cta doomsday in the tribune
(posted by me, elsewhere, too.)

I wrote the following letter to John Hilkevitch. I've not received a response. The tribune wrote this article:

"A reality check for commuters?"

The article was accompanied by a graphic showing ridership data for CTA, Metra, and Pace; the top bus routes, the train routes, and car data for the highways in Chicago.

Click here for the Tribune graphic

As I was reviewing the top bus routes, I just couldn't be convinced that the #152 Addison bus was the third busiest in the system. That made absolutely no sense to me. So I researched myself, and found out that the Addison bus didn't even make the top thirty of the routes. I listed out the top twenty-plus routes and sent them to Hilkevitch. The bus routes they listed were all on the north side and serving the communities mostly on the lake shore. Only four of the ten listed would be cut in the up-coming contingency plan. So I couldn't figure out why those were listed. In the report, the top routes by weekday boardings are listed very clearly. So, who ever generated that graphic that accompanied the article did something wrong, or if those were the routes chosen, I'm not sure why. Those most affected routes are absolutely saved in the plan.

Click here for the March 2007 CTA Bus Ridership Report

What do you guys think? Northsiders thinking everything revolved around them? Just bad data? Something else?

Anyway, here's what I wrote to the Trib:


--------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Hilkevitch,

"A reality check for commuters?" More like a reality check of your facts. I was just reviewing CTA bus ridership included in the graphic that accompanied your piece. (found here). I just couldn't believe that the #152 Addison bus was the third busiest in the system. According to the figures I reviewed in the CTA's Bus Ridership Report for March 2007 (found here), the Addison bus does have many boardings, in fact, your numbers are correct. However, it is not the third busiest, nor is the #151 Sheridan the first. Looking at the numbers, the top twenty bus routes are as follows:

01) #79 - 79th
total: 33,766

02) #20 - Madison
total: 24,437

03) #9 - Ashland
total: 23,475

04) #66 - Chicago
total: 22,621

05) #63 - 63rd
total: 21,979

06) #77 - Belmont
total: 21,974

07) #3 - King Drive
total: 21,314

08) #53 - Pulaski
total: 21,233

09) #4 - Cottage Grove
total: 21,125

10) #22 - Clark
total: 20,178

11) #151 - Sheridan
total: 20,156

12) #8 - Halsted
total: 19,857

13) #49 - Western
total: 19,125

14) #82 - Kimball-Homan
total: 18,679

15) #87 - 87th
total: 17,590

16) #67 - 67th-69th-71st
total: 15,643

17) #36 - Broadway
total: 15,467

18) #29 - State
total: 15,438

19) #72 - North
total: 15,430

20) #62 - Archer
total: 14,289


Your data was decidedly "northside-centric." Only four (4) of the routes you listed are affected by service cuts in the doomsday scenario; the #135, #136, #156, and #157. All of those don't even make it into the top twenty in terms of weekday boardings. If there's some other reason you chose to list only those bus routes, please let me know, as it is not immediately clear in the graphic or the copy.

Best,
Michael Kmak, Pilsen