#8 Halsted Bus

Not good. The #8 has solidified my belief in Phantom Buses. Waiting at Cornelia and Halsted freezing my batooty off with the promise of a bus in 4 minutes and 20 minutes.
2 minutes later: tracker says bus in 3 minutes and 18 minutes
2 minutes later: tracker says bus in 3 minutes and 16 minutes
2 minutes later: tracker says bus in 14 minutes
FML guys, its cold out! At this point I generally step inside caribou and buy a coffee I don’t want or pretend to be SUPER interested in the community board. GRRR!

The Halsted Bus is the main artery of my transportation crux when I’m not riding my bike or taking the auto-​gyro.
Tis’ quick, quaint, and quiet, in fact, I found a winning lottery ticket for 20 bucks on the seat yesterday. I cashed it in and got engaged to the woman behind the counter because all we could do was talk about how much we love the #8 bus.

I take the Halsted bus somewhat frequently. I usually take it if I’m going north to Lincoln Park or south to Bridgeport. The bus moves pretty quickly in most spots. However, it still takes a little while for the bus to get from Chicago Avenue to Division Street. The Halsted bridge won’t reopen until May of this year. Believe it or not, the bridge has been closed since November 30, 2010. It definitely seems like it’s been closed for much longer than that. Unfortunately, the bus gets really crowded by UIC when school’s in session. From Harrison-​15^th Street, the bus is jammed with students. I don’t know why they can’t walk or take the UIC bus instead. Most of these students live within a mile from school. This is one of the reasons why people are fatter and lazier now than they’ve ever been before.

So, I ride the 8 bus once, maybe twice a year. It’s a pretty standard bus — sometimes on time, sometimes not so much, sometimes I can get a seat, other times it’s packed.
But every.single.time. I am on this bus, there is a cross dresser on it. Not the same cross dresser — they vary from «man in a dress» to full-​on wig/​makeup/​nails/​jewelry/​outfit regalia — but there is always a cross dresser when I am on the Halsted bus. And that, indeed, makes me a fan.

This rating is for bus 1176 that picked me up around 5:30 on 2÷3÷11 ONLY (the day after the blizzard). I should have gotten my driver’s name to give her proper credit, because she was fantastic. She was easy on the brake and the accelerator (a rarity), which is always appreciated. More importantly, she was pleasant. She greeted each passenger with a friendly hello and urged each person to be careful when exiting the bus. In this snowy wonderland, few sidewalks are prepped for passengers disembarking the bus. Another thing that I found shocking was that she used the word, «please.» When the bus was filling up, she said, «Move to the back, please.» The only drawback… I was at the stop waiting for this bus for a very long time. In below zero temperatures, that’s not fun.
PS — on most days, I would only give the #8 a 2-​star at best. Hire more employees like this woman!

As of February 2010, the #8 stops running a little after midnight every night, & runs less often throughout the day. This is also the case for many other CTA bus routes, but the funny thing is: It hasn’t affected how often the #8s come around during the day, because they were –already– so far off-​schedule. Actually, they seem to show up –more– often than before… So give’em another ½ star.

If I had to take this bus every day, I might have a different opinion, but as weekend Chicagoan, this bus takes me where I need to go. Whether I’m visiting my best friend in Bridgeport or my sister in Lincoln Park, I can easily make my way there. It’s only about 3 blocks from Ogilvie, which is the same distance I’d have to walk to the Washington/​Wells el station. I’m content with this bus.

4 Stars for a bus route? Is this real? Is this the CTA? Am I high?
Well, yes, at least for the first three questions (go ahead and test me future employers).
If it weren’t for the ctabustracker magicalness, I would probably have a much different opinion of this bus. But since I live a few blocks away, I check the web site before I leave and work out my timing perfectly. No waiting = less time to figure out how much you hate the CTA.
So, I love this bus. I don’t take it everyday though. If I did, I think the honeymoon phase would be over. But I take it a couple of times a month, both north and south of where I live (incidentally, it’s a good bus to catch when you don’t want to go to the loop to get the Orange Line to bring you to Midway).
So, tops off to the #8 bus for not giving me enough reasons to be jaded.

I love my Halsted Bus. And here’s why:
There’s something about the #8 Bus that makes every homeless man and hipster dude fall in love with me. Maybe it’s the flashing florescent lights? Needless to say, I’ve had some of the most intense moments of my life on this bus.
I can always rely on the Halsted Bus if I’m drunk as a skunk and in need of a ride home. I hate taking taxis when I’m drunk, because I’ll end up tipping the taxi driver $ 20 on a $ 10 ride. Luckily, I can’t overpay on CTA.
My morning bus driver looks like a young Morgan Freeman. He’s so handsome and sweet. The first time I met him was the day he came back to work after this wedding. It was adorable. My evening bus driver is equally as wonderful. He’ll sometimes bring his young daughters on his bus route and they are just the cutest things ever. I listen to them talk and they are just the most gracious and witty little girls.
There’s no need to complain about this bus. It’s a public bus, not your private transportation. Some days you’ll catch it right away and other days you might have to wait a bit. And for me, the wait is worth it.

