Residents of Niles, Chicago and other nearby areas got a chance to find out more about the upcoming Arterial Rapid Transit (ART) service along Milwaukee Avenue during an April 23 public meeting.
Officially known as Pulse Milwaukee Line, the new service will run between Jefferson Park Transit Terminal and the Golf Mill Mall. The buses will make fewer stops, and they will get extended green light or shortened red light times under certain circumstances. Route 270 will continue running, but at reduced frequency.
The April 23 meeting was intended to give the public an opportunity to look at the current plans, ask questions and make suggestions. The residents who spoke to Niles Herald-Spectator said that they were impressed by what they saw.
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Ron Deverman, of Park Ridge, said that he travels up Milwaukee Avenue 2-3 times a week to shop.
“It’s good to know there will be a service to Golf Mill Mall, so I won’t have to drive,” he said.
Brian Czosnyka, of Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood, said the Pulse service would be a major improvement – and not just because it would go faster.
“I’m a biker,” said Czosnyka. “With the new stops, it would be easier to leave my bike [before getting on the bus].”
The Pulse buses will operate similarly to Chicago’s J14-Jeffry Jump service. They will only make 10 stops, six of which are located in Niles. This includes stops at Touhy Avenue, Harlem Avenue, Oakton Street, Main Street, Dempster Street and Golf Mill Mall. Each bus will have raised platforms with wheelchair ramps, bike racks and new passenger shelters with heat lamps, larger signage and real-time arrival information displays.
Pace spokesman Patrick Wilmot said that regular buses would also stop at those stations. And they will be the first Chicago area bus stops to feature arrival information for both CTA and Pace buses.
The buses will feature wi-fi and USB chargers. To help speed them along, the buses will use the Transit Signal Priority (TSP) system.
“If a bus is running behind schedule, the system requests a slight adjustment of the traffic signal timing to help the bus clear the intersection more quickly,” explained Wilmot. “[It] automatically sends a request through the TSP system to either shorten a red light or extend a green light by up to 10 seconds at an approaching intersection to help the bus clear the intersection more quickly and get back on time. If traffic conditions at the intersection are too congested to permit the timing adjustment, the request is denied and normal traffic signal timing remains in place.”
Pace has been testing the system in southern suburbs.
During the public meeting, more details about the service were revealed. Pace plans to run Pulse buses at frequency similar to Route 270’s Transit Center through Golf Mill Mall buses.
Pace planning consultant Adin McCann emphasized that the agency hasn’t finalized the changes to Route 270’s schedule.
“If they decide to do it, there will be a separate public meeting, and there will be opportunity [for riders] to give feedback,” he said.
Pace also shared preliminary plans for where Pulse stops would be located. For the most part, they would be placed at the locations of current Route 270 stops. But there are two potential exceptions.
For Harlem Avenue, the northbound stop would be located closer to the edge of the street, where Harlem and Milwaukee avenues converge. Consultant Steve Brown explained that Pace eventually plans to put in an ART shelter along Harlem Avenue.
This would require Pace to acquire the land for the shelter. Brown explained that, if that wouldn’t work, the agency would place the stop further north.
At Dempster Avenue, the stops would be placed at the same locations as the current stops.
‘We want to make crosswalks [at Dempster/Milwuakee intersection] [Americans with Disabilities Act]-compliant,” said Brown.
The location would put the northbound riders closer to IceLand ice skating rink and Northridge Prep School. Transfers to Route 250, which serves Dempster Street, would require riders to walk a block south.
Igor Studenkov is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.