Destination Signs! (Was: CTA would be so proud)

[rvwnsd]

Someone at Muni obviously studied at the CTA Academy of Bus Sign Design:

 

 

Line 12 is "Folsom/Pacific"

 

PS: The lighting was bad, so the picture is not the best, but in person, these buses are quite striking.

[Busjack]

6 hours ago, rvwnsd said:

Someone at Muni obviously studied at the CTA Academy of Bus Sign Design:

That's more GCRTA (e.g. here, although CNG). Only thing remotely CTA is the font for Hybrid Electric, and this only has half of the legend. Somebody must have gotten a deal at the craft shop.

 

IIRC, these were the hybrid buses that the blogging community said NF foisted onto MUNI.

[rvwnsd]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

That's more GCRTA (e.g. here, although CNG). Only thing remotely CTA is the font for Hybrid Electric, and this only has half of the legend. Somebody must have gotten a deal at the craft shop.

 

IIRC, these were the hybrid buses that the blogging community said NF foisted onto MUNI.

I was referring to "FLSM/PCFC" on the side sign. 

[Busjack]

26 minutes ago, rvwnsd said:

I was referring to "FLSM/PCFC" on the side sign. 

Then I don't get it. Looking it up (and as you noted), Route 12-Folsom-Pacific looks more like a tribute to Johnny Cash.

Maybe a tribute to Pace taking the vowels out of most of its signs.

[rvwnsd]

9 hours ago, Busjack said:

Then I don't get it. Looking it up (and as you noted), Route 12-Folsom-Pacific looks more like a tribute to Johnny Cash.

Maybe a tribute to Pace taking the vowels out of most of its signs.

Maybe I notice  CTA's strange destination sign abbreviations more than others because I don't live there, but I recall seeing some rather cryptic destination signs, mainly on the lakefront express routes and on the Streeterville/Ogden/Taylor. One that comes to mind was a destination sign reading "TO DEAR/KNZE." At first, I thought "WTH?" and after a few minutes it dawned on me that the sign meant "Dearborn Kinzie."

I'll have to look through some of my pics.

[Busjack]

11 hours ago, rvwnsd said:

Maybe I notice  CTA's strange destination sign abbreviations more than others because I don't live there, but I recall seeing some rather cryptic destination signs, mainly on the lakefront express routes and on the Streeterville/Ogden/Taylor. One that comes to mind was a destination sign reading "TO DEAR/KNZE." At first, I thought "WTH?" and after a few minutes it dawned on me that the sign meant "Dearborn Kinzie."

I'll have to look through some of my pics.

I guess you haven't been around recently, because most of those are gone. For instance I don't think Ogden was ever part of the Streeterville Taylor sign, but if it was, it no longer is, and Streeterville Taylor is now a two line sign.

The issue seems to be that CTA has gotten off the 15 character only signs of the 1980s-1990s, which some other transit authorities like Pace can't seem to do so, even though all signs now have proportional fonts. Take a trip to Forest Park and see all the new FRST PK CTA signs.

[strictures]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

The issue seems to be that CTA has gotten off the 15 character only signs of the 1980s-1990s, which some other transit authorities like Pace can't seem to do so, even though all signs now have proportional fonts. Take a trip to Forest Park and see all the new FRST PK CTA signs.

Pace's audio announcements are also bizarrely abbreviated on some routes.  For example:  On the 290, Birchwood is just said by the automated voice as "Birch" & East Prairie is just "Prairie".  

Updated.  I believe on the 215, the announcement calls the street by its full name, Birchwood.  Consistency isn't something Pace believes in!

[rvwnsd]

2 hours ago, Busjack said:

I guess you haven't been around recently, because most of those are gone. For instance I don't think Ogden was ever part of the Streeterville Taylor sign, but if it was, it no longer is, and Streeterville Taylor is now a two line sign.

The issue seems to be that CTA has gotten off the 15 character only signs of the 1980s-1990s, which some other transit authorities like Pace can't seem to do so, even though all signs now have proportional fonts. Take a trip to Forest Park and see all the new FRST PK CTA signs.

I was in Chicago last month and didn't notice any weirdness, so maybe CTA has finally found its way. I like San Francisco's destination signs.  If CTA used their methodology, the 151 would look like this:

The font, of course, would be different.

 

The destination sign of the 12 - Folsom/Pacific looks like this:

 

 

Regarding PACE, I don't spend that much time in the PACE service area when visiting. The family lives out in Huntley (no PACE bus there - closest is in West Dundee) and a friend lives in River Forest but we typically go to the city or hang out at her home. No PACE bus on her street.

