Screw you. Seriously…read more
On a night (-30 windchills last night) where the CTA had a chance to be a hero ONCE AGAIN, you blew it. Do you actually look at the schedule, or is it just waste paper for the driver to read when they're bored?
I use this route once a week to go to U of C to do my radio show. Public transit to Hyde Park is spotty and unreliable at best, shoddy, shabby and non-existant at worst. Getting there - okay, I ride from Garfield Red line to 57th/University. Easy, and I can also catch the 55 or X55 to get me there.
Coming back though, it's a crap shoot as to whether or not there'll actually be a bus waiting for me when I come downstairs to the stop near the Reynolds Club at the appointed time - between 6:55 to 7:05.
I'd asked the driver before I left, what time the 7ish bus would be returning to 57th/University. He consulted his schedule, and with a lot of brow furrowing and "uhhhh" and trying to develop an opposed thumb to grasp said schedule, finally determined that it'd be back at 6:55. Bueno. Perfect. Stay warm, my friend, see you then.
Sooooo, not wanting to be left freezing (though I was, and seriously felt like Shackelton sans sled dogs) I got to the stop at 6:50. Plenty of time, right? When the bus hadn't shown up by 7:15 I called CTA. Scheduled for 7:20 and 7:35. I was skeptical of this because I know this bus only comes one time an hour. Probably the CTA person on the phone was looking at the wrong schedule, though I enunciated icily (literally) on the phone. Predictably no bus at 7:20 OR 7:35. Another call, and the time was 7:50.
By this time, I was practically crazy with the hypothermia, and ran out to the exposed tundra to try for the 55. A U of C student came with me, we'd been chatting about the absent 174 bus. I momentarily pondered asking him if he wanted to make out JUST SO I COULD STAY WARM! PEOPLE! I WAS DESPERATE HERE! I THINK MY DARLING, DELICIOUS BF WOULD EVEN HAVE UNDERSTOOD MY PLIGHT! As I resorted to the sanctuary of home, practically sobbing, and giant glasses of vodka after my ordeal. Anyway.
*ahem*
At 8:00 the 55 bus showed up, STILL no sign of the 7:50 174 (which would have gotten to 55/University by the time I was waiting there). But anyway, relief, from my guardian angel #55.
Seriously, what gives? Do you just freestyle it, and figure the slacker students won't notice? U of C students are not slackers (I am neither a student NOR a slacker). And when the university is on a break - what, do you just not run? Sit on the side of the road and drink? Seriously, people still LIVE in Hyde Park (like Barack Obama, for one!!) that need to get to the campus and nearby.
The 174 buses are all shiny and new and pretty clean, but seriously . . . . fix that scheduling glitch, bitches.