They climbed onto the CTA 146 express bus during Tuesday’s evening rush hour, thankful to squeeze into every available seat and space.
The riders saw the snow swirling outside as they ambled aboard on Michigan Avenue, and figured that at worst, they’d have to wait an hour or two to get home in the storm.
But five hours later, as their bus sat immobile on Lake Shore Drive, the windows of the shaking bus revealing nothing but a white mess, the riders still waited.
Gaven Sallie, 21, had been relieved to get out of work early, and she thought the bus would have more room for her ride home to Wrigleyville.
She sat on the bus jammed with passengers she didn’t know and waited patiently as the bus crawled along Lake Shore Drive for three hours. Her husband called, worried when she would return home to their 7 1/2 -month-old child. At times, she thought the whole bus would lose patience.
“Everybody was just quiet. You could see it in people’s faces. Somebody’s going to snap,” she said in a phone interview.
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But people didn’t lose it. They found moments of comfort instead. When a stranded motorist stopped and knocked on the bus to ask for water for a baby, a passenger gave the motorist water. Sallie joked about where she imagined herself to be, on a warm beach, pina coloda in hand.
“We’re just all trying to stay calm,” she said.
Twice, the bus engine shut down and the lights went off. They thought about food and tried to keep warm. Some openly complained about needing to go to the bathroom. But instead, they just waited.
Then, about 8 p.m., the extended bus that had been crawling came to a halt in the middle of the drive near Diversey Parkway. The mood on the bus shifted from passivity to action. Passengers wondered what they should do next.
Feet chilly but still warm in their bundles of winter clothing, some decided they’d make a run for it. When the back doors of the bus blew open, letting a rush of snow and cold in, several took off, passengers said.
But minutes later, the passengers ran back, defeated. The wind and snow were too strong. They told other passengers they couldn’t breathe.
There was nothing more they could do but wait. Cars sat immobile around them. Someone said a bus was jacknifed on the road ahead. Another bus stuck ahead of theirs had more room so some passengers walked over to get seats.
“We’re all keeping each other company,” said Cole Jarvis, 27, an architect. “Honestly, it’s one of those things you’re looking at, and it’s nobody’s fault. The only fault is the storm itself. It’s all of us in it together.”
At 10 p.m., the passengers on the 146 bus still waited — for rescue, for home, for a way out of the storm.