Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anne B. on August 29, 2011 at 11:45am

I've used the form on this webpage twice and each time had a response back in < 24 hours. 

http://www.transitchicago.com/contact/default.aspx

 

Important to capture the following info, which is difficult unless you're a passenger with a pen/paper at the handy: 

"If you're writing us about a specific incident involving service, such as a comment or complaint, any detailed information you can provide will be helpful in our researching, identifying, and addressing any service-related matters. For example, a bus or railcar number, "run number" (from the front window), employee ID, etc., are all helpful details. A precise time, date, and location are also helpful."

 

Do other people have suggestions on better/other ways to lodge a complaint?

 

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Markus on August 29, 2011 at 12:13pm

We should report all instances of Bus Abuse. Until the reports start getting the attention and action in strong enuf numbers we cannot hope to get realistic and proportional reactions to complaints.

Re-education and training is the best thing we can hope for, losing the quantity of drivers that do wrong, stupid or inattentive things on the road would cause even worse consequences as understaffing and underhanded means of avoiding detection would create a dire situation on the roads.

We need better drivers, better riders (of bikes and busses) and better streets. Talking and reporting these things can help.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

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Permalink Reply by Mike Keating on August 29, 2011 at 3:17pm

The CTA is very difficult to deal with when litigating cases that involve liability on their part and real serious injuries to citizens. I can only imagine how they treat people with more routine complaints.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on August 30, 2011 at 2:03am

Wasn't it just a few years ago when the city's self-insurance fund ran out of money for the year and they just quit paying ALL claims against drivers of city vehicles involved in accidents?

 

Get hit by a bus?  You are SOL.  Hopefully it doesn't get that bad again.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Carly on August 30, 2011 at 2:25am

My friend was struck by a cop last year, the cop basically made a left turn directly into her as she was riding in a gap between cars.  It took the city a year to give her her settlement, but they did indeed reward her something.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Keating on September 11, 2011 at 3:35am

The Chicago Transit Authority is a Municipal Corporation, separate and distinct from the City of Chicago, a separate Municipal Corporation. For what its worth, I have not heard anything about the City of Chicago's self-insurance fund ever "running out." Even if it did, it would only mean that the claimant (injured person) would have to wait until the next fiscal year to get paid. Keep in mind that if the CTA or City or any insurance company refuse to settle a case, there is no escaping a judgment on a jury or judge's verdict in favor of the injured person.

James BlackHeron said:

Wasn't it just a few years ago when the city's self-insurance fund ran out of money for the year and they just quit paying ALL claims against drivers of city vehicles involved in accidents?

 

Get hit by a bus?  You are SOL.  Hopefully it doesn't get that bad again.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Alex Zavala on September 11, 2011 at 11:58am

Cta busses are my worst enemy in the street. It feels as if some cyclist have done something to bus drivers and now they r out to get us all :(

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Markus on September 11, 2011 at 12:32pm

Well actually every day bus drivers feel car drivers and bikers give them grief. Some is bad causing bad, some is a persecution complex gone awry and some is real. If your bike was several tons of momentum and loaded with soft easily damaged bodies you would get uppity about pulling away from a red light only to have a light ignoring biker blaze across the street in front of you or as you approach a side street with a bus stop have a bike suddenly appear and try to pass on your right robbing you of the room to get your 30 feet of bus out of traffic and put your door at the curb for the cane toting passenger waiting at the stop.

And don't say "I don't do that" cause if your out there and not seeing these things happen you are blind.

I usually ride with the attitude that the worst thing the drivers around me can do is exactly what they WILL DO.

Busses cause me little danger (OK SOME BUT surprisingly little) because I ride with some grasp of the physical and job enforced requirements of swinging a behemoth thru traffic, traffic that usually ignores the 600lb gorilla  on the road. The drivers of the bus can only present a danger to me if I place myself in their crosshairs. When I'm catching a bus in heavy traffic I take the lane behind them and pass on the left, if they are comimng up on my quarter I plan on the room they are using and if needed take the lane in front of them if I have room to do so without causing them to hit the brakes and deprive them of the opportunity to right hook me as the reach the next stop, if I cannot do that without forcing them to dramatically slow I plan on slowing myself to allow me to pass them on the left if they do pull into the stop.

Planning ahead can save allot of pain and being so egotistical as to expect traffioc to bend to my presence despite my slower speed and much better manuverability is a good way to end up as a spot on the road.

