CTA Rant Thread (Chicago: to live, floor, bus)

[Avengerfire]

I will start off with a little ditty I found a few days ago. Please blow off all the steam you can in this thread and also tell your stories!

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CTA Checklist---Feel free to add to this...

Enter train while people are still exiting.

Hold cell phone with arm upraised, elbow out so it is horizontal to the ground.

Check the time by straightening arm out, snapping elbow at right angle to reveal the timepiece.

Increase volume of voice while on the phone.

When a call comes in, say more than, “Excuse me, I’m still on the train. May I call you back in 10 minutes?”

Spit while you talk.

Eat food and dump crumbs on the seat, floor, etc.

Drink and leave the can or bottle on the floor.

Continually draw back your mucous instead of blowing your nose.

Cough without covering your mouth.

Sit with your legs splayed so that you take up 1 ½ seats.

Keep your personal items on the seat next to you.

Run your luggage wheels over as many toes as possible.

Play the staring game with an uninterested party.

Play your ipod so loudly everyone can hear it too.

Kiss, but making slurping noises.

Ignore your screaming child hoping it will all just go away.

Scream at your screaming child to make it stop screaming.

Fart without impunity.

[dragoro]

If trains fast as they were supposed to, I wouldn't:

I take up two seats less its someone that obviously needs to sit.


Someone calls, ill talk as long as they want. Hell ill even call people.

They wanna stop this? Make the trains run like they are supposed to.

Blame the CTA.

[katmoney]

I can't believe I am saying this, but I miss the CTA. SO MUCH.

[j33]

Crowd the doors during rush hour

Insist on walking from the back of the bus to the front to get off conveniently ignoring the nice doors in the back

Hold up the bus by asking the bus driver for detailed directions (asking 'hey, do you stop at xxx' is acceptable, asking 'how do I get to xxx' is not).

If you are a CTA conductor (bus or train), you can amuse the riders by doing the following things:

mumble incoherently over the loudspeaker
stop the train for 10 minutes in the middle of the tunnel during the middle of rush hour (this is even more amusing when the train is impossibly crowded) and don't make any announcements as to why, just sit there.
stop the train and play the automated announcement every 10 seconds for the ENTIRE time
refuse to go through yellow lights
if running ahead of schedule, just pull the bus over by the side of the road and sit there for a few minutes
slam the brakes on the train so that everyone lurches forward
refuse to stop at bus stops even after the stop is requested
refuse to stop at bus stops even though there is clearly someone waiting at the bus stop
tailgate and honk at people on bicycles
drive 3 miles an hour
drive 60 miles an hour when people are standing on the bus

[browneyedgurl]

There are more specific moments from the CTA. All my general issues have been addressed:


1. A big thank you to the classy person who was eating pizza slices on the train, and thought it ok to just....leave the crusts laying there on the seat. The entire crusts.

2. A big thank you to the young man who thought it made more sense to eat his candy, throw the wrappers all over the train floor rather than wait until they got to a trash bin. Hello, manners! He was about my age, so there was no excuse whatsoever.

3. And one more big thank you to every person who seems to think that sitting on the train is the most opportune time to whip out the old cell phone and loudly relay your personal business. I don't want to hear about your drunken nights, who you slept with, who you want to fight, which family member did you wrong, OR your constipation! Read a magazine, get a Ipod....if an Ipod is too much, get a CD player...do something else!

[OrangeAndBlue]

With all the problems the CTA has, live in almost any other US city for a while and you'll realize just how lucky we are to have such a "good" system. Chicago is still one of only a very small number of cities in this country where it's possible to live very comfortably without a car (thanks to the CTA).
So yeah, as much as I get annoyed at times, overall I'm still happy with it - could be a lot worst.

[supernerdgirl]

i'll admit, i talk on the phone when i'm riding CTA vehicles. i try to be quiet about it though. sorry guys.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by supernerdgirl

i'll admit, i talk on the phone when i'm riding CTA vehicles. i try to be quiet about it though. sorry guys.

Yeah, me too, but it's generally limited to "Hey, I'm on the train. When are you leaving work? What do you want to do about dinner?". And I keep it quiet. I guess I had a long conversation once when someone called me to let me know that a family member died. Anyone want to give me crap about that?


I think cell phone talk on the train is fine if you:

1. Aren't loud

2. Keep it short

3. Have an emergency

[browneyedgurl]

Emergency is one thing, and if you're quiet, fine, but the amount of people who get on their phones and talk loudly about the sort of matters that a train full of strangers should never be hearing is crazy to me.

[aragx6]

I hate stinky bums on the el...
I don't even blame them for being stinky, but if you've ever been in a car that completely empties out because of one of them you know what I mean. I've never seen so many people covering their noes, switching cars while the train is moving, laughing/crying because it's so bad etc.