In snowy weather, CTA bus riders must become mountaineers

On Monday, Wynne Delacoma went to ship Christmas presents — early, yes, but that's the sort of person she is. Organized. After dropping her parcels at the FedEx at Barry and Clark, she went to call a cab for her next errand.

But the Curb taxi-hailing app was down. So she walked to the nearest bus stop, finding it icy and clogged with snow.

Delacoma, 80, boarded on best she could, taking the bus to Gethsemane Garden Center.

There she planned to deliver a length of red ribbon for her Christmas wreath. Pretty velvet ribbon; saved from last year's wreath. Good ribbon is hard to find. And she got a discount on the new wreath by providing her own ribbon. Practical and aesthetic.

Again she had to survive a common challenge facing bus riders this very snowy winter: getting past the obstacle course at the bus stop.

"It was terrible. Just awful. I was afraid I'd have to walk along the side of the bus in the street," said Delacoma. "That's where they'd plowed. I just couldn't do it. Luckily, some young women there were able to help me off."

Walking close to a bus, you take your life in your hands. Just the week before, a woman in South Shore was killed by a bus, after appearing to slip as the vehicle began to move forward.

Yet snowbound stops are common.

"Probably half of the stops I get on and off at are clogged with snow and ice," said Peter Nee, a Chicago resident. "Sometimes I have to climb over a little mountain of snow."

When Delacoma got home, being civic-minded in addition to the aforementioned good qualities, she fired off a letter to the CTA, and cc'ed a copy to me.

"I'm writing to ask you why CTA bus stops have not been cleared of snow," she began. "I used the No. 22 and No. 77 buses today ... only one of the stops — the Belmont/Red/Brown/Purple Line station at 945 W. Belmont — was clear of snow. All the others were packed with snow, making it extremely treacherous to board or leave the buses."

If that seems a particularly lucid account, it's worth mentioning that Delacoma was the classical music critic at the Sun-Times for many years. She raises an interesting question:

"Who is responsible for cleaning the stops? The CTA or the city?"

I told her I would try to find out.

This must be a common enough public concern that the CTA has a web page, “Snow Removal” dedicated to sidestepping responsibility.

"One of the biggest challenges during the winter is navigating areas that are not cleared of snow and ice," it says, with apparent sympathy. "We're responsible for snow removal on our property, while most bus stops and areas adjacent/leading up to CTA property are the responsibility of others."

There are nearly 11,000 bus stops in Chicago. If the CTA is not responsible for clearing the vast majority, who is?

"We work closely with the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) to ensure bus shelters are shoveled as quickly as possible," the CTA continued. Anyone who takes buses knows this is deceptive, since buses do not actually stop at shelters, which seem to exist primarily for the benefit of the homeless.

CDOT also ID'ed other suspects:

"JCDecaux shovels within and around the 2000+ bus shelters across the city," CDOT said in a statement. "Lyft coordinates the clearing of Divvy stations, employing a contractor to begin clearing the stations with the highest ridership first. Snow removal is a multi-layered process, and CDOT works closely with the Department of Streets and Sanitation, property and business owners throughout the city to keep our streets clear and safe. At traditional bus stops, the adjoining property owner shares responsibility for clearing snow from their stop, as with all other sidewalks in the public way.”

Streets and San seemed the next stop. I had a lovely conversation with Commissioner Cole Stollard, who pointed out, correctly, that it has been snowing a lot lately.

"We have a lot of people who haven't seen snow like this," Stollard said. "This is a wake-up call."

But is anyone answering it? When everyone is responsible, nobody is. Bottom line: bus riders must fend for themselves, and Delacoma does just that.

"I have really good boots," she said. "I'm doing my part, but it's not right. We should be able to get on and off the bus without endangering life and limb... The problem is they drop people in a place where they can't get off the bus. It frosts me that the streets are plowed well, and I'm going to have to walk in the street because you obviously think more of vehicles than you do human beings."