Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
Review: Paramount Room
If you utilize CTA buses to commute to work (or even around town for other reasons), it's probably happened to you before: your heart leaps at the sight of an arriving bus, you grip your CTA card for entrance, and then your heart crashes into your stomach as the bus zooms right on by, the driver not giving you and your fellow potential passengers a second glance. In the first quarter of 2009, the CTA received 468 complaints about such incidents, referred to as "pass ups." Always ones to put a positive spin on things, the CTA points out that more than 600 "pass up" complaints had been made each of the previous two quarters. Second place in total complaints for the first quarter of 2009 went to rude drivers/conductors.
Overall, the CTA says complaints are down. According to a report from the Tribune:
The replacement of aging buses with a modern fleet as well as track work to reduce rail slow zones may account for a decrease in complaints about service delays, officials said. The reduction in complaints overall his year is occurring amid a ridership increase of 2.5 percent through April, compared with the same four-month period in 2008.If the complaint statistics continue to drop, the customer feedback suggests that the CTA's frontline employees are behaving more politely, operating buses and trains in a safer manner and are more helpful in giving directions and answering questions about fares.
Other top complaints included reckless driving and operators talking on cell phones. The CTA also averaged 130 customer commendations per month of CTA employees who went above and beyond the call of duty.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I can tell you the 151 bus still bunches up, no matter what time of day or night. Cincinnati managed to resolve this problem with printed schedules for each driver, certainly the CTA with it's GPS tracking systems should at least keep up.
Perhaps less complaints b/c less ppl riding? I switched to Metra, couldn't be happier.
I am still convinced the bunching occurs due to social bus drivers that like to chat and then leave around the same time.
Here's another cheer for the Metra. I've been riding it for 2 years. It's been late twice, with lots of apologetic announcements. AND the conductors are the nicest.
Problem: Too many complaints.
Solution: Put complainers on hold for up to an hour before getting through to an operator.
That's the Chicago way.
In fairness though, in January a bus driver blew past my stop by over a mile in -30 degree windchill weather (he would NOT stop the bus!). I asked him why he did it and he said "what are you going to do about it?"
Well after a half hour on hold at 1888yourcta I got through gave his number and bus route/time. They got back to me two weeks later saying he had been disciplined and apologized for the incident.
I thought that was pretty great.
And by blew past my stop I mean I was INSIDE THE BUS and pulled the cord which was working. He just didn't want to stop. Guess he was late for something. I still had to walk over a mile home on the coldest night of the winter. Jerk.
It's about time we start giving some love to the CTA. We all can focus on the negative, and yes there are many negatives to the CTA. But they also have been doing a better job. CTA bus tracker anyone? (I love it). So I give a big thank you to the CTA for 8-car brown line trains and the wonderful CTA bus tracker.
Thank you CTA. (not don't get too big of a head).
I agree. I think people in this city really take the public transit system for granted. Sure there are screw-ups. I'm sure there always will be.
I don't think people take it for granted. I just think people see how much better it could be even through relatively small steps, such as tiny instances of non-rudeness from more employees. Those of use lucky enough to travel to places large and small that have much better public transit also might have a more critical view.
You know, usually I'm right there with you, but I'm annoyed with the CTA at the moment over their "no slow zone on the Blue Line" fakeout and the fact that I have to putter along between Damon and downtown when I was explicitly told this was a thing of the past. They earn no points from me.
But when you go to other cities and ride vastly superior subway systems, it makes it awfully hard to be satisified with what we have.
May I ask which cities?
Toronto's subway system is pretty fucking awesome. On time. Clean. Pleasant voice announcing the stops. No delays at least the five times I've been there.
Then again, Toronto people are pretty on time, clean and pleasant. That might have something to do with it. A lot of my problems with CTA come from the people, both the ones who ride and the ones who work on it.