Pace is the suburban bus and regional

paratransit Paratransit is the term used in North America, also known by other names such as community transport ( UK) for transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. ...

division of the Regional Transportation Authority in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

. It was created in 1983 by the RTA Act, which established the formula that provides funding to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA),

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

, and Pace. The various agencies providing bus service in the Chicago suburbs were merged under the Suburban Bus Division, which rebranded as Pace in 1984. In 2013, Pace had 39.925 million riders. Pace is not an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

, but a marketing name. Pace's headquarters are in

Arlington Heights, Illinois Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of the city's downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the ...

. Pace is governed by a 13-member Board of Directors, 12 of which are current and former suburban mayors, with the other being the Commissioner of the Chicago Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, to represent the city's paratransit riders.

History

In 2011, Pace received its first diesel-electric hybrid buses from

Orion Bus Industries Orion Bus Industries, also known as Bus Industries of America in the United States, was a private bus manufacturer based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The company had its main manufacturing plant in Mississauga and sent bus body shells to ...

, two years before Orion folded. These Orion VII 3G buses are the first buses in the Pace fleet to not be powered directly by diesel. In 2015, Pace received its first fleet of

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

buses from ElDorado National, these buses operate mainly in the southern suburbs.

Service area

The six counties that Pace serves are

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

, Kane, McHenry, and DuPage. Some of Pace's bus routes also go to Chicago and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. In some areas, notably Evanston, River Forest, Oak Park, and Skokie, both Pace and the

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , o ...

provide service. Many of Pace's route terminals are located at CTA rail stations and bus terminals and

stations. The CTA and Pace have shared a payment system since 2014 called

Ventra Ventra is an electronic fare payment system for Regional Transportation Authority (Illinois) which replaced the Chicago Card and the Transit Card automated fare collection systems. Ventra (purportedly Latin for "windy," though the actual Latin wo ...

. Ventra accounts are required to obtain transfers. In 2015, Metra regional rail was added to the Ventra app. Pace buses generally have longer routes than CTA buses. Due to its geographic service area, service is provided by eleven operating divisions (see below), as well as under agreements with several municipalities and private operators (

school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...

and motor coach companies). Pace buses provide service from the suburbs to various special events in the city, such as Routes 282 and 779 for

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

games, Routes 773, 774 and 775 for

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

games, Routes 236, 768, 769 and 776 for

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

games, Route 222 provides extra service to the Allstate Arena in Rosemont for events scheduled there, Route 284 to

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the ...

, Route 387 for events at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.

Services

Pace Bus

The majority of Pace bus routes run daily, seven days a week. Other routes run Monday through Saturday, weekdays only, or weekday rush hours only. One route, 352 Halsted, runs 24 hours a day/7 days a week, and four routes 390, 392, 395 and 890, run only for weekday UPS shifts changes. During weekday rush hours, Pace buses are authorized to use the shoulder of the

Jane Addams Memorial Tollway Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford before heading east-southeast to the ...

Edens Expressway Iens ( nl, Edens) is a small village in Súdwest-Fryslân in the province Friesland of the Netherlands with a population of around 32 in January 2017. History The village was first mentioned in the 13th century as Ederinghe, and means "settlem ...

, and Stevenson Expressway to avoid traffic congestion.

Pace Pulse

Pace began operating a new rapid transit service between the Jefferson Park Transit Center and Golf Mill Shopping Center on August 11, 2019. The new Pulse service overlaps with part of Pace route 270 which saw a reduction in the route's service frequency.

I-90 Express

In December 2016, Pace began an on-highway BRT express bus service between Rosemont Transportation Center and Elgin on the

. The service uses " flex lanes" to avoid traffic and features train station like stops.

