CTA New Bus Order 2020

[geneking7320]

I think CTA could reduce the dwell time of its artic buses if it did one of the following:

1. have the driver open the rear doors vs unlocking them and the passenger pushing the door

2. change the rear doors to doors 4 panels not 2. [think of exit doors on bus number 8499 with touch bars].

The slide and glide door is too heavy if the passenger must push it to activate it.

[Mr.cta85]

9 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

I think CTA could reduce the dwell time of its artic buses if it did one of the following:

1. have the driver open the rear doors vs unlocking them and the passenger pushing the door

2. change the rear doors to doors 4 panels not 2. [think of exit doors on bus number 8499 with touch bars].

The slide and glide door is too heavy if the passenger must push it to activate it.

No it’s not too heavy it’s just most passengers don’t give the rear doors a chance to actually work properly like they’re suppose to. They’re used to just bombarding the rear door as soon as the bus stops, or they don’t read or notice the “touch here” sign that’s on the door. They work just fine when you do it right. Also a lot of artics actually have a switch where the operator can open the back doors the same as the front. They added more switches on the artics that didn’t have them during the time we were letting them on and off the bus rear door only. 

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

40 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

No it’s not too heavy it’s just most passengers don’t give the rear doors a chance to actually work properly like they’re suppose to. They’re used to just bombarding the rear door as soon as the bus stops, or they don’t read or notice the “touch here” sign that’s on the door. They work just fine when you do it right. Also a lot of artics actually have a switch where the operator can open the back doors the same as the front. They added more switches on the artics that didn’t have them during the time we were letting them on and off the bus rear door only. 

welcome back to the forums haven’t heard from you inna while?

[YoungBusLover]

43 minutes ago, Mr.cta85 said:

No it’s not too heavy it’s just most passengers don’t give the rear doors a chance to actually work properly like they’re suppose to. They’re used to just bombarding the rear door as soon as the bus stops, or they don’t read or notice the “touch here” sign that’s on the door. They work just fine when you do it right. Also a lot of artics actually have a switch where the operator can open the back doors the same as the front. They added more switches on the artics that didn’t have them during the time we were letting them on and off the bus rear door only. 

Man, I swear no matter route I'm on or what part of the city I'm in the passengers just won't give me or the bus a chance to come to a complete stop before they try to force the rear doors open. It's even worse with the #4000's because a few times I've had passengers disable the rear door trying to get off and I had to completely restart the bus in order for the rear doors to function properly again, then there was another time I had a relief bring me a #4000 on cottage with malfunctioning rear doors due to passengers pulling on them to open, it got so bad where I called it in a jumped buses with my leader at CSU while heading to 115th. All door boarding is a no go for me though.

[Mr.cta85]

1 hour ago, YoungBusLover said:

Man, I swear no matter route I'm on or what part of the city I'm in the passengers just won't give me or the bus a chance to come to a complete stop before they try to force the rear doors open. It's even worse with the #4000's because a few times I've had passengers disable the rear door trying to get off and I had to completely restart the bus in order for the rear doors to function properly again, then there was another time I had a relief bring me a #4000 on cottage with malfunctioning rear doors due to passengers pulling on them to open, it got so bad where I called it in a jumped buses with my leader at CSU while heading to 115th. All door boarding is a no go for me though.

Yea I feel you bro. It’s something about the attic buses where passengers just don’t have the patience for the back doors to open lol. One of the reasons why I left 103rd was to get completely away from artics lol.

[Mr.cta85]

1 hour ago, Mr.NewFlyer1051 said:

welcome back to the forums haven’t heard from you inna while?

Lol thanks! I been around just mostly reading comments on forums. I’ve chimed in on a few post tho ??.

[Shannoncvpi]

2 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Man, I swear no matter route I'm on or what part of the city I'm in the passengers just won't give me or the bus a chance to come to a complete stop before they try to force the rear doors open. It's even worse with the #4000's because a few times I've had passengers disable the rear door trying to get off and I had to completely restart the bus in order for the rear doors to function properly again, then there was another time I had a relief bring me a #4000 on cottage with malfunctioning rear doors due to passengers pulling on them to open, it got so bad where I called it in a jumped buses with my leader at CSU while heading to 115th. All door boarding is a no go for me though.

I have the samething on the 12 what it is the rear doors on the 4000 take too long to open & way too long to close Friday evening I was on the 21 & trying to make a light & the doors was just taking way too long ended up running the light started out there when the light changed so I was blowing the horn clear crossing the street

[geneking7320]

3 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

No it’s not too heavy it’s just most passengers don’t give the rear doors a chance to actually work properly like they’re suppose to. They’re used to just bombarding the rear door as soon as the bus stops, or they don’t read or notice the “touch here” sign that’s on the door. They work just fine when you do it right. Also a lot of artics actually have a switch where the operator can open the back doors the same as the front. They added more switches on the artics that didn’t have them during the time we were letting them on and off the bus rear door only. 

I'm curious -  when the door is functioning properly and the operator unlocks it and the light is green, how long should it take the door to open  after I "touch here"?

