The Chicago Transit Authority will reroute its No. 201 bus line down Sheridan Road in hopes of drawing more riders. But this change could reduce some residents’ access to public transportation.
The switch, which will take effect April 11, means the bus will no longer serve Clark Street or Sherman Avenue and will instead run along Sheridan between Chicago Avenue and Central Street, CTA spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said.
She said the bus route was changed because Sheridan produces more traffic than the segments along Clark and Sherman. The change comes as part of a second 180-day experiment to restructure bus routes in Evanston and other North Shore communities.
The current 201 alignment was developed as part of the first experiment, which went into effect in June. Initially, CTA planned for the bus to run along Sheridan but altered the proposed route in March in response to concerns raised by Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) that the proposed bus line would ignore large concentrations of senior citizens, particularly those living at facilities at 1900 Sherman Ave. and 2300 Noyes Court.
Newman said he was contacted by CTA about the route change but that neither he nor Evanston City Council could do anything about the shift.
“I am worried about the seniors, but the problem was there wasn’t enough activity for (CTA) on Sherman Avenue,” he said. “The buses going up Sherman weren’t picking up enough riders.”
CTA’s new proposal, approved at the Chicago Transit Board’s December meeting, has raised many of the same concerns.
“How are we going to get home?” said Winifred Dotson, a retiree who lives at 1900 Sherman Ave.
Dotson said she rides the 201 bus frequently to pick up her prescriptions at Osco Drug, 1630 Sherman Ave., and said there are no other bus lines or shuttles running close to her residence.
Peter Nicholson, a member of citizens group Evanston’s Transportation Future, said his group is divided over the benefits of the route change.
“There are some people who feel that one senior-citizen rider is worth 10 students,” Nicholson said. “There are others who feel it’s a butts-in-seats issue and a rider is a rider: the more the better.”
Nicholson said he expects the route change to make the bus more visible to students and to increase student ridership.
“They’ll be more aware that that’s an option for them,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson said if ridership increases CTA might be more willing to add hours or days to the service, which currently does not run on Sundays.
The new route will overlap with NU’s free Ryan Field shuttle along Sheridan and Central. Antongiorgi said because the new route is experimental, CTA will have to wait to see if the shuttle has an effect on bus ridership.
Debra Garfi, senior manager of NU Transportation Services, said she had not been aware of the CTA route’s impending change but would look into the issue.
“Of course,” Garfi said, “we don’t want to duplicate service.”
The Daily’s Chris Kirkham contributed to this report.
