Posted July 30, 2008 at 1:35 p.m.
Don't get it twisted. I'm still loving the idea of, and awaiting the full launch of, the bus tracker. But as one rider cleverly demonstrated through a graphic he sent to me, it also doubles as evidence of bogus bunching. Here is a screen grab he shared with me today for the No.147-Outer Drive Express, and below it, he had some choice words (bolded) for a bus-bunching situation from this weekend:
"As a daily rider of the CTA's 147 bus, I've now had a week to use www.ctabustracker.com and I must say I like it, but there's no way it will eliminate bus bunching--a CTA tradition I've had witnessed for 20 years that will never die. The good thing is now I can see when the parade of buses approach my stop before I leave out the door to work. Then I can know whether to leisurely walk the two blocks to the bus stop or slowly run there. Thursday, I turned on bustracker and could see I was going to miss the trio of 147 buses and knew I would be getting the next lone bus departing south from Howard St. Friday, I was fortunate enough to have enough time to meet the same trio of buses as it arrived at my stop. They even continue the 147 parades on weekends, as you can see by the two photos I've attached from about one hour apart Saturday morning."
Yeeouch! Anybody else beholding the bunching on bus tracker? Do you mind bunching less as long as you know where it's happening?
2 Comments
Sarah said:
Look, as long as I can actually have an idea that A 147 WILL ACTUALLY BE ARRIVING so I don't have to leave an hour and a half early for work HOPING that a 147 or, hell, even a 151 MIGHT show up, I don't really care if there's 1, 2 or 3 of them showing up at once.
Heron said:
I take the 56 (Milwaukee) bus a lot, and it seems to make up several minutes close to the stop where I get on. It took me a few missed buses to figure out I need to head out there about five minutes before the time predicted by Bus Tracker, or I'll have to wait for the next bus.
Bus bunching is a pain, no matter how aware of it one is. The first bus can be really crowded, but you're taking a risk if you don't get on it, because the second bus may go past your stop while the first one is there. Argh.
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