Compare that to this bus stop (circled):

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:

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

This is the SW corner of N Marine Dr and 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.

If you’re using a Chicago Card, do NOT select $30 (or $10) as your refill amount. You’ll be giving up free money if you do.

Back when I got my Chicago Card, I selected $20 as my refill. After a few months, I decided that resulted in too-frequent charges, so I moved it up to $30. Today, I finally noticed on my account history, that I was only receiving a $2 bonus for those $30 refills. Wait a second…isn’t it supposed to be a 10% bonus? That’s what I thought all the ads and marketing said when I signed up…current marketing says $2 bonus for every $20 value added. Maybe that’s what it’s always said, and I didn’t realize it. Who knows…

So, the options are:

Refill $10 Bonus $0
Refill $20 Bonus $2
Refill $30 Bonus $2
Refill $40 Bonus $4
Refill $60 Bonus $6

I replied:

How is $2 for every $20 different from 10% when they don’t stipulate anywhere on their website that the $20 must be loaded at the same time? Seems to me, it ought to work out to the same thing, unless they plan on clarifying their wording.

And this is still fucking pissing me off. No, really. How is $2 / $20 different from 10%? I mean, the only thing I would assume from reading that is maybe they would wait until, say… you put $10 on your card twice. Not that they meant they’d give you a $2 bonus for every literal chunk of exactly $20. But if you load $10 twice, guess what bonus you get? A big, fat zeeeeero. Fuck, shit, piss. Yeah, this probably means I lost out of a whole… not very many dollars before I caught it. But, still.

Pretty lame, Milhouse.