CTA Asks Riders to Shape the Future of Bus Service in a Bus Vision Survey Open Through November 30
The CTA's Bus Vision project is asking riders and non-riders alike how the bus network should change — frequency, hours, routes, transfers and bus priority are all on the table, and the survey closes November 30.
The Chicago Transit Authority is asking the people who ride its buses — and the people who do not — to help design what the bus network becomes. Under its Bus Vision project, run in partnership with the Northern Illinois Transit Authority, the CTA has opened an online survey and a series of community events on how bus service across the city and suburbs should evolve.
The ideas under consideration are the ones riders raise most: increased frequency, expanded service hours, route adjustments, better transfers and connections, new bus-priority infrastructure to speed up journeys, and closer coordination with Metra, Pace and the regional authority. The survey is available online and closes on November 30. Community sessions have already been held at Chicago Lawn Library and the Don Nash Community Center in South Shore, with a session at the Oak Park Farmers Market on October 31 and an open house at Albany Park Library still to come on November 8.
The scale of what is being redesigned is easy to forget. The bus network carries more than 620,000 rides on an average weekday, with over 2,000 buses operating 127 routes across more than 1,500 route miles. Through its Frequent Bus Network, the CTA already runs service every 10 minutes or better on key routes during the day and says 24 routes will be in the network by the end of the year. A final draft of the Bus Vision study goes to the regional authority at the end of the year.