ADA services

Pace is responsible for

ADA Ada may refer to: Places Africa * Ada Foah, a town in Ghana * Ada (Ghana parliament constituency) * Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria Asia * Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...

service in its service area, and, effective July 1, 2006, for paratransit service in Chicago. Pace also coordinates various Dial-a-Ride projects, usually sponsored by various municipalities and townships. One of the largest is Ride DuPage, sponsored by Du Page County Human Services. All Pace buses are

wheelchair A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...

accessible and have racks accommodating one

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

, available during all hours of operation. Pace claims itself as the nation's largest paratransit service provider, providing approximately 17,000 daily trips on paratransit, dial-a-ride and ADvAntage vanpools.

Vanpool incentive program

Pace operates a

Vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...

Incentive Program, where groups save by commuting together in a van owned and maintained by Pace and driven by one of the participants. There is also a Municipal Vanpool Program, under which Pace provides a van to a municipality, for any

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

ation purpose (such as demand response service for

senior citizens Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human biological life cycle, life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage ...

Operational structure

Given Pace's large service area, it is broken up into eleven operating divisions. Additionally, Niles, Highland Park and

Schaumburg Schaumburg is a district (''Landkreis'') of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (clockwise from the north) the districts of Nienburg, Hanover and Hamelin-Pyrmont, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (districts of Lippe and Minden-Lübbe ...

operate routes on behalf of Pace. 20160701 27 Pace bus, Crystal Lake, Illinois

Bus fleet

{, class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%;" , , - !Year !Manufacturer & Model !Length !Engine Type !Numbers !Divisions !Notes , - !2006–2010 , ENC EZ-Rider II MAX , , Diesel , align=center, 2600–2825
(222 buses) , Fox Valley, Heritage, Highland Park, North Shore, Northwest, River, Southwest, Village of Niles , , - !2011 , ENC EZ-Rider II BRT , , Diesel , align=center, 2826–2829
(4 buses) , Fox Valley , , - !2011 ,

Orion VII The Orion VII was a line of low-floor transit buses available in 30' rigid, 35' rigid, and 40' rigid lengths manufactured by Orion Bus Industries between 2001 and 2013 in three generations. The conventional powered buses, either with longitudinal ...

, , Diesel-electric
(Hybrid) , align=center, 2830–2831
(2 buses) , Highland Park , , - !2013–2015,
2017 , MCI D4000CT , , Diesel , align=center, 6950–6979
(30 buses) , Heritage , , - !2012–2018 , ENC Axess BRT , , Diesel , align=center, 6323–6575
6700–6786
(337 buses) , East Dundee, North, North Shore, Northwest, River, Southwest, West , , - !2015–2020 , ENC Axess BRT , ,

CNG Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

, align=center, 15500–15520
17500–17571
18500–18510
20500–20505
(108 buses) , South , , - !2020 , New Flyer Xcelsior XD40 , , Diesel , align=center, 20400–20485
(85 buses) , West , , - !2021 , ENC Axess BRT , , Diesel , align=center, 20300–20322
(23 buses) , Fox Valley , - !2023 , Proterra XZ5 MAX , 40ft (12 m) , Electric , N/A (20 buses) , North , {{bulletin point, Announced on 4/5/2022: Proterra won a $26.5M contract from Pace Suburban Bus to deliver 20 Proterra ZX5 Max electric transit buses (675kWh battery) and EV fleet charging infrastructure, with the first electric bus delivery in 2023. * Individual units in a series may be retired or out of service (also, a few units in a mostly retired series might still be operating). * No buses with fleet numbers ending in 13 (20400–20485 consists of 85 buses, and there is no 20413). * Some routes operated with paratransit or community vehicles. * Announced on 4/5/2022: Proterra won a $26.5M contract from Pace Suburban Bus to deliver 20 Proterra ZX5 Max electric transit buses (675kWh battery) and EV fleet charging infrastructure, with the first electric bus delivery in 2023.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Pace Suburban Bus website
{{Illinois public transit {{Authority control 1983 establishments in Illinois Bus transportation in Illinois Regional Transportation Authority (Illinois) Transportation in Chicago Transportation in Cook County, Illinois Transportation in Lake County, Illinois Transportation in Will County, Illinois Transportation in Kane County, Illinois Transportation in McHenry County, Illinois Transportation in DuPage County, Illinois Transit agencies in Illinois