How COVID-19 affects transit

[artthouwill]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

From what I heard on the news, the black community is getting hard with the Coronavirus. 68 percent of the deaths are among blacks. With crowding on the south side, CTA needs to send as many artics as they can to the black communities hit hard by this. Operators out there are in a dangerous situation. Be careful ladies and gentlemen, take precautions and wash your hands. 63rd is a busy route how has it been doing? I know there will be places that are hard to run artics like under the "L" pillars on 63rd. Maybe they need some red line shuttles for the busy stations along the red line. They could control how many board there by just taking off and supplementing whats out there. It's an idea anyway. Treat it like a school run with the schools being the red line stations.

Yes I agree, alot of the lakeshore service doesn't need artics anymore on the north side the loop is a ghost town and no longer a draw. Would it be too ridiculous to supply masks to the riders on the bus? This way everyone can be safe. CTA makes alot of money. I'm sure they are getting disaster funding, so why not? 70 percent less riders is how many riders?

I saw a video made  by someone who said a lit of cell towers are going up in the Black Community.   This is relevant because I have seen other videos saying the the rollout of 5G cell towers and 5G service is what's killing people.   The radiation from these signals is poisoning cells in humans.   The human body tries to rid the body of toxins.  The toxins secrete in the form of a virus.  This is relevant because the first massive rollout of 5G occurred in Wuhan China, where the so called coronavirus started.

Artics can run on 63rd St.  The L pillars are similar to the ones on Franklin  and the ones on Lake St between Clinton and the UP tracks.   They are not in the street but on the sidewalks. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

41 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I saw a video made  by someone who said a lit of cell towers are going up in the Black Community.   This is relevant because I have seen other videos saying the the rollout of 5G cell towers and 5G service is what's killing people.   The radiation from these signals is poisoning cells in humans.   The human body tries to rid the body of toxins.  The toxins secrete in the form of a virus.  This is relevant because the first massive rollout of 5G occurred in Wuhan China, where the so called coronavirus started.

Artics can run on 63rd St.  The L pillars are similar to the ones on Franklin  and the ones on Lake St between Clinton and the UP tracks.   They are not in the street but on the sidewalks. 

I've heard this, one of the crazier conspiracy theories I've heard during this pandemic, and unfortunately one with real-world consquences, since workers have been harassed and attacked over these conspiracy theories.

[RTS Bus Fan]

So much for Cincinnati and their free bus rides. Metro is resuming fare collection at the end of the week. They are installing shields to protect the operators, though.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/04/06/coronavirus-bus-fares-back-after-weekend-gatherings/2957285001/

[strictures]

2 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I've heard this, one of the crazier conspiracy theories I've heard during this pandemic, and unfortunately one with real-world consquences, since workers have been harassed and attacked over these conspiracy theories.

Totally insane.  They actually burned a few 5G towers in Britain over the weekend.  Most of these asinine rumors appears to be a Russian disinformation campaign, just one more of their often successful attempts to destabilize Western societies!

[artthouwill]

11 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

I've heard this, one of the crazier conspiracy theories I've heard during this pandemic, and unfortunately one with real-world consquences, since workers have been harassed and attacked over these conspiracy theories.

I don't think it's a conspiracy theory.  Firstly, history has shown global pandemics related to technological advances but global leaders have assigned other names like spanish flu to cover up the actual source.  Secondly, the science of electromagnetic radiation is well documented.    

As for Russia,  my understanding is that only the military used 5G, thus no pandemic among civilians there.  I'm sure they wouldn't tell if it was adversely affecting their military.

As for the theory that it's designed to kill Blacks, I can't say that is true.  However,  given the percentage of Blacks killed by this pandemic. it makes me wonder if Black neighborhoods were targeted to erect these 5G towers.  Downers Grove and Lombard fought Verizon and, at least for now,  staved off the building of 5G towers in the western suburbs.  This tells me that these Black communities don't have the money,  the voice to stop this type of movement in their communities. 

The question is where are these towers in Chicago?  Are they really bunched in Black communities?  Towers should also be going up in downtown and ar the airports.   With that type of expansion,  other races have been and will be affected.   It's more about corporate greed and government impotence than racial genocide. I said government impotence because the FCC was aware of concerns about the high levels of electromagnetic radiation but is doing nothing.   That's why the companies are so eager to get those towers up.  The more built, the less likely the government will interfere. 

[artthouwill]

11 hours ago, RTS Bus Fan said:

So much for Cincinnati and their free bus rides. Metro is resuming fare collection at the end of the week. They are installing shields to protect the operators, though.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/04/06/coronavirus-bus-fares-back-after-weekend-gatherings/2957285001/

I don't know how a transit system survives without fare collection unless the system is fully subsidized.    Shields will protect drivers from germs from others.