It seems to take longer than if the rider is exiting from the rear of CTA's present 40ft bus. For my $0.02 please open the rear door "the same as the front".  Thanks!!!

[artthouwill]

2 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

I have the samething on the 12 what it is the rear doors on the 4000 take too long to open & way too long to close Friday evening I was on the 21 & trying to make a light & the doors was just taking way too long ended up running the light started out there when the light changed so I was blowing the horn clear crossing the street

I think the doors are air operated.  If its really cold or the air lines are starting to freeze,  it may affect the operation of the doors.  

[BusHunter]

Remember when the 4000s were brand new at Kedzie and people were touching the back doors and nothing happened. They were all like wth??? It was kind of funny until you had to use the door. But I watched where people were touching and the stickers were a little off. 

I dont really like the idea of operator controlled doors in the rear unless there are fare controls back there or a brt setup. So many times I've rode Pace buses and the bus goes right past your stop. By the time you get the operators attention, you are couple blocks down (pace buses can be pretty fast) I remember once it got so  bad I would only exit in the front. The way the cta doors are setup is good because if you want the operators attention all you have to do is push on the door and their little buzzer goes off. Plus it's good if the bus flips over or something you have a quick way out. Busting glass and turning a lever was just too time consuming and the average joe could nt figure that out. The cherries are a good idea. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

6 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

No it’s not too heavy it’s just most passengers don’t give the rear doors a chance to actually work properly like they’re suppose to. They’re used to just bombarding the rear door as soon as the bus stops, or they don’t read or notice the “touch here” sign that’s on the door. They work just fine when you do it right. Also a lot of artics actually have a switch where the operator can open the back doors the same as the front. They added more switches on the artics that didn’t have them during the time we were letting them on and off the bus rear door only. 

I hate impatient cherry pullers so much. It's just so inherently selfish, you've now inconvienced everyone else on the bus who had just as valid a reason of riding as you. The worst ones are the people trying to make a transfer they know they can't make, like no, you're not about to be able to jaywalk all 6 lanes of Stony Island, should've just stayed on the bus and let it take you across instead of risking your life.

[Shannoncvpi]

1 hour ago, artthouwill said:

I think the doors are air operated.  If its really cold or the air lines are starting to freeze,  it may affect the operation of the doors.  

Yea cuz when its cold as hell they do be messing up

[YoungBusLover]

37 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I hate impatient cherry pullers so much. It's just so inherently selfish, you've now inconvienced everyone else on the bus who had just as valid a reason of riding as you. The worst ones are the people trying to make a transfer they know they can't make, like no, you're not about to be able to jaywalk all 6 lanes of Stony Island, should've just stayed on the bus and let it take you across instead of risking your life.

It's even worse on 79th and Cottage in all directions I've had passengers go crazy trying to catch the 79 or the 4. They'll literally pull the cherry,yell scream, and bumb rush there way off to catch the bus.

[NewFlyerMCI]

18 minutes ago, YoungBusLover said:

It's even worse on 79th and Cottage in all directions I've had passengers go crazy trying to catch the 79 or the 4. They'll literally pull the cherry,yell scream, and bumb rush there way off to catch the bus.

That definitely is worse, because 85% of the time on these routes, you can expect a bus in 10-15 mins or probably less, and if that's going to make you late, then its more than likely something you did, not the fault of CTA or the bus driver. I could ~almost~ understand that type of dash for, say, the 30 maybe, but not 2 of the most frequent routes in the system.

[Shannoncvpi]

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I hate impatient cherry pullers so much. It's just so inherently selfish, you've now inconvienced everyone else on the bus who had just as valid a reason of riding as you. The worst ones are the people trying to make a transfer they know they can't make, like no, you're not about to be able to jaywalk all 6 lanes of Stony Island, should've just stayed on the bus and let it take you across instead of risking your life.

Man they be straight pissing me off when they do that 

[Mr.cta85]

7 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

I'm curious -  when the door is functioning properly and the operator unlocks it and the light is green, how long should it take the door to open  after I "touch here"?

It seems to take longer than if the rider is exiting from the rear of CTA's present 40ft bus. For my $0.02 please open the rear door "the same as the front".  Thanks!!!

The point is the rear door opens quickly if people touch the door correctly. Its a few times when I get to the end of the line and step off the bus in a artic and use it he back door to get off and it works just fine. I even understood how easy it was when I used to ride the bus as a passenger. People need to learn how to be just a sec more patient and read the signs on the bus both in and outside of it too.

[artthouwill]

16 hours ago, Mr.cta85 said:

The point is the rear door opens quickly if people touch the door correctly. Its a few times when I get to the end of the line and step off the bus in a artic and use it he back door to get off and it works just fine. I even understood how easy it was when I used to ride the bus as a passenger. People need to learn how to be just a sec more patient and read the signs on the bus both in and outside of it too.

The only thing is that its inconsistent.  On some artics you have to press the yellow touch here stripe while other artics rear doors automatically open..  this is even true on Pace buses.

[strictures]

21 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

The only thing is that its inconsistent.  On some artics you have to press the yellow touch here stripe while other artics rear doors automatically open..  this is even true on Pace buses.

