As my student with Down's Syndrome and I were exiting the bus, the driver shut the door on my student's arm and did not even get up to apologize or open the door to release it. I had to physically pull the door open with my fingers to get my student out and he still did not apologize or acknowledge what he had done. When I called PACE they did not even make a general apology or acknowledge my disgust for what had happened.

Disability Awareness:   Ignored the person/people with the disability, Unfriendly, Disrespectful, Rushed the person/people with disability, Impatient, Unwilling or unhelpful with assistance or accommodations

Berenis was very helpful today to figure pick-up times with me. Thanks!

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Respectful

2nd to 3rd week same driver 15-20 minutes late.picking me up for work.When i asked for a name, he refused to provide it and questioned why i need it

Disability Awareness:   Unfriendly, Inflexible service, Impatient with me

I use an motorized wheelchair. Pace door to door is okay on the weekdays, but it's not okay on the weekends. If I want to go to church, Pace can note pick me up from Highland Park. Because of that, the way I get to church, is I take a train from highland park to evanston, then the Pace bus picks me up from Evanston and takes me to Skokie. It takes me 2 1/2 to get to Church, and it takes me 2 1/2 hours to get home. I'm not very happy with these services. I wish they could service Highland Park 7 days a week.

Disability Awareness:   Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Physically accessible

I do not understand how come the bus came an hour early when i had an 10:45 ride. Pace was able to re-book

Disability Awareness:   Friendly

I called last Wed. to make sure Pace serviece my area on Memorial Day and was told yes. However when i called today i was told they said no. I had to cancel my appointment

Disability Awareness:   needs to make service area larger on weekends and holidays

I have a seizure disorder and travel with a seizure alert dog. On Saturday, May 14th, I was waiting in the Elgin terminal for a bus to Geneva when the staff informed me that because my dog was not a seeing eye dog that I could not ride the bus. I was terribly embarrassed and had to change my plans for my weekend. I will say I have traveled in the past without a hitch, but not this time unfortunately.

Disability Awareness:   Disrespectful, Pace's web page has a clear description of accessibility w/service dogs. Please make your staff aware of it.

I have been riding their buses for a long time ,and still ike to ride them.They go to all diffrent places ,and take people to their jobs,and other places.Good way to travel.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I was speaking with a recreation specialist at our special recreation association today. We were trying to figure out how to find transportation for a family friend who uses a power wheelchair and needs paratransit so that he can participate in an afterschool program. She said that she had had a very helpful conversation with a representative at PACE about how the transportation might work for this teen who really wants to participate in a recreation program. One of the things they discussed was the training that the drivers receive, which is something that is really important to families of young people with a disability.

Disability Awareness:   Helpful with assistance or accommodation, Physically accessible

The other day i spoke to Daniel to see if pace could take me to Forrest Park from Prospect Heights. He explained it would take two buses.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Friendly, Respectful

As a personal support worker for individuals with disabilities I've seen firsthand the value the Pace door-to-door Paratransit Service. Many of the people I work with utilize Pace paratransit and rely on it to get them to and from work, errands they need to run, and social events. Several of the people I know use the Pace paratransit service as one of the primary means of transportation, often upwards of 3-6 times per week.

This service helps people who are not able to use fixed route public transit to have as much independent access to their community as people who are able to use the fixed routes. From what I've observed Pace works hard to coordinate the transportation needs of a large number of individuals to a wide range of locations. The paratransit bus drivers are friendly and on time overall.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked directly to the person/people with disability, Friendly, Gave extra time, Respectful, Helpful with assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

David was able to come back because i was not ready.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me extra time, Respectful

I have to say that I am surprised when I read this previous review's experience, because my interactions with Pace have been very positive. I have found the bus drivers to be very knowledgable about routes and helpful with extra assistance. When I had been recovering from a back injury, one PACE employee went out of his way to assist me with my packages. I also recently observed a kind driver who patiently waited for someone who obviously had trouble walking, especially with this recent snowstorm.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Friendly, Gave choices, Gave extra time, Respectful, Helpful with assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

When calling to book my ride I had called at 5:30 and they had me on hold untill 7:30. This was a long time to wait.

