Many of you may not be aware that there is wonderful group of citizen-customers who regularly engage and advise the CTA. This group is called the Citizens Advisory Board, and its members are regional leaders in government, transportation policy, business development, and community affairs dedicated to transit and CTA’s mission of providing safe, clean, on-time, courteous and efficient public transit for our region’s customers.
CAB members include:
- Greg White (Chairman)
- MarySue Barrett
- Marian Bond
- Jack Catlin
- Jacquelyne Grimshaw
- Hon. Linzey Jones
- Rickey Sain
- Hon. George Van Dusen
- David Weinstein
The Transit Board, CTA staff, and the CAB engage in high-level discourse on legislative affairs (including CAB members advocating on behalf of CTA in Springfield regarding operations and capital funding), day-to-day operations (including monitoring the slow-zone mitigation projects, bus bunching, the planned purchase of new rail cars and other service improvements), and more long-term strategic concerns (such as business improvements and customer service changes). Indeed, the CAB weighed in on many of the service improvements you are now experiencing, and they will continue to work with CTA to identify future areas of need.
The CAB will be having its regularly scheduled public meeting this Wednesday, March 5 at 1PM at CTA’s 567 W. Lake headquarters. CAB Chairman White and I encourage you attend to witness a very informative discussion about CTA’s future direction.
53 Comments:
Let's see:
Barrett - former Daley policy chief
Van Dusen - Skokie Mayor and former Dem St. Rep.
Grimshaw - former Mayor Washington press secretary;
Jones - Mayor, Olympia Fields (well outside the CTA coverage area)
Bond - former member of a Daley committee on aging
Catlin - partner at a Wheaton(!)architecture firm
Sain - head of a community organization in the gay community dependent on grant money and goodwill from the city
Weinstein - head of the "Chicago Entrepreneurial Center" funded by the State's Department of Commerce
And Greg White, who runs a venture capital firm, though it sounds suspiciously like the types of firms they back may be ones that rely on governmental assistance.
White and Grimshaw may not be directly dependent on governmental goodwill. And all of these people may have some independent views.
But to present them as "citizen customers"??
Carole, that's just lying. You're better than that.
Gosh, we're invited to "witness" someone else giving input to the CTA?
I am truly honored.
It's almost like I matter!
Or at least I'll get to watch someone else almost matter!
I'm all tingly now.
ANON 12:24PM,
I've repeatedly stated that personal attacks won't be tolerated on this board, and your accusation against me clearly falls into that unacceptable category. I would normally delete this comment, but since you are also attacking the character and commitment of the CAB members, I will respond.
The CAB is an advisory board. No member has any personal financial stake in CTA projects, and all are CTA customers.
Here is some other information you may be unaware of:
Greg White is the Vice President at the Chicago Community Trust, a philanthropic and civic leader in Chicago. He brings a wealth of business and financial acumen to the CAB, advising CTA in how it manages its finances and other business practices. As Chairman, he also spends a good deal of volunteer time helping CTA communicate with the rest of the CAB on board matters.
MarySue Barrett is the President of the Metropolitan Planning Council, one of the premier regional planning agencies and a long-time advocate of improved regional transit. She brings wisdom, leadership in the policy community, and expertise on transportation issues to the CAB.
Marion Bond is deeply engaged in issues affecting seniors in Chicago and throughout the region, and brings a unique perspective on how that community is impacted by CTA and regional transit developments.
Jack Catlin is not only a former Transit Board member, and thus eminently qualified to speak on transit issues, but he is also a leader in the disabled transit rider community and provides guidance to CTA on how our practices and policies affect the disabled community.
Jacky Grimshaw is the Vice President of Transportation and Community Development at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, another premier regional think tank for transportation policy. Like the other members of the CAB, she has spent countless hours in Springfield and across our region advocating for improved growth strategies and access to transit for working families.
Mayor Jones is the Mayor of Olympia Fields, the leader of a key city in the regional transportation network, and a leader in the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association which sets key transportation policies for the Southland where large numbers of CTA customers live and work. He brings a southland voice to the CAB that is key to it having a representative regional perspective. And Olympia Fields is within the statutory CTA Service Area.
Rickey Sain is a leader in the West Side and western suburban communities that CTA serves, and has been a tireless advocate for transit and other fundamentally important services affecting the working poor.
David Weinstein is a former technology czar for Mayor Daley and brings with him not only an entrepreneurial background in business development and economic growth, but a keen sense of how CTA can utilize technology to improve its effectiveness and service to customers. As the leader of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, he is a leader in the small business community which is a key transit stakeholder.