I was so drunk last night…
I just missed the 10:35PM train to Grayland, and the next scheduled train was at 12:25AM. I was pissed! Since I hate taking cabs because cab drivers are illegal devils in disguise, I decided to walk home. Well, I didn’t make it far, because:
A. yep, walking around drunk sucks
B. walking around drunk at night is even worse
C. it started to rain, not cool
So I walked from Clark and Ontario to Madison and Halsted… and I started thinking, «Hey, buses run at this time of night, right?» I stood at the bus stop on Halsted and Randolph for a few minutes, and wah la! The #8 pulls up… sweeeeeeeeet.
The new buses are the shiz! Very exciting! They are so much more comfortable now with air conditioning and roomy seating. 2 bucks to take me out of the rain and into a comfortable bus ride, priceless!
Thanks #8!

Ah, my commuting bus. I love that you pick up right around the corner from my apt, makes life so easy. You are also closer than hiking from the red line, so that’s a bonus too.
In the morning, if I can get on the 7:30 AM bus, it’s only 30 minutes down to the loop area. This is great. I always get a seat, listen to my morning talk radio and watch the skyline wake up.
The ride home is not nearly as fun. If I make the 5 PM bus, I will not be home till near 6. In particular, the nice woman who drives the 5 PM bus is not the best driver. She LOVES the brake pad. You know that driver who rides the brake so you lurch forward every chance possible? That’s her. It’s to the point where I have actually felt nauseous and ready to blow chunks. These are the moments I wish I had walked to the red line to go home, but I never do.
It’s reliable and there usually seems to be a bus every 12 – 15 minutes.

I have written many a letter to the CTA solely because of this bus. Seriously. Like 3 letters.
Overall, the concept of this bus is a great idea. «Let’s hire some drivers, get some buses, and run them north and south on Halsted. They’ll stop at the stops, pick people up, and quickly and efficiently transport them to their destinations.»
But nay, this concept escapes the drivers, the buses, the passengers, and all other parties involved. I swear to God I’ve seen some straight up Chris Angel illusions on this route.
How is it possible that I can wait at 18^th & Halsted for 25 minutes for a bus going North and then once I do board one, we catch up to the one in front of us that’s only been able to make it to Roosevelt? Where was I? I’ve been here for 25 minutes. How did I miss the earlier bus? How is it only at Roosevelt? Why does this keep happening? Either the #8 has to frequently wait for impromptu, invisible traffic-​halting protests to cease or #8 bus drivers have the power to bend time. I’ll go with the latter, because nothing else is a logical solution.
A side note: beware of UIC students with impossibly large backpacks, questionable characters near Division unafraid of displaying their dimebags, and hoodlums that think the entire bus wants to hear their Chingy ringtone over and over and over. Kids these days…

I hate you you hooker bus!
Three opposite-​direction bound buses will pass by while you stand there fuming waiting for your own. Before you flip out and punch everything in the neck because this is making you late, you ask someone else at the bus stop to please, PLEASE light a cigarette so that the bus will come. And when that cigarette is lit, TWO if not THREE freakin’ buses in a pack will come.

You see some interesting folks on the #8 bus at night. I may have to find myself a new hobby, because riding public transportation at night has gotten a little too weird for me lately.
First there was the super pregnant chick with tattoos of flames running up both her arms who couldn’t stop blinking. The guy with spikey hair and a t-​shirt that said «I am a street profit» had eyes bulging a full inch out of his sockets. Or the bum with a shopping cart full of beanie babies. But my favorite was the dude dressed like Jesus (this cat had the beard, the hair, and the robe) who was rocking out on his iPod. That just killed me.

The bus runs pretty frequently, but gets bogged down by heavy traffic in a lot of places. Obviously, this isn’t the fault of the bus driver or planners; it’s just that Halsted is one lane in each direction going through some really dense areas of the city. So, it’s not fast, but the CTA never promises speed or on-​time performance.

I had one of my first scary urban experiences on this bus, but not because of the bus or any of the riders. It was because I chose to follow some lady’s advice and take this bus to the end of the line after dark. Not smart. After 50^th Street on the South Side, things tend to get a little scary for a white boy. But I ended up getting off at 79^th and no one bothered me.
But I digress. This bus is pretty reliable, especially for one of the really long routes. If I needed it, it was usually there and didn’t bunch too much.
Halsted bus, you get three stars for faithful service.