The rear door on most Pace buses is opened by the driver.  Definitely true of the buses running out of the North Shore garage on Oakton. 

As for the CTA artics, the rear doors are slow to open & difficult to get off of is you're old & arthritic like me. 

One change CTA must make is to integrate the door open & bus lowering operation into one control, so that when the front door opens, the bus lowers & tilts.  I was on one bus, a 4300 that had that, probably an experiment.  I watched a couple of times, the driver just used the door control & everything occurred at the same time.

[NewFlyerMCI]

24 minutes ago, strictures said:

The rear door on most Pace buses is opened by the driver.  Definitely true of the buses running out of the North Shore garage on Oakton. 

As for the CTA artics, the rear doors are slow to open & difficult to get off of is you're old & arthritic like me. 

One change CTA must make is to integrate the door open & bus lowering operation into one control, so that when the front door opens, the bus lowers & tilts.  I was on one bus, a 4300 that had that, probably an experiment.  I watched a couple of times, the driver just used the door control & everything occurred at the same time.

The bus doesn't need to tilt every time though?

[Sam92]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

The rear door on most Pace buses is opened by the driver.  Definitely true of the buses running out of the North Shore garage on Oakton. 

As for the CTA artics, the rear doors are slow to open & difficult to get off of is you're old & arthritic like me. 

One change CTA must make is to integrate the door open & bus lowering operation into one control, so that when the front door opens, the bus lowers & tilts.  I was on one bus, a 4300 that had that, probably an experiment.  I watched a couple of times, the driver just used the door control & everything occurred at the same time.

If it was a 4300 out of north park chances are you had an operator who got used to being able to handle being able to do the lift and tilt quickly to stay on time. Loooooooot of old people so 151, 146 and 22 drivers probably got it down to a science lmao. 

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, strictures said:

The rear door on most Pace buses is opened by the driver.  Definitely true of the buses running out of the North Shore garage on Oakton. 

As for the CTA artics, the rear doors are slow to open & difficult to get off of is you're old & arthritic like me. 

One change CTA must make is to integrate the door open & bus lowering operation into one control, so that when the front door opens, the bus lowers & tilts.  I was on one bus, a 4300 that had that, probably an experiment.  I watched a couple of times, the driver just used the door control & everything occurred at the same time.

Some of the artics have rear doors operated by the driver as well.  I've experienced this on the 4 and the 20.  Prwpandemic, this wasn't the case.  Wheb rides became free,  that's when the artics started having rear doors operated by the driver.  When CTA began collecting fares again, i don't know if some buses were adjusted back to the old way, but my experience has been buses left intact with the driver able to operate the rear door.  

Those doors are bigger and wider which may require more air which may add a second or two delay in the rear doors opening.   

[YoungBusLover]

39 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Some of the artics have rear doors operated by the driver as well.  I've experienced this on the 4 and the 20.  Prwpandemic, this wasn't the case.  Wheb rides became free,  that's when the artics started having rear doors operated by the driver.  When CTA began collecting fares again, i don't know if some buses were adjusted back to the old way, but my experience has been buses left intact with the driver able to operate the rear door.  

Those doors are bigger and wider which may require more air which may add a second or two delay in the rear doors opening.   

Yeah there's a switch we have on the control panel to our left that controls the rear door on the #4000s and to cut down on dwell times some operators use rubber bands to keep the switch on so that both front and rear doors operate simultaneously. If we don't have that little trick then usually we'll go back to the standard method where the passengers have to touch the yellow strip in order to open the doors themselves. However, either method that is used some passengers get thrown off by which one is actually getting used by the operators and some just push the doors as there opening.

[Shannoncvpi]

3 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

Yeah there's a switch we have on the control panel to our left that controls the rear door on the #4000s and to cut down on dwell times some operators use rubber bands to keep the switch on so that both front and rear doors operate simultaneously. If we don't have that little trick then usually we'll go back to the standard method where the passengers have to touch the yellow strip in order to open the doors themselves. However, either method that is used some passengers get thrown off by which one is actually getting used by the operators and some just push the doors as there opening.

I most definitely use the rubberband trick I put it on every attic I get either un the morning or relieving another driver uf it has 1 already then I just keep mines in my pocket

[Mr.cta85]

On 1/19/2021 at 11:29 AM, artthouwill said:

The only thing is that its inconsistent.  On some artics you have to press the yellow touch here stripe while other artics rear doors automatically open..  this is even true on Pace buses.

That’s not true only reason why some “automatically” open is because of the manual switch in the front is on. So when the operator opens the front and back door then that’s when the back door opens up without you having to touch the yellow strip. All Cta rear doors for the exception of the 6400 Novas have that yellow touch here strip on the rear doors. But the manual switch is only on the artics and the 7900 Novas.

[John7]

As someone who recently moved to Memphis, I got a chance to ride MATA's gillig bus. They run pretty well.(with the exception of the plastic seats. Uncomfortable as it gets) So if the cta ends up getting Gillig's then it'll be an interesting sight to see.