[BusHunter]

Well looks like cta is worried about 63rd. I was ubering at 63rd red line today and police were stationed at the 63rd bus stop along with a couple supervisor mobile cars. There was a bus stopped across the street like an extra. Seems like they were watching for overcrowding. I didnt really see overcrowding today but I did see alot of people on an addison bus at the blue line. Made me think of Wrigley and the good things were all missing out on. 

As far as the cell towers, I've been seeing some kind of communication tower put on light poles in chicago. It's new I'm trying to figure out what it's for. They just popped up last weekend. Theres two of them on east river rd north of foster and I thought I saw one around addison Milwaukee today. The poles they are attached to are new also. Black poles in a sea of green poles.

[NewFlyerMCI]

8 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Well looks like cta is worried about 63rd. I was ubering at 63rd red line today and police were stationed at the 63rd bus stop along with a couple supervisor mobile cars. There was a bus stopped across the street like an extra. Seems like they were watching for overcrowding. I didnt really see overcrowding today but I did see alot of people on an addison bus at the blue line. Made me think of Wrigley and the good things were all missing out on. 

As far as the cell towers, I've been seeing some kind of communication tower put on light poles in chicago. It's new I'm trying to figure out what it's for. They just popped up last weekend. Theres two of them on east river rd north of foster and I thought I saw one around addison Milwaukee today. The poles they are attached to are new also. Black poles in a sea of green poles.

63rd is sort of the last route I would've expected to have crowding concerns, so that's interesting.

[MetroShadow]

On 4/6/2020 at 6:54 PM, artthouwill said:

I saw a video made  by someone who said a lit of cell towers are going up in the Black Community.   This is relevant because I have seen other videos saying the the rollout of 5G cell towers and 5G service is what's killing people.   The radiation from these signals is poisoning cells in humans.   The human body tries to rid the body of toxins.  The toxins secrete in the form of a virus.  This is relevant because the first massive rollout of 5G occurred in Wuhan China, where the so called coronavirus started.

I've heard of it, and that's why I don't believe everything I see on the internet. Because, science and reasoning and incompetent governance while dealing with a public health crisis.

 

 

Back to on-topic - here is a sample of the metric buttload of service changes/adjustments to the Bay Area:

BART (ridership reduced 85-90%):
- (March 23) 5am-midnight weekday service to 5am-9pm (and 8a-8p weekends)
- Elimination of peak trips
-  (April 8th) frequencies now reduced from 15-minutes to 30-minutes

AC Transit
- Rear Boarding  began two weeks ago; and now (with the new schedule change March 29), frequencies are on "Weekend-plus" schedules (no transbay service except for the F, NL, O, and 800)
- Today, because of driver shortages, many routes in Berkeley got nixed (those with 30 minute frequencies were sacrificed for the busier routes). I expect other routes to be applied or nixed.

MUNI
- Subway, Cable Car, and Streetcar service replaced with bus.
- Peak Service (except for the 8X were nixed)
- Starting tomorrow, only 17 routes will operate (with many modifications).
- Owl Service starts at 10pm

- Overview of service changes

VTA
- Light Rail was suspended for two weeks; and now will return with 6-6 hours.
- The Rest of the VTA network will operate 5am-9pm, including the all-day 22 Route.

Caltrain

- Service Reductions go from elimination of Peak Baby-Bullet to 60 minute frequencies. Weekend service unchanged since it's every 90 minutes (and probably helpful for electrification construction)

 

[strictures]

15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I don't think it's a conspiracy theory.  Firstly, history has shown global pandemics related to technological advances but global leaders have assigned other names like spanish flu to cover up the actual source.  Secondly, the science of electromagnetic radiation is well documented.    

As for Russia,  my understanding is that only the military used 5G, thus no pandemic among civilians there.  I'm sure they wouldn't tell if it was adversely affecting their military.

As for the theory that it's designed to kill Blacks, I can't say that is true.  However,  given the percentage of Blacks killed by this pandemic. it makes me wonder if Black neighborhoods were targeted to erect these 5G towers.  Downers Grove and Lombard fought Verizon and, at least for now,  staved off the building of 5G towers in the western suburbs.  This tells me that these Black communities don't have the money,  the voice to stop this type of movement in their communities. 

