Pulse (Dempster Route)

[Busjack]

8 minutes ago, Railguy said:

Dumpster?    Liked firecracker better

Looks like they didn't totally fix it.?

[Busjack]

Finally fixed (I think):

[Railguy]

Why is Pace social media marketing Pulse service to All State Arena ?  'Stations' are good 15 minute indirect walk.

[artthouwill]

5 hours ago, Railguy said:

Why is Pace social media marketing Pulse service to All State Arena ?  'Stations' are good 15 minute indirect walk.

The Touhy and Lee Station  is closer than 15 minutes to the Allstate Arena.  I get that the walk is somewhat indirect based on where the venue is located.   Unless you are coming from Des Plaines or O'HARE,  maybe the 222 is a better option.   Or even the 221. If it's still running.  

There's always the 250.

[Railguy]

On 11/4/2023 at 11:14 PM, artthouwill said:

The Touhy and Lee Station  is closer than 15 minutes to the Allstate Arena.  I get that the walk is somewhat indirect based on where the venue is located.   Unless you are coming from Des Plaines or O'HARE,  maybe the 222 is a better option.   Or even the 221. If it's still running.  

There's always the 250.

Its not convenient nor direct, esp walking through back roads, with kids to circus its a melt down waiting to happen.  Why market it?  There is no more 222 and limited service on 221.  Pity the poor parents who take their kids to circus thinking they get dropped off  at a convenient stop as per the marketing indicates.

Trying to coordinate an events ending time with limited hours on 250 is not fun.  The fast and frequent Pulse service is more appealing.

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, Railguy said:

Its not convenient nor direct, esp walking through back roads, with kids to circus its a melt down waiting to happen.  Why market it?  There is no more 222 and limited service on 221.  Pity the poor parents who take their kids to circus thinking they get dropped off  at a convenient stop as per the marketing indicates.

Trying to coordinate an events ending time with limited hours on 250 is not fun.  The fast and frequent Pulse service is more appealing.

For sure.  Maybe someone should point this out to Pace.  Maybe there's a better alternative stop, either further east on Touhy or even on Manheim.   

[Busjack]

7 hours ago, Railguy said:

Its not convenient nor direct, esp walking through back roads, with kids to circus its a melt down waiting to happen.  Why market it?  There is no more 222 and limited service on 221.  Pity the poor parents who take their kids to circus thinking they get dropped off  at a convenient stop as per the marketing indicates.

Trying to coordinate an events ending time with limited hours on 250 is not fun.  The fast and frequent Pulse service is more appealing.

I guess you are referring to the following FB post: https://www.facebook.com/PaceBus/posts/pfbid02jZQ1aFQUSToyk2dPC33taBC4bxwXcmknTw2BYvtydn3BzhRBKnJMKGgAEJstZ2Hwl

Since it isn't on the official Pulse Dempster Project page, I think it is mostly puffery. On your discussion with @artthouwill, I don't think any parent is going to drop off a child on Mannheim Road and let the child walk unaccompanied through the vast parking lot and wait on the curb to be picked up when the circus is over, so I don't think any parent is going to load the child on either Pulse or 250. Unless the family lives near a Pulse stop, it also may be a quarter to a mile walk to and from home (such as if home is in Evanston not near Dodge or Benson).

Maybe more relevant is this article from the Evanston RoundTable. It doesn't indicate much independent investigation, but indicates that the main benefit is that cutting the number of stops from 84 to 17 and adding TSP cuts the scheduled trip from 67 minutes to 50.

I also wonder about the Pace statements that all Pulse buses have the enhancements (including the 6563 to 6575(?) ones), or if all Pace buses now have them. I also haven't seen the TSP boxes on the traffic signal yardarms like are on Milwaukee Ave.

[Railguy]

What kind of parents would let their kids go to circus alone not in this day and age.  I never wrote to send kids alone my guess was as a family having to walk that.

[artthouwill]

4 minutes ago, Railguy said:

What kind of parents would let their kids go to circus alone not in this day and age.  I never wrote to send kids alone my guess was as a family having to walk that.

O also assumed family.   I can't even imagine teenagers doing this.  Maybe college students from Northwestern,  but even they are more likely to Uber. 

[Railguy]

The Swifties invaded transit this year WHEN it was convenient and service levels were there to venues.  All State is not that bad even with the nondirect walk when compared to other venues.   Try getting to Tinley Park theater,  Milwukee's Brewers stadium from their new BRT line  or Arlington TX which has NO transit service despite being world series champs.   Goes to show the diverse range of how transit is a value and priority.

[Busjack]

On 11/6/2023 at 6:09 AM, Railguy said:

Its not convenient nor direct, esp walking through back roads, with kids to circus its a melt down waiting to happen.  Why market it?  There is no more 222 and limited service on 221.  Pity the poor parents who take their kids to circus thinking they get dropped off  at a convenient stop as per the marketing indicates. [emphasis added]

Trying to coordinate an events ending time with limited hours on 250 is not fun.  The fast and frequent Pulse service is more appealing.

