Posted June 24, 2008 at 8:15 a.m.

Awww yeah, it's time for the second-annual Rotten Route Challenge.  Check out the official criteria and rules in today's "Going Public."  I'm accepting votes at goingpublic@tribune.com and would love it if you would pretty please put the route number in the subject field and include your full name, age, and neighborhood.  Also add a few lines about why your bus gives you the blues. 

Remember, it's all about improvement, so let's highlight which route needs a helping hand.

I'm tallying votes until Friday at 5 p.m., and feel free to sound off here as well.  The most Rotten Route will be revealed soon, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, bring ont he bus routes.

The #22-Clark bus in absolutely horrid. I wait 10-20 minutes for the bus to come in the morning. When the bus finally comes, there are usually 2 or 3 buses bunched together and yet I still can't get on a single one. The traffic on Clark is always super slow moving as well and a trip to work that should take 15 minutes or less usually ends up taking 45 minutes or more. Ridiculous!

"GOING PUBLIC" SAYS: Thanks for the vote! I've put it in the tally. No. 22 is catching up to the No.8 at an alarming rate, but 8 is still leading.

Thank you for mentioning the #65 Grand Bus in your article today. I am constantly emailing the CTA about this route and of course nothing ever seems to change. I am lucky that I can walk to work if the bus takes too long to arrive... but what about those who can't? It's completely ridiculous to allow commuters to wait 20+ minutes.

What really bothers me is I see buses marked for the Green line (or any L line) during rush periods with one or two passengers. Why aren't those buses used for the more congested routes?!

The #52 Kedzie/California bus is always incredibly slow, especially northbound. Every day I have to wait at least 20-30 minutes for it after I get off the train coming home from work, and when it does arrive, there's usually 2 or more bunched together. Sometimes I walk the 6+ blocks home instead of waiting, and I get there before the bus!

Please raise the issue that the new buses (like on the #22 route) are too narrow in the aisles. Even a skinny person has trouble passing another skinny person. It causes huge problems. CTA should be discouraged from buying more of them.

I love reading this column because it let's me know that I am NOT alone in my CTA misery. I know I'm late for the "Rotten Routes Revealed" voting, but I had to add these three routes.

I have the "luxury" of taking THREE major routes to my destination.

*29th & State Street (Northbound)
*74th/75th Lakefront (Eastbound)
*74th/75th Damen (Westbound)

Sounds great right?

Not really, at least 99% of the time I exit the train at the 79th Street L station and usually a quick glance overhead shows my 29th & State bus pulling away from the bus stop. And by the time I exit the station, there are ONLY 79th and Lakefront buses (millions of them -- or so it seems) arriving/departing, there are NO 74th/75th buses (EASTBOUND or WESTBOUND) and NO 29th & State (NORTHBOUND) buses arriving/departing.

Instead, there just seems to be this LONG lull between the wait times for the buses. This “lull” in the wait times usually leads to the arrival of TWO buses from the same route (74th/75th Damen) OR "almost empty" buses that are then packed by my fellow commuters that missed the FIRST bus (with me), creating quite a bus/commuter traffic jam at the 79th Street/Red Line station.

The irony of my situation baffles me on so many levels -- three possible routes and none them work!

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