Bus Trackers

I meant to write about this awhile ago, but kept forgetting. Ever since the CTA started its Bus Tracker, there's kind of a funny thing that's evolved at the bus stops -- CTA flash mobs! I'm a CTA empiricist; there are either buses coming or not. But lots of people rely on the Bus Tracker to get an estimate of a bus's arrival. And the result of this is that you'll often have a sense of a bus's imminent arrival because, out of nowhere, people will congregate. I mean, people do that, anyway, but the Bus Tracker folks will appear on less-trafficked stops, and that's how you'll know. You'll go from nobody there to suddenly a dozen people there. It's amusing to me, and it's entirely a result of the Bus Tracker.