Eyes on the Street: Concrete Pad for Bus Riders Installed in East Garfield

People catching the Chicago Transit Authority's 94-South California bus in East Garfield Park no longer have to wait for their ride in the dirt.

While most CTA bus stops at least offer customers concrete to stand on, if not a bench or a shelter, not every rider has an appropriately designed waiting area. Until recently, three #94 bus stops on the 2900 block of West Fulton had substandard stops.

While the #94 line generally runs north-south, it runs east-west on Fulton between California and Sacramento. At the bus stop near the southeast corner of Fulton/Sacramento, there used to be no concrete, except for a "courtesy walk" running perpendicular from the sidewalk. I noticed that a local man who uses a wheelchair had to wait for southbound bus on this narrow strip of pavement.

Worse, there was no concrete at all at the bus stop at the northeast corner, only an ugly, broken advertising bench. That meant the man had to roll his wheelchair off the bus into the sometimes-muddy parkway when returning home on the northbound bus.

This week, the Chicago Department of Transportation installed concrete "parkway pads" at both of these stops, plus a third southbound bus stop at the southwest corner of Fulton and Francisco. This provides a much better boarding and alighting situation for the man, and all other people who use these stops.

There don't seem to be a lot of people using these bus stops, so it might not have been cost effective to install these pads from the standpoint of spending money in a manner that serves the most riders. However, all CTA customers should at least be provided with a dignified place to wait for the bus.