Tribune Forgets South Side Has Bus Service

A little over a week ago, the Tribune ran a list of Chicago's busiest bus routes. People who actually ride buses in Chicago were stunned to see that all the busiest routes on the Tribune list were North Side routes. For example, Michael Kmak of Pilsen couldn't believe the Addison bus — which leads to Tribune-owned Wrigley Field — could actually be the third-busiest route in Chicago, so he looked up the figures himself and discovered that, in fact, it isn't. Kmak was the first to expose the Tribune's error — if error it was — on his Chicago El blog:

As I was reviewing the top bus routes, I just couldn't be convinced that the #152 Addison bus was the third busiest in the system. That made absolutely no sense to me. So I researched myself, and found out that the Addison bus didn't even make the top thirty of the routes. I listed out the top twenty-plus routes and sent them to Hilkevitch. The bus routes they listed were all on the north side and serving the communities mostly on the lake shore.

John Hilkevitch, the Tribune's transportation and UFOs reporter, didn't reply to Kmak. The Tribune ran a skimpy, nearly invisible correction that explained nothing, but left its faulty graphic online. It's just too sinister to think the Tribune would promote certain bus routes in certain privileged neighborhoods while Illinois debates funding for the CTA, but who knows? It's the Tribune. The CTA Tattler writes,

I hope it's not because of the thousands of North Side RedEye readers. I hope it was just a plain mistake. But it was truly bizarre and questionable.

Suddenly the South Side Chicago Board of Tourism's campaign to introduce Chicago to its South Side doesn't seem quite so funny. Below you'll find the Tribune's fishy list of the busiest bus routes in Chicago, including the number of weekday boardings, followed by the CTA's actual list of the busiest bus routes in Chicago:

THE TRIBUNE's LIST
01) # 151 Sheridan: 20,156
02) # 147 Outer Drive Express: 13, 423
03) # 152 Addison: 11,467
04) # 156 La Salle: 9,740
05) # 146 Inner Drive/Michigan Ave Express: 9,582
06) # 145 Wilson/Michigan Express: 7, 271
07) # 155 Devon: 6,228
08) # 135 Clarendon/La Salle Express: 3,666
09) # 157 Streeterville: 3,174
10) # 136 Sheridan/La Salle Express: 2, 437

THE TRUTH:
01) # 79 - 79th: 33,766
02) # 20 - Madison: 24,437
03) # 9 - Ashland: 23,475
04) # 66 - Chicago: 22,621
05) # 63 - 63rd: 21,979
06) # 77 - Belmont: 21,974
07) # 3 - King Drive: 21,314
08) # 53 - Pulaski: 21,233
09) # 4 - Cottage Grove: 21,125
10) # 22 - Clark: 20,178
11) # 151 - Sheridan: 20,156
12) # 8 - Halsted: 19,857
13) # 49 - Western: 19,125
14) # 82 - Kimball-Homan: 18,679
15) # 87 - 87th: 17,590
16) # 67 - 67th-69th-71st: 15,643
17) # 36 - Broadway: 15,467
18) # 29 - State: 15,438
19) # 72 - North: 15,430
20) # 62 - Archer: 14,289

Meet the Southside: It Ain't Whatchu Tink

Thinking of venturing to the Southside? Visit the Southside Chicago Board of Tourism first, to get the lay of the land. Not only does the site have a currency converter and a language translator, it also answers essential questions that travelers might have such as:

• Will my cell phone work on the Southside?
• Is the Southside in a different time zone?
• What exactly is a parking space?
• I like to eat. Will there be food on the Southside?

We have a sneaking suspicion that White Sox marketing might be behind this project. But that's okay, since Cubs marketing—aka the Tribune—has been giving people the wrong idea about the Southside for decades.