#151 Sheridan Bus

If you want to experience a cross section of the entire world, then take the 151 bus. You will see every type of local, foreigner and tourist on this bus.
My experiences with the 151 have generally been alright. I’ve gotten to my destination in one piece on every single ride. I can’t really comment on the 151 experience at rush hour, but there are a few things to keep in mind as to the 151 during non-​rush hour:
+ If you’re taking the 151 through the Mag Mile in either direction on a weekend afternoon, be prepared to stop frequently and for longer than the usual stop.
+ If you’re taking the 151 past the river in either direction, be prepared to catch the Michigan Avenue bridge up somewhere around 11:45 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the weekend such that you’ll sit static on Michigan Avenue for about 15 minutes.
+ If you’re taking the 151 south from Lakeview in the later evening, it’s a snappy trip through the park and a somewhat snappy trip down Michigan.
+ Don’t get on the 151 going either direction down Michigan on the evening of July 4.
Keep all of the above in mind, and you’ll be alright on the 151.

The one star is for the sheer convenience of having a perfectly placed bus in front of the Sheridan Red Line (where I live), Fullerton (mine and my girlfriend’s school), Michigan and Randolph (girlfriend’s residence) and Union Station (very close to work). It’s definitely the most convenient of the buses in the area.
As a general rule, I don’t have a particular problem with this bus. It usually contains the usual combination of tourists, old people, people getting out of work, and the occasional homeless person. It moves at a reasonable pace and gets me close to 95% of destinations I have to reach.
That being said, I had an incident happen a week ago that frustrated me to the point of posting here and contacting the organization. Perhaps this is more of a vent against the bus driver than the actual route itself. Either way, I feel the public should be aware that drivers like this exist (if they didn’t already have a good idea anyway).
Now, I used to have a leadfoot when I was younger. The thing is, my dad owns a camaro, and that’s the kind of car one would expect to be driven fast.
I do NOT expect my CTA Bus to drive like a racecar, weaving in and out of traffic, hardstopping and hardstarting so bad that people were falling out of their seats. Last week, I had a driver that insisted on driving the bus like a sports car. After I saw about half a dozen people fall over, including a woman with a stroller, I asked the bus driver to please stop jerking the bus around. This was the conversation
Me — Can you please stop jerking the bus around like that?
Her — Do you want to get off?
Me — No I want you to please stop jerking the bus around
Her — Either get off or let me drive.
I was only a mile or so from my stop (Sheridan and Fremont) so I decided to let it go. I pulled the string and waited by the door. I waited in confusion as I watched her blow straight through my stop with me standing there. I was like «Can you please let me off? You just missed my stop.» Evidently I had to ask her a few more times before she missed the next stop as well.
I’m used to mean drivers on the CTA, but I expect to feel at least somewhat safe. Not only was the safety of the ride compromised, but I was insulted and belittled once I called her out on it. Furthermore, she decided to miss my stop because I asked her to stop driving like a race car. Horrible.

LOL — I’m giving this bus 5 stars for entertainment. Judy D and Beth F are hilarious.
This bus gets 2 stars for service but 5 stars if you have time to kill and you’re looking for entertainment.
I took a day off — and I had to get from Sheridan Red Line to 5600 block Sheridan which means I had to go N. only a few miles but it was a show.
One lady gets on — half drunk /​half high and starts a racial rant. Stupid — this bus is full of minorities (including me). I’m soft spoken in person so I said nothing but — lets be honest that is not the nature of Chicagoan.
So there was a verbal fight between her and Italians, Ukrainians, Hispanics, Asians, and Blacks before she just randomly gets off on Foster in the middle of the street before the stop and almost gets hit by a car.
Then another lady kid screaming top of its lungs — as she shoves her on the bus 1980’s stroller and 1000 bags from Aldi’s.
We get to another stop and there is this lady who is wearing a shower cap with dollar store green shopping cart (full size) but her bags were a mixture of black bags you get from the liquor store, Walgreens, and Dominick’s.
The bus driver reluctantly lets her on… he has to push that button where the bus goes down (hydraulics) and the wheel chair access thing goes down. She pushes her cart on and it gets stuck between CTA card reader and the door. One nice guy tries to help her out and his foot accidently hits the black bag under her cart and cockroaches come out — and he’s jumping around just to get away. While every old lady on the disabled seats starts screaming.
I’m telling you — if you have time to kill it’s funny but it’s a nightmare if you seriously have somewhere to go — just take the red line.