Mayor Van Dusen is the Mayor of Skokie, a key CTA partner and home to thousands of CTA customers. He is a long-time transit advocate and has helped CTA to develop what is only now a consensus that transit is a regional resource that needs increased regional investment.
The CAB is designed to solicit unique regional input for the CTA. This includes our entire service area as well as from communities that are part of the regional transit network of which CTA is such an integral part. Much of my work over the past five years as Chairman has been dedicated to showing the region that CTA is not just a provider in the City of Chicago, but also part of a symbiotic network among Pace and Metra to ensure that customers from all over the RTA region can get to their jobs, schools and entertainment options easily and cost effectively. The CAB has been a key tool in that effort.
But better than any blog post, I encourage you to attend next week's meeting to see for yourself how lucky the CTA is to have such qualified and influential volunteers advising us.
And Anonymous 12:24PM, be forewarned that I will not engage in a debate about the veracity of your uninformed views on dedicated public servants who have volunteered their time to assist the CTA and its customers. There are plenty of other forums for you to vent your views.
Carole,
Let's be clear. Anonymous 12:24 didn't attack these people. He didn't allege they were getting money for serving on this committee. That post makes clear that these are people already deeply embedded in local politics. That many are dependent on government money, and that that inevitably restricts the degree to which they will be independent.
That doesn't mean they're dishonest. That means that they're like everyone else, who would hesitate to level their full-out criticisms against someone who they depend on for support. If you believe it's an attack on them, it says more about what you're expecting from them than it does about them OR about anon 12:24's post. These are the sort of people who it would be great to have your inter-governmental relations people talk to, or your community affairs people.
But as Anon 12:24 pointed out, it's ridiculous to call them citizen-customers. That is clearly true. Several of them almost certainly don't ride CTA often -- the architect working in Wheaton. The Mayor of Olympia Fields, which is so far outside the CTA service area that it doesn't even show up on the map. The Mayor of Skokie, who almost certainly doesn't commute to village hall on one of the two CTA bus routes that even serve Skokie.
The problem, which anon 12:24 makes clear, is that you actually have no citizen-customers on your "Citizens Advisory Board".
How can you not see that?
Well, Carole, at least in your follow-up post, you came closer to acknowledging the real situation:
>who have volunteered their time to assist the CTA and its customers. There are plenty of other forums for you to vent your views.
In that sentence, you're acknowledging that these folks don't represent customers. They "volunteer to assist" customers.
The thing is that there are no doubt 10,000 people in this city who would be honored to sit on a citizen advisory board and actually represent the everyday customers of CTA. People who would gladly volunteer their time. People who are smart. People who ride CTA every day. People who not only understand what problems riders encounter, but also the difficulties of running transit, which are no doubt legion.
It's great to see that some of our political superiors are willing to volunteer their time to serve us. But we'd be happy to serve ourselves if ever given the opportunity.
I'd bet you could find 10 qualified, intelligent people on virtually EVERY morning el train, who could do as good a job.
This isn't a knock against people who volunteer their time. I'm sure they're fine people. But we'd like to see someone on the committee who could say
- "this morning, while **I** was waiting 15 minutes for my train to come"
rather than, "I spoke to a client who had to wait 15 minutes this morning for her train to come."
That's the difference between a citizen advisory board and the very nice intergovernmental relations board CTA has pulled together.
"In that sentence, you're acknowledging that these folks don't represent customers. They "volunteer to assist" customers.
The thing is that there are no doubt 10,000 people in this city who would be honored to sit on a citizen advisory board and actually represent the everyday customers of CTA. People who would gladly volunteer their time. People who are smart. People who ride CTA every day. People who not only understand what problems riders encounter, but also the difficulties of running transit, which are no doubt legion."
Anon 742:
I think it would be an enormous waste of time and resources to actually have meetings composed of the people you mention. There already are many ways in which riders can make comments about the CTA that will get through to the people in charge. They can use the contact form on the CTA's website, make a comment at a board meeting, post in this blog, post on another blog, write a letter to the editor in a newspaper, or numerous other things. There is nothing significant that would be accomplished by having meetings composed of regular riders in which everybody will likely say the same things that we have seen here or are e-mailed to the CTA. They will most likely be a mix of commen sense suggestions, questions that can be answered easilly, or complaints that often would be based on ignorance (such as those we have seen here about "duplicative" transit service when all the bus and train routes in question are very crowded). The CTA board and management's time is much better spent with people who have expertise in certain relevent areas, which look to be the case with most of the CAB members. And Anon 734 may not call them citizans, but they are. They may be elites, to a certain extent, but they are still citizans. And the diverse backgrounds of all the members likely helps remedy some of the problems in perspective that result from being an elite.
>They may be elites, to a certain extent, but they are still citizans.
