148 Claredon/michigan Express

[Optima525]

What is with the 148 Claredon/Michigan Express, this bus is not needed, it should just be discontinued. How about just running the #145 all the way to Damen and Ravenswood during rush periods instead ending it at Lake Shore and Irving Park during rush periods.

[Busjack]

What is with the 148 Claredon/Michigan Express, this bus is not needed, it should just be discontinued. How about just running the #145 all the way to Damen and Ravenswood during rush periods instead ending it at Lake Shore and Irving Park during rush periods.

That was a later part of the North Lake Shore Restructuring in about 2004. As conceived when the restructuring started, the 145 (actually a Wilson Michigan, and not just in name) was to hit the Drive at Irving Park. However, people between Irving Park and Belmont complained that they were losing one bus route, even though 146 was beefed up. In 2004, the rush hour portion of 145 was reconfigured into 148 (see the press release explaining the change), but I believe that the remaining rush hour 145 was supposed to run to Clarendon-Montrose or Wilson. However, at some point, the signs were changed to Lk Shore-Grace. I don't know the reason for the latter change (or even if there was one, or the signs didn't correspond to the schedule, or possibly that I confused it with 135). In any event, the rush hour 145 now is misnamed because it no longer gets near to Wilson.

Other than 145 going to Van Buren-Wells, I don't see what the difference is between the 145s and 146s during the rush hour; the Lake Shore-Grace to Congress trips could just be 146 short turns (just a change in numbering). I would retain the first restructuring routing of 145 from Wilson-Ravenswood to Irving Park and then into the Drive at all times.

In any event, if you read Ask Carole, the biggest complainers seem to be in Lakeview, and news reports at the time also seemed to reflect that, so maybe some of this was to placate them.

The splits between 144/146 and 145/148 do reflect the goal of that restructuring to give the routes better defined pick up zones, to avoid the situation that the buses were already packed by the time they reached Irving Park (as well as avoiding stops for those boarding or leaving in the outer zones). 143 was established at that time to provide a defined zone between Belmont and Fullerton. A similar thing was done when 134 was established for LaSalle.

[rmadisonwi]

The 145 and 146 are different because some people prefer riding directly down Michigan, whereas others prefer State Street. Those routes are pretty crowded as is, and if the 145 had to take on all of the 148's riders, there wouldn't be enough capacity, meaning you'd have to add service. If you do that, you pretty much lose whatever savings you had by getting rid of the 148.

The 148 is scheduled for standard buses in the morning, and is usually pretty crowded. Since the 145 is supposed to use artics (because of the heavy loading on the Inner Drive), if the 145 had to run all the way to Wilson, that would also provide yet another strain on the already thin and unreliable artic fleet.

[Busjack]

The 145 and 146 are different because some people prefer riding directly down Michigan, whereas others prefer State Street.

Yes. I hadn't considered that southbound difference, although in the p.m. both are going northbound on State in the rush direction.

[rmadisonwi]

Yes. I hadn't considered that southbound difference, although in the p.m. both are going northbound on State in the rush direction.

That's true. But northbound, buses primarily pick up in that area, while southbound, they primarily drop off. Since there are plenty of people that really don't care one way or the other, and simply take whatever comes first, it's best to have those routes serve the same stops when they primarily pick up.

[ArcherRider]

Riding The #148 Clarendon/Michigan Express is faster Than #145 during the PM rush go to Irving Park and Marine Drive because after the Cubs game or a night gameor during PM rush the exit at Belmont is too congestion and the #145 get stuck at Belmont while the #148 will get you there faster!