Another time when a man, Mr. Jones, was bringing me home he criticized me and said that I could have walked home instead of getting a ride.

Disability Awareness:   Unwelcoming, Unfriendly, Disrespectful

A couple of weeks ago, Noah transitioned full time into a group home. He was taking Paratransit to a different location for the first time. When the bus driver arrived at Noah's location, the driver was concerned because no one was waiting for Noah at the door. The driver got out of his bus and escorted Noah into the building to check to make sure that he was in the right place and that he had supervision.
He absolutely went above and beyond!
Over all we have found Paratransit to be a great way for Noah to get to and from his programs and to work.
We have been VERY satisfied with the service and it is a bargain, at $3 a ride!
Ellen and Noah

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I work as a case manager for adults with developmental disabilities in a Day Program. Our clients are transported to our facility in Oak Park by Pace Door to Door. In September 2010, my client was dropped off at the wrong location in Chicago, despite his guardian insisting with the dispatcher that he be dropped off in Oak Park. His driver did not ensure that he walk in the building (even though it was the wrong location) and my client ended up roaming around the Loop until he was discovered by police. Pace must ensure the safety of their passengers, especially those with developmental disabilities who are not independent in the community. It is imperative that drivers ensure their passengers walk through the door of their drop off before leaving.

Disability Awareness:   Unwilling or unhelpful with assistance or accommodations

I've taken the pace bus to lots of different places by myself and it's been a great transportation to take. It's wheelchair accessible and the drivers are friendly. Whenever I ask the driver if this specific bus goes to where I'm going, if it does, he says yes. I've also transferred onto different pace bus routes and have used a transfer card. I enjoy taking the pace bus by myself and I'd recommend the pace bus if you need to get somewhere on public transportation. Another place I've taken the pace bus to is to a private school called The Cove School which is a place that I go to school. Sometimes, I take the pace bus to school whenever I'm not taking any other transportation. The pace bus is a fun public transportation to take to all kinds of places.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Friendly, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I take the pace bus by myself to a lot of places, and sometimes, when I take the pace bus and I'm waiting for it, the bus is sometimes late. Like for example, when I was taking Route 213 to Evanston and then transferring onto Route 208, the bus was 10 minutes late and I missed the second bus going to taekwondo. Another time, when I was taking the pace bus home from taekwondo, the bus was 15 minutes late and the bus driver was driving through a lot of traffic. Sometimes, I don't know where the bus is and I think I missed it. For the CTA bus, you're able to text CTA and see where your route is depending on where you text the code of the bus stop. I think they should do the same thing for the pace bus so people know where it is so they don't think they missed the bus. When my bus was 15 minutes late coming home from taekwondo, I took it to Evanston, then took the CTA Purple Line back to Linden, but then I missed the last bus and had to walk all the way home. It was a long walk and the pace bus drivers are impatient with me and the buses are always delayed and the driver sometimes drives too slow. I wouldn't recommend taking the pace bus right now until their service gets better. The pace bus isn't so much of a good transportation to take.

Disability Awareness:   Unwelcoming, Ignored me, Unfriendly, Inflexible service, Disrespectful, Impatient with me, Unwilling or unhelpful when I needed assistance or accommodations

I am reviewing the Pace Suburban Bus website for accessibility. I am using the System Access screen reader to navigate the site, and it works flawlessly. All the links are very clearly labeled, and I had no trouble. Kudos to Pace Suburban Bus for making their website 508-compatible.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service

