Though I don’t drive, my boyfriend and workmates do. Tagging along through their experiences with Chicago’s two car-sharing services, the for-profit Zipcar and nonprofit I-GO, it was easy to figure out which company offered the better customer-service experience. Hint: in the private sector, the customer is always right.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Four weeks ago, CTA communications staff told me the agency would adopt a suggestion of mine to make it easier for riders to find weekend service diversion information. I celebrated that decision on this blog. Trouble is, a month later CTA hasn’t bothered to actually make the change.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Since 2001, many of the security tactics we’ve ended up with on our nation’s transit systems in response to Homeland Security hype have been less than efficient. Now New York has implemented random bag searches at subway entrances. And how that stops terrorists from simply getting on at another station is anybody’s guess.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Perhaps we can be a public-transit region now. Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune decried the sorry state of repair of Metra’s Roosevelt Road station, and laid blame at the feet of anti-Chicago Metra Chairman Jeffrey Ladd. Today he says he’s resigning.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Ever wonder why the Metra station at Roosevelt Road looks like a big steamy pile of lactose-intolerant toothpaste poop while the rest of the Museum Campus area and the South Loop in general zoom along in their tony upswing? Three words: chairman Jeffrey Ladd.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Okay, that’s helpful, thanks. A scientist working on the Chicago Tribune’s dime was quoted today in the Trib regarding a Red Eye report on dirty CTA handrails and grab bars, saying, ‘It would be hard for the CTA to do anything about this. It’s best to keep your hands off these surfaces.’
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
It’s a Friday evening outbound rush on the Brown Line. As the train leaves Merchandise Mart, a petite, 20-something, bottle-blonde DePaulite, balancing on a window seat with her impossibly pink stilettos barely reaching the floor, pulls out her cell phone, sucks her teeth, and dials…
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes