on the road again

i have a love/hate relationship with the cta. i especially love my upass. i've got a ticket to ride, and i don't care* (i will start to care when the semester ends, however. i don't think i'll even get a free ride to graduation). i love that there is a bus or L stop within walking distance of anywhere (the wannabe historian in me also loves that ours is the second-oldest transit system in the americas). i love that the L tracks (as pictured here) encapsulate the loop, create a unique urban landscape, and are cinema-worthy (watch wanted, the dark night, ferris bueller's day off and the fugitive and you'll see what's up).

chicago as pictured from the no-longer-reliable 8 bus

BUT enough waxing poetic on the virtues of the cta. i have some gripes that i would like addressed.

1. enough with the bus bunching! i know, i know, it's a "phenomenon" no one can explain or fix. i find it hard to believe that the city that figured out how to finally get rid of this guy cannot also solve this pesky problem. i need the buses to arrive every 12 minutes, as promised!
2. the blue line (as pictured below) either needs security OR a designated homeless shelter car. i recognize that the blue line is attractive because it's the longest line, but i do not want to be solicited for money whilst reading for my public interest course, in order to be able to represent homeless clients, in order to pay off my $150k debt i accumulated doing so. leave me alone. (see also; i am not alone)
3. please track down the guy who rode the 8 bus that one time and took off his pants. in the seat in front of me. i was not comfortable.
4. i could live with the stops, well-lit though they may be, being less creepy:

of course, things could be worse. THIS could be my ride:

*sorry for the needless beatles reference/cheesy lyric quote. i could have mentioned that i often refer to my upass as my "window to the world." i needed to tone that down for obvious reasons.