 

[Busjack]

3 minutes ago, rvwnsd said:

I was in Chicago last month and didn't notice any weirdness, so maybe CTA has finally found its way. I like San Francisco's destination signs.  If CTA used their methodology, the 151 would look like this:

CTA is at least consistent that the route name shows on the first panel and the destination shows on the second (unless it is just 79th or 95th). Maybe not quite as consistent when it uses a 2 line sign.

Again, Pace is no where consistent on that.

[rvwnsd]

3 minutes ago, Busjack said:

CTA is at least consistent that the route name shows on the first panel and the destination shows on the second (unless it is just 79th or 95th). Maybe not quite as consistent when it uses a 2 line sign.

Again, Pace is no where consistent on that.

True that! Phoenix (where I now live) uses the same model as CTA, so it was easy for me to figure out the signs. When I first moved to San Diego the signs were ll over the map. Can't tell you how many times I boarded the wrong bus.

I will say that CTA is one of the easiest-to-ride transit systems. Between the maps on the bus stop signs and the excellent station markings, it is easy to navigate. 

[jajuan]

On 5/12/2018 at 9:01 PM, rvwnsd said:

Maybe I notice  CTA's strange destination sign abbreviations more than others because I don't live there, but I recall seeing some rather cryptic destination signs, mainly on the lakefront express routes and on the Streeterville/Ogden/Taylor. One that comes to mind was a destination sign reading "TO DEAR/KNZE." At first, I thought "WTH?" and after a few minutes it dawned on me that the sign meant "Dearborn Kinzie."

I'll have to look through some of my pics.

 

On 5/13/2018 at 8:28 AM, Busjack said:

I guess you haven't been around recently, because most of those are gone. For instance I don't think Ogden was ever part of the Streeterville Taylor sign, but if it was, it no longer is, and Streeterville Taylor is now a two line sign.

The issue seems to be that CTA has gotten off the 15 character only signs of the 1980s-1990s, which some other transit authorities like Pace can't seem to do so, even though all signs now have proportional fonts. Take a trip to Forest Park and see all the new FRST PK CTA signs.

Yeah you really had to pay attention to route numbers on the buses when we still had buses saying things like  "14 EXPRESS", "121 EXPRESS", "125 EXPRESS", and "147 EXPRESS" or "145 MICH EXP" or "146 MICH EXP". The Lake Shore Express realignments of 2003 in addition to getting buses with destination signs that display more than 15 characters did indeed eliminate a lot of that with buses on those routes. "147 EXPRESS" became something like "147 OTR DRV EXP" on 15 character signs for example. But we do still see "121 EXPRESS" and "125 EXPRESS" on buses today as final remnants to those 15 characters days.

[Busjack]

On 5/15/2018 at 1:26 PM, jajuan said:

 

Yeah you really had to pay attention to route numbers on the buses when we still had buses saying things like  "14 EXPRESS", "121 EXPRESS", "125 EXPRESS", and "147 EXPRESS" or "145 MICH EXP" or "146 MICH EXP". The Lake Shore Express realignments of 2003 in addition to getting buses with destination signs that display more than 15 characters did indeed eliminate a lot of that with buses on those routes. "147 EXPRESS" became something like "147 OTR DRV EXP" on 15 character signs for example. But we do still see "121 EXPRESS" and "125 EXPRESS" on buses today as final remnants to those 15 characters days.

This one also reminds me of a new obnoxious Pace one 610 PRAIRIE STONE/610 SEARS XPRS (or something like that), basically because it refers to Sears Centre, not the nearly broke Sears in Prairie Stone.

[ethan2226]

I fond on the 206 Bus. It says "206 EVANSTON CIRC", "206 TO CENT/CRAW", "206 VIA DODGE", or "206 VIA RIDGE".

[geneking7320]

I rather liked 97 Demp/Yellow L .

[Busjack]

12 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

I rather liked 97 Demp/Yellow L .

Which reminds me that 626 is SKOKIE SWFT, while 620 is DEMPSTER (flip) YELLOW LINE.Sometimes Pace cleans it up; other times it doesn't.

[MetroShadow]

The title of the thread has been changed to reflect destination signs actually in thread.

[Busjack]

Since the weird signs topic has been expanded, I today saw 2778 in Wheeling with the following in the rear route number sign:

NOT IN SERVICE
NOT IN SERVICE

Similar to the 2 line 422 sign I saw at Golf Mill a couple of years ago.

The dot pitch must be better than I thought.