hours ago, Martin153 said:

Just last week I was riding the L when I watch a CTA bus take off the mirror of a mover truck without stopping.   Unfortunately for the mover truck, his vehicle was not fast enough to catch the bus.  I actually feel bad for the driver since mostly her will get into trouble or possibly lose his job since he really had no proof.  

So my question is, is this the type of bus drivers we can trust our lives with?

PS, now at Im posting this, I looked online for the Chicago mover which is Chicago Moving Company.  I think I'm going to call them and possibly save a man's job.

If anyone else witnessed this event, please step up and call the company. 

Generally speaking,  a driver should know when he has made contact with another vehicle.  Rhe nover should have called his employer immediately and reported that accident without moving his truck.  With you calling as a witness, ithe company can contact CTA and based on time , location,  and direction, they can narrow down  what bus was involved.  At this point it may not be possible to view video, but usually if contact was made, the camera on the front windshield well have a green light that turns red.  That should alert someone from CTA that a particular vehicle was involved in some incident  and the safety personnel can review the video. 

This might save the movers job, but could cost the CTA driver's job.  This would be considered a non reported accident.  I don't work for CTA ,,,but transportation industry standard is that failing to report an accident is cause for immediate termination.   The driver might claim that he was unaware that he hit anything.   That doesn't matter.  

The CTA drivers can answer this observation.   I can't recall the last time, if ever, that I saw a relief driver do a pretrip inspection    As a driver, I don’t want to be held responsible for damage that was already on a bus when I took over.  The pretrial was a way to find out who did damage by finding out who didn't mark damage on their pretrip report.  I know it's hard to turn in a pretrip in a street relief, but even so, I can't re call a CTA or Pace driver doing a visual inspection of the bus prior to taking over from another driver.  I always did them and noted damage, leaks, non working exterior heD, tail, brake, signal, hazards, . and marker lights 

[strictures]

9 hours ago, artthouwill said:

 I can't recall the last time, if ever, that I saw a relief driver do a pretrip inspection  

The most I ever saw a driver do was a five minute wipedown of the driver's seat with some sort of cleaner!

[Shannoncvpi]

On 1/13/2016 at 8:43 PM, artthouwill said:

Are the CTA vehicles still governed to 55 mph?  Perhaps traffic flow makes drivers stay in lane 4 as it's the slowest lane.  Unless the cops are out,  we know that traffic flow on LSD is about 60 - 65 mph.   CTA buses can't travel that fast.  In the words of Ludacris,  Move b--tch, get out the way!!!

No I had a few buses at 70 & was making mfs get out of the left lane