The question is where are these towers in Chicago?  Are they really bunched in Black communities?  Towers should also be going up in downtown and ar the airports.   With that type of expansion,  other races have been and will be affected.   It's more about corporate greed and government impotence than racial genocide. I said government impotence because the FCC was aware of concerns about the high levels of electromagnetic radiation but is doing nothing.   That's why the companies are so eager to get those towers up.  The more built, the less likely the government will interfere. 

There's a bunch of 5G cells in Rogers Park & West Ridge.  While there are blacks here, they certainly aren't the dominant racial group, in fact, I doubt if there is a dominant racial group here anymore. 

They are small cylindrical cans on all sorts of poles.

[BusHunter]

Yeah that's it. That's what I saw. Saw one today in Forest Glen at the cicero exit coming off the edens north of foster. 

 

[artthouwill]

29 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah that's it. That's what I saw. Saw one today in Forest Glen at the cicero exit coming off the edens north of foster. 

 

As they continue to pop up citywide, we will see if the area of new COVID--19 cases widens.   I'm not an expert,  but I don't necessarily think that passing by one 5G Tower will make someone sick.  I do think that constant exposure (such as living or working near a tower or set of towers) would have an adverse effect on those residents and/or workers.  Those people with other health issues would be more vulnerable and susceptible to a weakened immune system.  That's why I hate chemotherapy.   The radiation is supposed to kill cancerous cells, but ultimately also kills good cells as well. 

No I am not taking any chemo.  I just hate the idea. 

[Pace831]

Tribune: CTA will implement rear door boarding, limit the number of riders per bus, and add service on routes 4 and 79.

Pace is suspending service on all 54 Metra feeder routes.

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Tribune: CTA will implement rear door boarding, limit the number of riders per bus, and add service on routes 4 and 79.

Pace is suspending service on all 54 Metra feeder routes.

As I type, the 4 has no artics while the 79 has 8 of the at least 11 at 77th. Wonder why they didn't also include that they added service on the 20 & 53. Also, I'm still wondering what NP is doing with their artics, the 135. Wasn't expecting the fare readers to be moved to the back (I didn't think it was possible, but makes sense), so hopefully that'll partially solve the money issue. The most problematic part will be people having to pry open the back doors

[orionbuslover]

2 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Tribune: CTA will implement rear door boarding, limit the number of riders per bus, and add service on routes 4 and 79.

Pace is suspending service on all 54 Metra feeder routes.

So operators are allowed to not pick up riders if the bus gets too crowded. Some operators will enforce the rule better than others. I said earlier in this post that social distancing is the antithesis of public transit. I really wish people would stay home more.

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, orionbuslover said:

So operators are allowed to not pick up riders if the bus gets too crowded. Some operators will enforce the rule better than others. I said earlier in this post that social distancing is the antithesis of public transit. I really wish people would stay home more.

People aren't joyriding the bus and train for fun 

[orionbuslover]

53 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

People aren't joyriding the bus and train for fun 

Well according to Burger King...the country needs us to sit on the couch.

[Shannoncvpi]

Just started today we are only letting people on through the backdoor unless they are in a wheelchair or disabled passengers

[Pace831]

Pace suspends fare collection

[artthouwill]

23 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

Pace suspends fare collection

Funny that Pace wants us to stay home but the free rides make me want to go out and see if I can get to ride the new buses.

[NewFlyerMCI]

13 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Funny that Pace wants us to stay home but the free rides make me want to go out and see if I can get to ride the new buses.

I was thinking this same thing ?

[artthouwill]

In other news, the COVID 19 seems to have killed Continental Air Transport,  aka Go Airport Express.   My understanding is that they closed down March 17th.  At least they shut down the shuttle van service.  I think they still operate the Midway remote lot shuttles and the rental car and F Lot shuttles along with the ATS Terminal shuttles at O'Hare.

I wonder if any other airport related businesses are on the cusp of going under.

[Smolensk]

Am I the only one imagining that some rider is going to get his arm caught in the door trying to open it, the driver won't notice him, and the driver will take off, ripping off the rider's arm?

[NewFlyerMCI]

23 minutes ago, Smolensk said:

Am I the only one imagining that some rider is going to get his arm caught in the door trying to open it, the driver won't notice him, and the driver will take off, ripping off the rider's arm?

I hadn't considered that. My main issue was the unsanitary aspect: those doors are dirty and they have to be pried open if anyone isn't in the rear doorwell to open them.

[jesi2282]

25 minutes ago, Smolensk said:

Am I the only one imagining that some rider is going to get his arm caught in the door trying to open it, the driver won't notice him, and the driver will take off, ripping off the rider's arm?

The rear door interlock should prevent the bus from moving if rear door is open. If someone tries to pull or push the door open after its locked, a bell will go off alerting the driver.