Pace bus Route 626 “A” trip arrives at Dempster-Skokie “L” station on the morning of April 16. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

Pace suburban buses that use Edens Expressway can now bypass the traffic jams on the highway shoulder.

The service change launched on April 9 after some highway improvements and months of driver training. Pace first tried the idea on Stevenson Expressway in 2011 and saw a surge in ridership as buses’ on-time performance improved. Since then, suburban bus transit agency has been trying to expand the concept to other major highways.

The change affects routes 620 and 626, which provide workplace commuter service between the village of Skokie and corporate campuses along and near the Cook County/Lake County border. As previously reported by the Chronicle, Pace is currently considering adding the new route — temporarily named Route C — that would use the Edens Expressway between Foster and Touhy avenues. Pace spokesperson Maggie Daly Skogsbakken told the Chronicle that it would use bus-on-shoulder as well.

The area around Lake-Cook Road, which serves as a border between the two counties, is a major commuter traffic generator. As previously reported by the Chronicle, as of 2016, more workplace commuters get off at Milwaukee District North Metra Line’s Lake-Cook Road station than any other Metra station save for Union Pacific North Line’s Davis Street station in downtown Evanson and downtown Chicago terminals.

In 1989, several major area employers formed the Transportation Management Association (TMA) of Lake-Cook. Working with Metra and Pace, they launched the “Shuttle Bug” program, where Pace runs rush hour commuter shuttle buses from Lake-Cook Road stations and other train stations to the employees, with TMA members helping to cover the costs.

Route 620 is one of the Shuttle Bug routes. It provides express service between Yellow “L” Line’s Dempster-Skokie “L” station and Allstate insurance company’s Northbrook campus, picking up passengers at the station in the morning and dropping them off in the afternoons. The bus runs along Edens until it reaches Willow Road and uses Willow Road to get to the campus. While the route is designed as an express, it can pick up and drop off passengers at any intersection on the non-Edens portions of the route.

Route 626 is more complicated. It is essentially made up of two routes that share similar endpoints. One links together Dempster-Skokie “L” station and Lincolnshire’s corporate center around the intersection of Tower Parkway and Overlook Point. The other — labeled as “B trips” on the route’s official schedule — links the Dempster-Skokie “L” station with North Central Service Metra Line’s Buffalo Grove station. The “A” service uses Edens until it reaches Dundee Road, where it becomes more of a local service, picking up and dropping off passengers at major corporate campuses, office complexes, malls and train stations along Skokie Boulevard, Lake-Cook Road and other major streets in Buffalo Grove and Lincolnshire. The “B” service runs along Edens expressway for most of its length and only makes a few stops near the endpoints of the trip. The “A” service takes passengers from the “L” station in the morning and drops them back off in the afternoons, while the “B” service does it the other way around, picking up passengers at Buffalo Grove station in the morning and dropping them off in the afternoons.

A Pace bus rides down the Edens Expressway shoulder as part of April 16 “bus tour” demonstration. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

While Route 626 isn’t a Shuttle Bug route, it plays an important role in the network. It stops at Lake-Cook Road station, which serves as a hub for most Shuttle Bug routes, allowing for convenient transfers. The route also does its part to connect employees to area companies, stopping near the entrances to Walgreens’ Northbrook campus, Hyatt Deerfield campus and Discover Financial Services campus, among others.

According to Pace ridership statistics, since launching in September 2013, Route 620’s ridership has fluctuated, generally remaining with 60-75 riders per day range. Route 626, which has been around since 1988, saw the average daily ridership decline between 2013 and 2017, within the same span of time, going from between 400-490 to between 318-390.

Pace indicates that, when bus-on-shoulder was launched along the Stevenson Expressway, the on-time performance for the routes that served it improved “from about 65 percent to over 90 percent.” The ridership has improved as well. A look at the ridership statistics bear it out. For example, ridership on route 755, which links together Chicago’s Illinois Medical District and the village of Plainfield, saw the averages increase significantly, going up from 34-63 range in 2011 to 488-760 range in 2017. And increases were observed on routes that launched after bus-on-shoulder was implemented. Route 850, which launched in August 2014, providing service between downtown Chicago and north Bollingbrook, It went up from 400-500 range to 650-800 range in 2017.

The Pace press release emphasized that the transit agency doesn’t expect the increase to be that dramatic.

“While ridership may not increase at that same rate on the Edens, Pace does expect to see ridership growth and improved schedule reliability,” the agency stated. “This service improvement will greatly enhance job access for commuters coming from Chicago and North Shore communities to employment locations in the Lake-Cook Road corridor.”

It should be noted that Stevenson express routes serve municipalities that don’t have any Metra stations, and, in case of Plainfield, no other public transit service whatsoever.

