Category archive for ‘Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)’ 
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Chicago Sun-Times Examines CTA Homeless Harassment
CTA President Ron Huberman calls new signage barring ‘continuous riding’ through ‘L’ terminals part of an overall ‘sign upgrade’ at stations. But what about the health and safety of homeless people ejected from the rail system into frigid Chicago winters?
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Chicago Public Radio, Cliff Kelley Show Cover CTA Homeless Crackdown
‘They should take those signs down and find a way to take care of people, not punish people. These are people who are cold, these are people who are poor, these are people who are suffering already. Why slap them in the face?’
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Chicago Coalition for the Homeless to Monitor CTA!
Yesterday, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless announced on its blog that the organization will ‘track any efforts to crack down on homeless people riding the CTA.’ The statement highlighted and was in direct response to my recent opinion pieces here and on Huffington Post Chicago decrying recently installed Chicago Transit Authority signage barring ‘continuous riding’ that the agency appears intent on applying only to homeless riders.
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CTA’s Holiday Homeless Harassment
During the past few weeks of waning daylight, waxing chill, and growing holiday spirit, the Chicago Transit Authority has been busy installing new signage at rail terminals on the CTA ‘L’. The message on the signs is clear, and a bit ominous: they demand an additional fare from any rider who wants to depart the terminal in the opposite direction from which they arrived. Are the signs aimed at the homeless?
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CTA Ignores Transit Needs of Downtown Residents
Last spring, Ron Huberman’s CTA planning masters came up with a rotten plan to shut off all weekend ‘L’ service on Lake Street and Wabash Avenue to speed up track work. I and others lambasted the plan, and it was revised. Unfortunately, it was only revised to miss the downtown festival season. It’s still designed to make life easier for people who visit downtown, not for the thouands of Chicagoans, like me, who actually live in the neighborhood.
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The Leaping Ladies of Lake Shore Drive
The easiest jollies for eligible Chicagoans can be found on any Lake Shore Drive northbound express bus. If your knees and your bottom can stand it. It’s become a fact of life on every 140-something articulated express bus between Michigan Avenue and points nearer to the Arctic Circle. From Belmont Avenue northward, the crowd on the CTA’s long bendy buses positively bounces–most especially the sveltest riders of the female persuasion. Thanks to Old Man Winter, who is obviously a dirty letch.
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Why Won’t the CTA Brand the Chicago ‘L’?
It’s a fair question. New York City has its subway. Boston has its T. Washington D.C. has its Metrorail. London has its Underground. Paris has its metro. In all of those cities, the colloquial name for the rapid-transit system is emblazoned on maps and signs, used in official documents, and pushed forward in press releases as a way to help riders–existing and potential–easily conceive of the rail network. So why aren’t the most famous elevated trains on the planet–ours here in Chicago–similarly branded?
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Chicago Seatless
‘The cattle car is being reintroduced on CTA trains…’ That’s how the Chicago Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch described the CTA’s new plan to run seatless ‘L’ cars on some rush hour trains in Thursday’s paper. I wholeheartedly agree.
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No CTA Backup Plan Leads to Loss of Loop ‘L’ Service
I’ve wondering whether the CTA had a backup plan in case disaster befell the current, summer-long weekend closure of half the Loop ‘L’. The answer, judging from this weekend’s seven-hour service meltdown caused by a cable fire, seems to be ‘No.’
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CTA Personnel on Downtown Diversions: “We Have No Idea”
The CTA’s current ‘L’ and subway renovation projects are causing travel havoc in the Loop. It would help if the CTA’s own customer service attendants knew enough to help detoured travelers navigate all the changes. But not all of them do.