Mental facility on wheels! If you have time to kill and want to know where people from the uptown and edgewater half way houses spend thier day… get on board. If you need to get downtown or anything more than 2 miles away, seek out other options. All in all, a fun ride!

i haven’t rode this bus in a long time for a damn good
was a spring Saturday morning. My mom and i had to go all the way to Montrose harbor the anti cruelty society bark in the park. we had to get on at van buren and state. the 1^st bad thing we waited for ever almost 40 minutes. we had never gone so far up north Sheridan before, so we asked the driver if he went to Montrose harbor; he said” yeah i go up to the harbor”. so we got one, and happily the bus was not crowded at all, thank god or there would of been injuries from this maniac. for fifteen minutes the engine was squealing and the bus was shaking so hard it felt like a earthquake. then it got way worse. we got up to Irving park, and then he said it was as far as he goes. right at that moment my face turned red. i was so pissed off. i would have taken the 146 but it was to early in the morning and it was rerouted anyway because the street was blocked off. so we ended up having to walk over a mile to the harbor. from now on i will avoid this route like the plague

This bus never seems to be on time, and doesn’t come as frequently as it should in rush periods. Sure I love the route, but strictly based on the consistency and timeliness, there is some room for improvement.

The #151 stops right in front of my house and yet it is horrible. But then again, all busses are horrible. They don’t come for hours and when they do, they come in a pack of 3, one right after another. Its so freakin annoying.

This bus is by far one of the worst in Chicago. It’s incredibly slow and rarely on time. It frequently bunches up. And even when I’m at Loyola which is near the end of the line, it’s still ridiculously late. Even when I check the bus tracker. I know, I know, you get what you pay for and it’s only 2.25. But man, the bus drivers and the ride itself suck.

I love this bus. Union Station to Oak Street Beach for a coupla-​bucks.
What more could you ask for?

I usually take this bus from Michigan Ave back down to my apartment in the West Loop. It’s a total buzzkill. There’s nothing like having a glorious night on the town and then getting on to a packed bus full of homebound North Shore teenagers. Ick.

The one star is for the friendly drivers. That’s all this bus has going for it. Absolutely ridiculous, who decided it was okay for a bus to randomly and regularly just decide to go a different route? Plus its always packed with tourists. Don’t take it personally, tourists. I’m actually looking out for you, if you were hoping for Chicago 2016 Olympics, be prepared to be sweating in a sardine-​can smelling bus. For a long time.

This bus is never on time, always bus bunching, and is crowded. Oh yes, and it is not uncommon for the bus to break down. Therefore, having to wait for another late bus to pick you up and sqeeze you onto the next 151.

After having spent four hours working in my dreary cubical on a Saturday morning, I got on the 151 at Union Station and rode all the way to Roscoe and Inner LSD.
I snagged the last single seat available and found myself sitting across the aisle from a woman who was in the midst of having a heated cell phone conversation.
I’m an eavesdropper. Not gonna lie. But this woman was speaking a language I didn’t understand. Being an eavesdropper, I was sort of bummed. Since she was talking too loudly to ignore, I couldn’t read my book and decided to focus my attention on identifying which language she was speaking.
As I sat there ticking them off, I realized it did not sound like Spanish or Polish or French or Russian or Chinese or Japanese or Pig Latin. But it did sound suspiciously like gibberish.
Flibbidy floo tik tok toom. TOOM! Flop floo track ‘em, track ‘em! Got dock, got. Okay?
I started to sneak surreptitious glances at the other passengers and noticed they were all taking sneaky peeks at this woman. And so I started to watch her too.
A couple minutes later and I found out why we were all watching her. She switched the cell phone from the ear I couldn’t see to the one I could and I saw that she wasn’t talking into a phone at all.
It was a Snickers Bar.

somewhat timely, funky route changes depending on day and time.

Rode this bus to the Union Station from Edgewater, because I was taking the Amtrak to Michigan. Thought I should be good because I left extra early. Wrong! Word to the wise, if you are on a schedule, do not take this bus. But if you have time on your hands, on want to take the «scenic» route all the way to Union Station, this is for you. It took an hour to get to the Union Station for me.

I hate this bus. I hate this bus. I hate this bus. I live approximately 2– 2.5 miles from Loyola in Rogers Park where I go to school. Yet, on average, it takes me 30 – 45 mins. by bus to get there. I feel that every old person in Chicago takes this bus, and usually they need the lift lowered… then they get off at the next stop. ARG! The bus drivers on this route are generally rude, and there is one guy who has a crazy eye that goes all over the place. I am convinced he is drunk every time I get on the bus. This bus is usually late, no, always late. It also runs through the heart of Uptown, so it therefore tends to pick up every crazy person in the area, (which in Uptown, there are a lot of). One time, there was this woman who talked to Jesus the entire time I was on the bus. No, not just talked, yelled. Of course that was the day my iPod died… So, if you can avoid this bus, do so at all costs as it is slow as hell, packed to the gill with crazies, and driven by questionable bus drivers.