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Most Retarded Bus Stop Ever

This is not a retarded bus stop. This is a perfectly normal bus stop. The 135, 145 or 148 let me off here on the SE corner of N Clarendon Ave and W Montrose Ave (circled — don’t know why Google didn’t add an icon there…):

N Clarendon Ave and W Montrose Ave

Compare that to this bus stop (circled):

Intersection of N Marine Dr, N Lakeshore Dr, and W Montrose Ave

That’s at the intersection of N Marine Dr, N Lakeshore Dr, and W Montrose Ave. Routes 136, 144 and 146 stop here. In case you can’t tell, the ones labelled N Marine Dr and W Montrose Ave are N Marine Dr and W Montrose Ave, which are both two-way streets. The thin yellow line is the Montrose exit to the southbound lanes of N Lakeshore Drive (cars on the road head only south (that’s down, for those of you who aren’t used to our Northern Hemispherically Biased mapping system)). If you’re not figuring this out for yourself, that circle is a median in the middle of a busy intersection where cars can be heading in any one of 20-something different directions (I’m not sure which turns are forbidden here, not having a car and all).

This is a picture of a bastard NB 146 CTA bus stopping to let people on and off to or from a median into the middle of what (‘s not seen here, but often is) heavy traffic:

Looking North at N Marine Ave and the Montrose exit onto N Lakeshore Dr Intersection at a Northbound Route 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Express CTA Bus

And here’s a nice shot of the bus stop itself:

Looking South at N Marine Ave and the Montrose Exit of N Lakeshore Dr Intersection

This is the SW corner of N Marine Dr and W Montrose Ave:

SW Corner N Marine Dr & W Montrose Ave

You should notice that there is a fence curving all the way around that corner, so that you can’t get to the sidewalk if you are walking towards it from the east. Not unless you walk around the fence to the left (and climb up fairly steep, frequently muddy, presently snowbank-covered hill) or to the right, on the busy street.

Couldn’t the bus just stop at the NE SE corner of N Marine Dr and W Montrose Ave instead? Where there’s a sidewalk and a crosswalk? Would that muck up traffic too much? Because we all know that not mucking up traffic is far more important than the potentiality of having me, myself or I (or any other passengers of CTA bus routes 136, 144 and 146 who happen to live near this intersection) maimed and/or killed by large, fast-moving objects.

Pfft.

Sick of having my feet get wet in the snow every time the first bus that happens along is one that stops here.

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  • At least they shovel the stop. Well, at least the first few feet. If you get out the back door, you're in a snowbank.
  • "OK, I'm just going to let all these people off in the middle of a busy street, pretty much..."

    Probably the same strategists who do quality control for Campbell's Select Harvest Soup.
  • I'm pretty sure all turns are legal at that intersection as long as you have a green. Folks going North on Marine have to be able to do a "uturn" to get onto LSD south. Really it would have made more sense to put the stop on the north east corner of the intersection, but I'm sure those folks in the highrise on the south middle corner complained about the extra walk it would cause them.
  • makes much more sense. and yes, that would be the much smarter location for that stop.
  • I meant NE. I went to bed 35 seconds after posting this. Soooo tired!
  • buses in Chicago SERIOUSLY muck up traffic. i seriously doubt that's a deciding factor, here. it certainly isn't anywhere else.

    but i have to ask. if the bus is pointed north on Marine to get to the stop in the median, how could it -possibly- then get to the southwest corner of Marine and Montrose? it would have to be going the other way? if it turns west onto Montrose it could stop at the northwest corner (where, according to your map, there is another bus stop), but would be facing the wrong way on the wrong side of the street to stop on the southwest corner. did you mean the southeast corner, beneath the overpass? or does the bus keep going straight north up Marine, in which case you meant the northeast corner?
  • Zap!
    I totally was looking at the wrong bus stop...
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