I've taken a lot of different pace bus routes by myself and I've taken the pace bus to different places. I enjoy taking the pace bus by myself. Sometimes, I've taken the pace bus to the Linden CTA Station by myself and have transferred onto the CTA Purple Line, and I've also transferred onto another route at some specific places. Like one time, when I took the pace bus to Golf Mill by myself, I got a transfer card and transferred onto another route. When I got on the second bus route, I used the transfer card and found a place to sit. The pace bus is wheelchair accessible and the drivers are helpful and friendly. If I ask the driver if this bus goes to a specific place or city, if the driver says yes, then I pay my fare. When I once took the pace bus to Northbrook Court by myself, I asked the driver if this bus goes to Northbrook Court, and the driver said yes, so then I paid my fare and found a place to sit. When I'm on the pace bus, they've got different schedules inside the bus for different routes. If you don't know how much the fare costs, and you ask the driver, then the driver will tell you. I enjoy taking the pace bus around town by myself. They've got good customer service for the pace bus and it's wheelchair accessible. The pace bus is a fun bus to take for public transportation.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Friendly, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I like using the Pace bus cause the staff that work there are friendly and kind too the customers. I frequently ride the pace bus too travel too many locations its nice and reliable. There is seating for the disabled and wheelchair access as well. I recommend that for Ur next travels u should try out this form of transportation. I hope u like this review and will suggest the pace bus too Ur friends and many others. Hope Ur travels will be as good as mine were.
Thanks Alot for reading this review take cares now bye.
From: A Friendly and Frequent Pace Bus Rider

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Has employees with disabilities, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I highly recommend the pace bus to all my friends. It is a good system they have. The bus drivers are nice and friendly too. I use it to go to work and Arts of Life. Its fun. I hope you have a nice day. It costs $6 to ride the bus. The bus comes to my address, and then I get on the bus, and go to work. I call to schedule the bus ride the day before. I hope you have a nice day and a good weekend too.

Disability Awareness:   Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Physically accessible

I like pace. cause they pick me up at my house. pace helps me do social activities.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Friendly, Respectful, Flexible service, Physically accessible

The other day i had to buy more PACE ride tickets, so i went to the office. When i tried to speak up the woman spoke to my aide. I thought they were geered toward the disabled population. I guess i was wrong.

Disability Awareness:   Unwelcoming, Ignored me, Unfriendly, Impatient with me

PACE helps me go to choir practice and sometimes go to my program when our van is broken or takes me home from the movies. I have to call a day ahead of time to make my ride. Sometimes they go to the wrong address which makes me angry, but they usually do a good job getting me where i need to go.

Disability Awareness:   Physically accessible

I took my students on field trip to Navy Pier using PACE, CTA busses and the Metra train. We had a fabulous time & everything was very accessible. The only negative was that the CTA busses did not accept our student's id's for the student discount. All of the drivers and ticket takers we encountered were wonderful with the students. They were extremely patient as our students practiced getting exact change for the fare.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked directly to the person/people with disability, Friendly, Gave extra time, Respectful, Helpful with assistance or accommodation, Physically accessible

The Pace website is impossible to use to plan a route. It is very confusing. I ended up calling for assistance. Certainly my son who has a disability would never be able to figure out how to use the Pace bus with this website.

Disability Awareness:   Website difficult to use to use to plan a local trip from A to B and back.

I have mixed feelings about Pace, They go through times when they are good and then they are bad. A few months ago they cut service in my area. This prevented me to attend a advocacy group.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Physically accessible

I have been riding some of the pace bus routes for over 20 years ,and had not had any problems.They are a good bus company for thoese that take the bus,and some timers might be late if it is in traffic,accidents,.etc

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Flexible service, Physically accessible