 

21 hours ago, Railguy said:

What kind of parents would let their kids go to circus alone not in this day and age.  I never wrote to send kids alone my guess was as a family having to walk that.

Your second comment just confirms that your first comment was just a strawman.

20 hours ago, Railguy said:

The Swifties invaded transit this year WHEN it was convenient and service levels were there to venues.  All State is not that bad even with the nondirect walk when compared to other venues.   Try getting to Tinley Park theater,  Milwukee's Brewers stadium from their new BRT line  or Arlington TX which has NO transit service despite being world series champs.   Goes to show the diverse range of how transit is a value and priority.

CTA at least provided additional service to Soldier Field gates. Pace at one time had Express Service to Special Events, but that apparently died with COVID.

As I indicated above, this seemed to be a misguided effort by someone in the social media department (not that I have any use for social media). UPDATE: The preceding FB post for the last of the Skokie Farmers' Market doesn't do much good unless one transfers to the Yellow Line or 97.

 

 

[OneofthewillsNW]

as my current schedule is almost all dempster pulse, I will say this, their are alot more scheduled deadheads to and from davis then you would think, my schedule itself includes weekdays deadheading to davis, 3 trips, lunch at ohare, 3 more trips ending at davis and then deadheading back. on sat I also take a pulse to davis dead head , and sundays I deadhead from lunch at golf mill to davis. though it ends with a deadhead from ohare. 

 

operations on the dempster pulse are nice if a little werid. rush hour runs weekdays are still going to be slow TSP or not, you cant drive though other cars, at least not more then 1 time.  also Rosemont traffic police do everything they can to slow us down during events. still lots of people especally late at night who expect  us to stop at normal 250's.   honestly  the weekday rush-hour runs I can usually get with in 10 min and get 20 of recovery at each terminal. as far as night runs go, they ajust the timing to have the average speed around 25 mph. late night sundays its about 32mph average target. 

now here is my thought on tsp. its a half baked solution that does not save that much time, in fact the only real time save is not going into demp cta or having the back to back pickups from western all the milwaukee, and the frequent stops east of skokie/center but before crawford.  the problem with tsp is that if it holds the light and we stop, it will not hold it long enough to pass (looking at you milwaukee) and often even if its holding, it drops a yellow on us close to the final breaking zone, but because of how traffic is, they will turn in front of us so we have to stop. and the lights often are not made shorter ether. also the worst lights do not even have tsp, for example, we often lose 5 min cause of how the lights on davis ridge and dempster are timed. often we are dumped on ridge only to catch the full lake light cycle. is just bad.  tsp just does not save time, nor does it communicate to us operators what the lights where going to do. so ya. its very bad. 

lastly, would it kill them to put up a proper temp sign at athletic ave while they wait on the slow construction for the proper east bound waukeegen stop. cause its going to kill someone if they dont.

[Busjack]

On 10/16/2023 at 11:39 AM, Busjack said:

A question for someone out of NW:

Out last night (about 6:00 p.m.) I saw 6511 type buses with the multicolor signs* with orange-red letters on the signs, but others (particularly 6521) with purple PULSE and white DEMPSTER LINE and destinations. Do the buses have both types of signs, or is this a test of which type is more legible?

-----------

*I'm not referring to the 6563 and up buses.

6 minutes ago, OneofthewillsNW said:

... for milwaukee, we have the normal 1000 and 1001 with the fancy signs, and 1002 and 1003 for the less fancy.  for dempster pulse, 1010 and 1011 is fance, and 1012 and 1013 for less fancy. ...

I think you answered my question, but are you saying that on 6510-6521, the operators are keying 1010 or 1012, instead of the IBS doing it automatically?

 

[Busjack]

26 minutes ago, OneofthewillsNW said:

as my current schedule is almost all dempster pulse, I will say this, their are alot more scheduled deadheads to and from davis then you would think, my schedule itself includes weekdays deadheading to davis, 3 trips, lunch at ohare, 3 more trips ending at davis and then deadheading back. on sat I also take a pulse to davis dead head , and sundays I deadhead from lunch at golf mill to davis. though it ends with a deadhead from ohare. 

 

I've also seen a lot of 208 deadheads to or from Davis. This prompts me to repeat my question: With NW short of space and NS having lost a lot of routes, is there any talk about moving any of these routes to NS? What would hold that up?

[OneofthewillsNW]

19 hours ago, Busjack said:

I think you answered my question, but are you saying that on 6510-6521, the operators are keying 1010 or 1012, instead of the IBS doing it automatically?

the first batch is fully automatic on ibs so long as its not got a gps error that day. alot of the runs have been modified to use the alt codes  so in theory they are automatic, but not always on the first week of the pulse, alot of the runs where still screwed up ibs code wise and they kept blasting messages on repeat for using the manual codes.  but it does seem like alot of them have been fixed. also 6572 had a busted headsign for me the last two times I got it, even manual codes threw the A1 error. 