The service will work similar to Stevenson Expressway’s. When the traffic on the highway slows down to 35 miles per hour or lower, the buses will have a right to use the highway shoulder to keep going. While traveling on the shoulder, it won’t go faster than that speed.

While Stevenson routes used coach-style buses, the Eden routes still use the same, regular buses as before. Daly Skogsbakken said that Pace eventually hopes to add buses similar to the ones used on the Jane Addams Tollway express routes. While not quite coach-style, they have some features regular buses lack — overhead luggage compartments and more comfortable seats with USB-based charging ports underneath. While wireless Internet originally set them apart as well, Pace has since been quietly adding Wi-Fi to regular routes, making that less unique.

The idea, Daly Skogsbakken said, was to try to offer something that one can’t get when driving a car.

“Those are all things that we want to leverage,” she said.

The issue is being able to order the necessary buses as well as finding room to store them. For now, Daly Skogsbakken said, they wanted to focus on having vehicles that would get their riders to work.

While bus-on-shoulder on Edens started on the morning of April 9, Pace didn’t have a ribbon-cutting to mark the occasion until the following Monday on the morning of April 16. It was held at Buffalo Grove’s Riverwalk development (2150 East Lake-Cook Road), which is served by Route 626’s A trips.

Participating in the Edens Expressway Bus-on-Shoulder ribbon-cutting ceremony are (from left) Sidney Mathias, Lake County Board; Kirk Dillard, RTA Board Chairman; Randy Blankenhorn, Illinois Secretary of Transportation; Richard Kwasneski, Pace Board Chairman; Linda Soto, Pace Board of Directors; Tim Grzesiakowski, Executive Director of the TMA of Lake-Cook; and Chris Canning, Pace Board of Directors. (Photo by Igor Studenkov/for Chronicle Media)

Illinois Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn, whose department operates Edens and other state highways, touted the project as an “innovative, cost-effective solution” for bus riders and drivers alike.

“Our transit network is integral to the economic well-being of northeast Illinois,” he said. “[Illinois Department of Transportation’s] continued commitment to working with our transit and local transportation agencies helps ensure that our transportation system continues to function as a unified network that serves and benefits all users. We are excited to work with you as we move forward.”

Regional Transportation Authority chairman Kirk Dillard, whose agency provides oversight over all Chicago area public transit providers, said that bus-on-shoulder on the Edens would be a great asset.

“[It’s] a service that bypasses congestion, one that is reliable to and can make travel to work, to the doctor, more attractive,” he said.

Linda Soto, who represents Lake County on Pace’s Board of Directors, said she appreciated the corridor’s public transit amenities and she was glad to see something that improved them.

“Lake County is a very proud supporter of public transportation,” she said. “It provides residents and businesses with numerous opportunities. Public-private partnerships, like those facilitated by TMA, allow our employers to [recruit] more employees. We’re very existence to have the first of its kind service in Lake County.”

Director Chris Canning, who represents the North Shore portion of Cook County, also offered his support, thanked all of the Pace staff who made the service possible — whether they were present at the ribbon-cutting or not.

Tim Grzesiakowski, TMA’s executive director, said his organization welcomed bus-on-shoulder.

“Any improvements that improve the connection to Chicago and close Cook County suburbs — we’re very supportive of this,” he said. “We think it’s a good idea and a great example of low-cost [transit] improvements.”

After the ribbon-cutting concluded, officials and reporters in attendance were invited to take a 30-minute bus trip along Edens’ shoulder.

Melinda Metzger, Pace’s Executive Director of Revenue Services, provided commentary during the trip. She said that bus-on-shoulder has been a bit of a learning curve for the riders.

“The first day the bus pulled on the shoulder, some passengers said — ‘hey, hey, what are you doing?’ and others were like – ‘oh, no, that’s OK,’” Metzger said.

She also explained that, compared to the Stevenson, the Edens has more off-ramps interrupting the shoulders, so drivers have to be careful. There are signs warning drivers about where the shoulder the buses can use begins and ends.

And Pace hopes to put another, new route further south, between Jefferson Park Transit Center and Skokie Courthouse. As part of the proposed CTA/Pace North Shore Coordination Plan, CTA plans to eliminate Route 54A, which travels between those destinations along Cicero Avenue and Skokie Boulevard, near the Edens Expressway. The new Pace route, currently dubbed “Route C,” would replace significant portions of it, traveling among Edens itself between Foster and Touhy avenues.

Daly Skogsbakken told the Chronicle that, as with buses, they need to secure the necessary funding. She currently expects Pace to figure out the details by the end of summer.

“Come August, [the staff] will know how many buses we need, how many [drivers] we need,” Daly Skogsbakken said. “Ad then, we’ll get it to the finance people.”

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