Those situations that cannot be dealt with are much better worked thru if you have the presence of mind to be aware of all the deadly possibilities before the fact.

Better to be inconveinenced that dead.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on September 12, 2011 at 2:42am

I hold a CDL and have driven things as large, or larger, (you think a bus is bad you should try driving a 40' trailer) than a city bus in city traffic and I am here to tell you that there is NO reason for the manner in which I see bus drivers behave. 

 

I have been forced to the curb and/or into parked cars by a bus that was overtaking me.  Buses regularly pass me with much less then 3 feet margin.  I have been honked at, bullied and otherwise disrespected by CTA buses more than any other road user our there and they are NOT the majority. 

 

I do not accept the excuse that is is simply because they are frustrated by driving a large vehicle;  I find that professional drivers, trucks and such that require a CDL, to be the nicest motorists I encounter.

 

I am also not going to accept the excuse about some folks riding like dicks either.  Yes, it happens and it is bullshit on the part of the cyclists but the flip side to that is that bus drivers, hell, any driver, needs to constantly be on the look out for other road users (all of them, not just bikes) being morons and take precautions to avoid them. 

 

Really think about what you said for a moment when it comes to buses and bikes.  You excused the bus drivers frustration about leaving a red light only to be cut off by a cyclist running a red light; now, I agree that the cyclist is an a-hole but I also want to point out that a red light has never stopped anything bike, car or other wise.  People in cars run red lights all the time and any road user our there about to enter an intersection when a light turns green needs to make sure that no one is about to blow the light before they enter the intersection.  When I ride I always make sure that cars are actually stopping before I take off on a green light.  Sure, they are legally in the wrong if they hit me running the red but I am still dead as hell so it seems better to check.  To not check this is to not be a safe driver, people in cars blow lights all the time.  If the bus driver is surprised by the cyclists running the light to the point that they have to slam on the brakes it means they are either not paying attention at all or are ignoring bicycles on the road. 

 

Same goes for people passing on the right.  Cars continually try to overtake vehicles, especially larger ones and those that have to make wide turns, in all manner if illegal passing, often on the right.  Drivers of large slower moving vehicles need to be on the look out for this kind of behavior because once again even though the other person is in the wrong you still have a certain level of responsibility to be safe regardless of others poor choices. 

 

I will also add this: If you are overtaking a bus, in a bike lane, on the right there is nothing wrong with that.  It is our lane and they need to start checking to see if we are in the lane provided to us before cutting across it to get to the curb.

 

 

Jeff Markus said:

Well actually every day bus drivers feel car drivers and bikers give them grief. Some is bad causing bad, some is a persecution complex gone awry and some is real. If your bike was several tons of momentum and loaded with soft easily damaged bodies you would get uppity about pulling away from a red light only to have a light ignoring biker blaze across the street in front of you or as you approach a side street with a bus stop have a bike suddenly appear and try to pass on your right robbing you of the room to get your 30 feet of bus out of traffic and put your door at the curb for the cane toting passenger waiting at the stop.

And don't say "I don't do that" cause if your out there and not seeing these things happen you are blind.

I usually ride with the attitude that the worst thing the drivers around me can do is exactly what they WILL DO.

Busses cause me little danger (OK SOME BUT surprisingly little) because I ride with some grasp of the physical and job enforced requirements of swinging a behemoth thru traffic, traffic that usually ignores the 600lb gorilla  on the road. The drivers of the bus can only present a danger to me if I place myself in their crosshairs. When I'm catching a bus in heavy traffic I take the lane behind them and pass on the left, if they are comimng up on my quarter I plan on the room they are using and if needed take the lane in front of them if I have room to do so without causing them to hit the brakes and deprive them of the opportunity to right hook me as the reach the next stop, if I cannot do that without forcing them to dramatically slow I plan on slowing myself to allow me to pass them on the left if they do pull into the stop.

Planning ahead can save allot of pain and being so egotistical as to expect traffioc to bend to my presence despite my slower speed and much better manuverability is a good way to end up as a spot on the road.

Those situations that cannot be dealt with are much better worked thru if you have the presence of mind to be aware of all the deadly possibilities before the fact.

Better to be inconveinenced that dead.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on September 12, 2011 at 3:08am

You had me until the last paragraph. You are correct that this is as it should be, but as I've said before, the right of way is for suckers (and their heirs).

notoriousDUG said:

[snip]

I will also add this: If you are overtaking a bus, in a bike lane, on the right there is nothing wrong with that.  It is our lane and they need to start checking to see if we are in the lane provided to us before cutting across it to get to the curb.