 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, OneofthewillsNW said:

the first batch is fully automatic on ibs so long as its not got a gps error that day. alot of the runs have been modified to use the alt codes  so in theory they are automatic, but not always on the first week of the pulse, alot of the runs where still screwed up ibs code wise and they kept blasting messages on repeat for using the manual codes.  but it does seem like alot of them have been fixed. also 6572 had a busted headsign for me the last two times I got it, even manual codes threw the A1 error.

I think I'm following you, but are you saying that since I'm now seeing more of the 6510-6521 buses with reddish-orange letters (instead of purple PULSE), that's what the IBS prefers?

[OneofthewillsNW]

1 hour ago, Busjack said:

I think I'm following you, but are you saying that since I'm now seeing more of the 6510-6521 buses with reddish-orange letters (instead of purple PULSE), that's what the IBS prefers?

its not what IBS perfers, its what the planning department set to the runfiles. 

from what I can tell, I am not a software engineer,  but IBS has a run file which is what us operators log into, this then contains all the schedule information. the planning department can push out updates to these files whenever they need to, they often do at the start of each new run pick (the aug pick night runs did not get fixed until halfway though september) so because of the mix of buses, I think they started setting all the runs to use the amber codes instead of the purple codes. though sometimes a bus does not get updated correctly, or just breaks. x.x

 

also the run files do alot, they include gps routing including for deadheads, timing points, gps correction/half timing points and stop points, as well as trigger the automatic announcements and change of headsign when we hit set points. the gps tends to lag behind or do weird things so the bus itself also uses the odometer  to provide localized ins stabilization.  so if we get a bus that has a bad odom or electronic connection, it will often cause announcements to jump like crazy (and also means we do not have a  working speedo) it can also cause ibs to give us falty timing to do assuming speed thats not their. a funny story to me from this is that at the end of the last pick, I was working tired and sick, after doing a 423 loyola trip and then a round, I get 23 min at harlem, however the odom is out,  as such instead of the ibs counting down the time at 1 to 1 second, it instead assumed I was moving so by the time I realized I was 10 min late, it had only put me at +3min lol.  

[Busjack]

11 hours ago, OneofthewillsNW said:

Its not what IBS perfers, its what the planning department set to the runfiles. 

Thanks for the more technical explanation.

The reason I asked about the IBS goes back to when 212 was abolished and 422 took over the segment west of Old Orchard in 2005, the displayed signs were consistently wrong, and, after a year of correspondence, someone at Pace said that the IBS was doing it and fixed it. That's why I asked the same thing here, but in layman's language.

[MetroShadow]

On 11/13/2023 at 8:35 PM, Busjack said:

I've also seen a lot of 208 deadheads to or from Davis. This prompts me to repeat my question: With NW short of space and NS having lost a lot of routes, is there any talk about moving any of these routes to NS? What would hold that up?

I'd be surprised if there are still work/union hurdles at NS to clear before that becomes a 7 day garage...although there should be no reason to run THAT MANY deadhead trips 16 miles across town.

[Busjack]

42 minutes ago, MetroShadow said:

I'd be surprised if there are still work/union hurdles at NS to clear before that becomes a 7 day garage...although there should be no reason to run THAT MANY deadhead trips 16 miles across town.

I don't think NS being closed on Sunday is the issue (for instance NW covers 215 on Sunday). What may be the issue is that NS is still represented by ATU 241, while NW workers kicked out the ATU and joined the Teamsters.

But I was hoping that someone from NW could answer.

[Railguy]

Would Pace ever have all garages under the same union?

[Busjack]

11 hours ago, Railguy said:

Would Pace ever have all garages under the same union?

Depends on how the employees organize into bargaining units for representation elections. But, obviously, NW doesn't want to be in the ATU (River is also Teamsters).

[OneofthewillsNW]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:18 PM, Railguy said:

Would Pace ever have all garages under the same union?

I can not say too much about the union situation, I will say however that alot of nw was upset with teamsters do to the missapporation incident. so recently the drivers signed requesting an election.  we will see what happens from that. but it looks like the teamsters got a fire light behind them as their attitude changed quickly. now hopefully they actually do something. 

[Busjack]

Back to the topic, I saw that the station on the north side of Dempster at the Yellow Line is substantially complete. Nothing east of there.

Update: Passenger notice that construction will start as far east as St. Louis Ave. Nothing at Dodge ye`t.

[OneofthewillsNW]

15 hours ago, Busjack said:

Back to the topic, I saw that the station on the north side of Dempster at the Yellow Line is substantially complete. Nothing east of there.

Update: Passenger notice that construction will start as far east as St. Louis Ave. Nothing at Dodge ye`t.

it would be nice for cooperate to send those notices to dispatch and then have dispatch post it up so when we check in, we know about these things.  also hopefully they actually finish these stops quickly x.x

on the flip side, cooperate spent time throwing us a party. they even gave us pulse colored and branded m and m's x.x lol