CTA Bus Tracker at your service

By Ted Villaire

The arrival time of your next bus might be just a glance away, thanks to a growing number of kiosks around town displaying CTA Bus Tracker information.

The trend has taken root in Wicker Park and is now spreading to other neighborhoods.

The Wicker Park and Bucktown Chamber of Commerce installed a dozen flat-screen video monitors that display Bus Tracker information in businesses along popular bus routes.

DePaul University also started offering Bus Tracker information on screens at its campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop. The West Town Chamber of Commerce is considering a similar program for businesses along a stretch of Chicago Avenue.

In Wicker Park, 14-inch flat-screen video monitors display bus arrival times, as well as information about upcoming events and activities in the Wicker Park area. The kiosks were funded by property taxes collected through the Wicker Park and Bucktown Special Service Area program.

“The goal is to increase transit ridership and improve the experience for riders,” said Jamie Simone, program manager at the Wicker Park and Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. Simone said the reception has been good thus far among businesses and transit users, and she expects to get a better handle on the response once her organization completes a survey for the program.

While the CTA Bus Tracker information is available to anyone via the Internet and text messages, Simone says that not everyone has Internet-enabled phones and some people don’t like paying for the text messages. Often, said Simone, the information takes a few minutes to retrieve with an Internet-enabled phone.

Following the CTA’s lead, Pace has added a bus tracking function to its website, allowing anyone to see bus schedule and locations in real time.

Since the launch in Wicker Park, Simone has fielded calls from people who wish to create similar programs in the Chicago region and beyond. “We hope to see it catch on all over the Chicago, and throughout the nation,” she said.

Ted Villaire writes and edits for ModeShift.