 

 

Jeff Markus said:

Well actually every day bus drivers feel car drivers and bikers give them grief. Some is bad causing bad, some is a persecution complex gone awry and some is real. If your bike was several tons of momentum and loaded with soft easily damaged bodies you would get uppity about pulling away from a red light only to have a light ignoring biker blaze across the street in front of you or as you approach a side street with a bus stop have a bike suddenly appear and try to pass on your right robbing you of the room to get your 30 feet of bus out of traffic and put your door at the curb for the cane toting passenger waiting at the stop.

And don't say "I don't do that" cause if your out there and not seeing these things happen you are blind.

I usually ride with the attitude that the worst thing the drivers around me can do is exactly what they WILL DO.

Busses cause me little danger (OK SOME BUT surprisingly little) because I ride with some grasp of the physical and job enforced requirements of swinging a behemoth thru traffic, traffic that usually ignores the 600lb gorilla  on the road. The drivers of the bus can only present a danger to me if I place myself in their crosshairs. When I'm catching a bus in heavy traffic I take the lane behind them and pass on the left, if they are comimng up on my quarter I plan on the room they are using and if needed take the lane in front of them if I have room to do so without causing them to hit the brakes and deprive them of the opportunity to right hook me as the reach the next stop, if I cannot do that without forcing them to dramatically slow I plan on slowing myself to allow me to pass them on the left if they do pull into the stop.

Planning ahead can save allot of pain and being so egotistical as to expect traffioc to bend to my presence despite my slower speed and much better manuverability is a good way to end up as a spot on the road.

Those situations that cannot be dealt with are much better worked thru if you have the presence of mind to be aware of all the deadly possibilities before the fact.

Better to be inconveinenced that dead.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

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Permalink Reply by Liz on September 12, 2011 at 3:54am

The thing that perplexes me the more about bad taxi and bus drivers is how annoyed to be on the road they seem.  

 

Their job involves driving a vehicle all day.  Regardless of how many people they try to intimidate to get ahead or lights they try to make, they will still spend their work day behind they wheel.  Why spend most of your working time angry and fighting with others.  I cannot imagine that these drivers enjoy their jobs or that the constant stress of "fighting" with traffic is good for their health.  

 

The buses I most have a problem with are the ones on Washington street from Wells to Wabash, many times these buses will move over 3 lanes to pass turning vehicles and other buses, even though this maneuver does not gain them any time.  I have has MANY buses nearly hit me wildly shifting across the lanes on Washington.  The buses then have to swing back suddenly since the stops are so close together and I immediately pass them. 

I think the ideal downtown situation would be: 

1. Eliminate all street parking in the loop

2. Enforce valet and taxi stand rules

3. Use the "every other" one way rule and shift bus routes (ie Washington/Jackson for bus lanes, Monroe with bike lane, Adams/Randolph with bus lanes, Madison with bike lane)

notoriousDUG said:

I do not accept the excuse that is is simply because they are frustrated by driving a large vehicle;  I find that professional drivers, trucks and such that require a CDL, to be the nicest motorists I encounter.

 

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 12, 2011 at 5:44am

Dug -I agree with you on this.  REAL professionals are some of the most courteous drivers I encounter on the roads, whether I'm riding my bike or driving a car.  Too many of our bus drivers do not drive like real professionals.

I ride in many areas on the far south side where I encounter large truck traffic.  Early on a weekend morning or at other hours when traffic is light and visibility is good, I'll ride on portions of 95th St., which is a truck route. The truck drivers are courteous, give me plenty of room, and usually wave me through.

 

On the other side of this picture, truck drivers don't have to deal with a steady stream of passengers who often make their work a lot more difficult than it needs to be.  Those bus drivers who manage to keep their cool and stay polite and professional under all conditions deserve our thanks and respect.  It's too bad that all bus drivers don't fall into this category.  Their job requires extraordinary patience, and some of them just don't have enough of it.

notoriousDUG said:

I hold a CDL and have driven things as large, or larger, (you think a bus is bad you should try driving a 40' trailer) than a city bus in city traffic and I am here to tell you that there is NO reason for the manner in which I see bus drivers behave. 

 

I do not accept the excuse that is is simply because they are frustrated by driving a large vehicle;  I find that professional drivers, trucks and such that require a CDL, to be the nicest motorists I encounter.

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