ETHS sets itself apart from other American high schools in many ways. Be it the sprawling campus, ample facilities, or ten-minute passing periods, attending ETHS offers a unique high school experience. But ETHS’ uniqueness doesn’t stop at the classroom. Unlike many neighboring schools and townships, you’d be hard-pressed to find a yellow school bus at ETHS.
This is because ETHS does not provide transportation for its 3,600 students. Rather, students must get themselves to and from school. Some walk, others ride bicycles, and some drive. But many students – perhaps even most – use public transportation to get from point A to point B. Be it CTA and Pace buses, or the Purple Line, public transit forms the backbone of student transportation at ETHS.
Given the reliance ETHS students have on this mode of transportation, you’d imagine that transit runs smoothly and frequently, with few (if any) delays or disruptions. Unfortunately, this impression couldn’t be further from reality.
Using public transportation to get to school is an unpredictable and maddening affair. Sometimes everything runs smoothly, yet more often than not, your morning or afternoon commutes are catapulted into disarray. Occasionally the bus comes late, leaving you stranded on the street curb. Other times, the bus comes early, and sometimes it doesn’t come at all.
And while the Ventra app does provide arrival times for buses and trains, these times are often inaccurate. Because of this, taking public transportation can feel like a guessing game, an undesirable quality when commuting to a school with relatively harsh punishments for tardiness.
But timeliness – or lack thereof – isn’t the only problem plaguing ETHS transit riders. Churlish employees, erratic driving, unruly passengers, and unclean buses are the norm. Many bus routes run infrequently, which means that missing your bus can equate to a thirty-minute delay.
Moreover, some routes don’t serve ETHS before or after a certain time, so if you need to use transit and have an extracurricular activity that meets outside of school hours, you may be out of luck. Twice, my bus has even gotten lost, necessitating a U-turn in an empty parking lot and a 30-minute, leisurely jaunt through Evanston and Skokie to get back on track.
Many students express exasperation and weariness in regard to using public transportation to get to and from ETHS.
“The bus comes on a strange schedule,” says a sophomore student who requested anonymity. “You could be waiting for a long time, 30 to 45 minutes, and your bus still won’t be there. Sometimes [the bus] comes early, [causing you to miss it], so you have to wait for the next one. Other times, the bus comes late, or just not at all. I’ve had to walk home from school because the bus didn’t come.”
Another sophomore, Parker Kloster, says that taking the bus “is a great way to get to and from school,” but he admits that the bus is not reliable 100 percent of the time.
“[The bus can] run into traffic, which [can] make you late for school,” he says.
These anecdotes are reiterated all too often by ETHS students, including myself. I will not soon forget the absolute misery I experienced while waiting for buses that seemed unlikely ever to come in blustery winter weather last year. I loathed standing on the side of the street, losing feeling in my fingers and toes amidst the below-freezing temperatures and snow. Watching the passing cars, their occupants luxuriating in the heated seats and interiors, truly made me feel like a second-class citizen.
I firmly believe that everyone – students and the general public alike – should be entitled to a high-quality, reliable public transportation system. Not everyone can (or wants) to drive, yet everyone should have access to a robust and viable alternative.
Ultimately, is public transportation in Evanston that bad? No, I don’t believe it is. We are lucky to even have public transportation here. The same can’t be said for far too many places nationwide. With that being said, the bar is buried beneath the lawn. Subpar public transportation and car-centric mentalities are greater problems that are prevalent far outside of Evanston.
In the United States, we have created a society where quick and convenient transportation can only be achieved with a car. Public transportation is viewed as an afterthought, and until this mindset changes, we will never have a “good” transit system. Needless to say, this requires a fundamental rethink of transit at a community, state, and country-wide level, and is not something that can (or will) happen overnight.
I am eternally grateful for public transportation. It gets me where I need to go safely and economically. However, we mustn’t settle for mediocracy. CTA, you’ve got to do better.
