Man in a leather hat w sunglasses on brim talking on phone.Here are a few notes from early in the ride, which I type into my phone - because it turns out I forgot the notebook:
She gets off at Fullerton, long before Washington Heights. That’s the service one expects from a flagship bus route.Īt 10:10 in the morning, there is only one other passenger, a young woman with pink-streaked hair and platform boots. I walk to Andersonville and catch up with the bus there.) But I board the #9 at Ashland and Irving Park, catty corner from Lake View High School, after standing three minutes in a bus shelter.
To get to the #9, I wait 25 minutes for a #22 Clark bus in Rogers Park. Unlike most of the CTA, which leaves riders waiting as hopelessly for the next bus as Vladimir and Estragon waited for Godot. The first thing you need to know about the #9 is that it’s reliable. In my pocket, I have a box of matches, which will come in handy if I need to start a fire to keep warm while waiting for a bus. Beat that, Uber!Īnd so, on a cold February morning, I leave home early, carrying a bag containing everything I need for my epic ride: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple, a bag of granola, a paperback novel, a transistor radio with headphones, a notebook, a pen, and an extra pair of mittens.
At a $2.25 fare, the #9 costs 14 cents a mile. As a regular CTA passenger, I want to get the most bang for my buck. I ride the bus a lot, but I had never ridden a bus that far. I can’t imagine many people travel between those neighborhoods, but if they do, there’s no transfer. The longest route in the Chicago Transit Authority’s bus system is the #9 Ashland, which runs 16 miles between Lake View, on the mid-North Side, and Washington Heights, on the Far South Side.
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