Noah has been taking Pace/Paratransit for almost three years. It is mostly a positive experience. It can be inconvenient to have to call every day for the next day and it can be frustrating getting through, especially in the first 20 minutes or so, when the reservation line first opens, which is at 6 am. On average, the bus comes within 10 minutes of the requested time, with occasional days when they are 20-30 minutes late (maybe once a month) and very rare times when they are more than 30 minutes late, a couple of times a year. The drivers tend to be quite nice. If they arrive early, they always wait.
The bus is just a little less reliable on the trips back home in the afternoon, with a variance of anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. But, they are much more consistent than inconsistent. The $3/ride charge is a bargain and if this wasn't available to Noah, I would be driving him everywhere and it would be MUCH more exhausting then dealing with all of the little inconveniences of Paratransit. On balance, Paratransit works very well for Noah (and for me!)
Ellen Garber Bronfeld

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

The service on this bus line is accessible... in that I am able to get on the bus. The only real complaint I have with the service is that they insist on using the tie-downs to secure my wheelchair. I do not like this because it makes me uncomfortable- I would have difficulty getting out in case of emergency. When I protested this, they told me they wouldn't be able to move without tying me down due to policy. I would just end up just going along with it because I needed to get where I was going. It was just frustrating.

Disability Awareness:   Ignored me, Inflexible service, Disrespectful, Unwilling or unhelpful when I needed assistance or accommodations

I also rode Pace's ADA paratransit system for awhile. I did not find them very accommodating at all, although there were those rare occasions when things did work out in my favor. First off, one had to call in a day in advance at the crack of dawn. Often times the wait on the telephone was several minutes. There were times when the reservation people called back later on that day--usually at dinner--only to tell me they were going to have to bump my ride times up or something similar. Often the drivers would get terriblly lost, and I was late several times or had to cut class at the end of the day to make my ride. I would not recommend anybody use paratransit. I did hear about improvements but I'm still very skeptical.

Disability Awareness:   Unwelcoming, Ignored me, Inflexible service, Disrespectful, Rushed me, Impatient with me, Unwilling or unhelpful when I needed assistance or accommodations, Though some of these people were in fact friendly, I'd still not recommend the service as is.

I used the regular Pace bus system too for a short time, back when I attended Barat College in Lake Forest which is no longer in existence. I found them to be very disability-aware. My mom would drop me off at the bus stop in Winnetka. When the number 213 bus came, the driver slowed the bus to a halt and brought the stairs down to a kneeling position, opened the door, and would give me verbal directions to get on the bus and locate the fare box for my change. Then she would verbally direct me to a seat. She announced each stop as we approached them, and once we got to my stop another passenger would help me off the bus and into the shelter to wait for 472. He was very friendly too and did the same things. Ditto for my return trip at the end of the day.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I take the pace bus to work two days a week. The drivers are very nice. I highly recomend the pace bus tro all my friends. I also take it to the office to work too! It is a lot of fun to take it too!

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Asked me if I needed or wanted help, Friendly, Gave me choices, Gave me extra time, Respectful, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service, Physically accessible

I take the pace bus to work two days a week. They do a good job. The bus drivers are very nice to me. I have other friends who take it too. They do a good job. I highly recommend it to my friends. Have a good evening.

Disability Awareness:   Talked to me person-to-person, Friendly, Helpful when I needed assistance or accommodation, Flexible service

I've taken Route 422 on the pace bus by myself. It hasn't been too hard to take the pace bus by myself. The fare costs $0.85 cents when I take the pace bus. When the pace bus approaches, I just get on the bus, ask the driver if the bus goes to where I want to go, and if the driver says yes, I pay the fare, and then find a seat. I've taken Route 422 to the Irving's by myself, which is in Westlake Plaza. Then after I've been done eating at Irving's, I've just walked over to The Fresh Market, which is in the Edens Plaza. I've also taken Route 422 to Old Orchard by myself. When I've taken the pace bus to Old Orchard, I've gone to the movie theater, then I have gotten back on the pace bus. The drivers have been helpful when they've told me if the pace bus goes where I'm going. It has been big experience to take the pace bus by myself. It goes to all different cities and starts out in Wilmette. Route 422 on the pace bus is a fun route to take.

Disability Awareness:   Welcoming, Talked to me person-to-person, Friendly, Respectful, Flexible service, Physically accessible