The problem isn't whether they're "citizens". It's that they're not customers.
And again, I think the commenter, like Ms. Brown, is underestimating riders.
Yes, there are riders who are knuckleheads who couldn't understand the difficulties, as I mentioned in my post, of running a transit system.
But there are thousands of riders who could, yet could still give the perspective of riders.
Instead, we're stuck with elites who aren't any smarter than us, aren't any more likely to understand the challenges of transit systems.
They just happen to be politically connected.
I don't dislike George Van Dusen. I just don't think a daily driver has much hope of really understanding what the transit system needs to do.
I don't think Mr. Catlin is a corrupt scumbag. No doubt he's a nice, intelligent guy.
But he someone who doesn't use the transit system regularly has no business being on the "citizens advisory board."
Someone who writes, as you do, that "There is nothing significant that would be accomplished by having meetings composed of regular riders" can't be a regular rider.
Those of us who are regular riders, dissed by people like anon 11:39 and Ms. Brown, recognize how important it would be to have a citizens advisory board that was constantly bringing the CTA back to the experience of transit riders.
The insight of people who are too big and too important to ride transit into what the experience of regular riders MUST be like is not the same.
Again, I don't know how ANYONE - Carole or the poster at 11:39 - can't understand that. You'd have to be a lunatic to think the CTA doesn't need a board of thoughtful, intelligent riders, who understand what can't be changed, but at the same time understant what can be changed, and hold CTA accountable for those things.
It's silly to think that a bunch of nice, well-meaning professionals who want to "serve" CTA's customers could ever take the place of such a group.
Carole, I'd argue with anon 12:34, that you're better than that. Smarter than that. At some level, you know that you need to empower your riders. You're sick of the dictates of the political structure.
I'm urging you to build a citizen input mechanism that can help make sure this system works.
"Someone who writes, as you do, that "There is nothing significant that would be accomplished by having meetings composed of regular riders" can't be a regular rider."
Nope. You guessed wrong. I am a regular rider who uses the system more than a dozen times a week.
I'm sort of confused about two assumptions that you have made. First, why have you jumped to the conclusion that most of these CAB members are not regular riders? According to Carole's post, four of them are leaders of think tanks. By and large, think tanks are located in downtown Chicago rather than the suburbs (because of their proximity to government offices). And we all know that the overwhelming majority of people who work downtown take public transportation. You mention that one of them runs a venture capital firm. This also is likely to be located downtown. Carole specifically mentions that another member (Sain) lives in an area served by the CTA. That certainly suggests he uses it. The mayor of Skokie probably doesn't use the CTA to get to work but if he lives in Skokie the chances are good that he rides it quite a bit when he is going into the city. So the evidence seems pretty clear to me that the overwhelming majority of these people are regular riders. I'd be curious how you came to the conclusion that they are not.
I'm also confused as to why you seem to think that only regular riders have an interest in how the CTA is run. The CTA affects the economy of the entire region and its policy has numerous implications on population and development patterns that last well into the future. So I don't have a problem if there are a few people on the CAB that don't ride the CTA very much. That doesn't mean they are not affected by it.
Stop whining. I'm learning nothing from this.
This blog is an excellent idea. How many politicians or public officials have something like this. Please don't ruin it by being just so boring and petty.
Carole -
Thank you for highlighting this information. The meeting sounds interesting. I've seen notices of these meetings on the CTA's website for several years, but never really paid attention to them. I'm curious to see what they discuss.
Last summer Ron Huberman told media that scheduled exempt salary increases would be deferred due to doomsday budget issues. Now that funding has been secured when will retroactive pay checks be issued to CTA workers?
A common joke among CTA offices is to talk about how their pay increased but their take home paycheck decreased due to new additonal deductions for 3% pension and 3% health care trust fund. That seems like a poor motivation tool?
According to a recent CTA retiree CTA should not be taking out deductions for Health Care Trust because Senate bill 656 set a timetable that does not allow CTA to fund trust before benchmarks. Will this issue be adjudicated by a class action lawsuit? Personally I don't mind since it would benefit me in long run to have a well funded pension/health insurance plan.
Carole -
Do you approve of the financial shenanigans that essentially gave all the new hires (less than one year), many of whom are making $100,000 to $142,000, a 6 percent pay increase?
Carole-
It is wrong to dismiss as "personal attacks" substantive criticisms of your posts. Sure, the first comment could have asserted that "the post contains a lie" rather than saying "Carole is lying" but the meaning is the same.
Your post squarely set forth the proposition that the Citizens Advisory Board is populated by some wonderful "citizen-customers." The first comment asserted, in essence, that these folks are not the everyman and everywoman that this suggests but are, in fact, politically connected elites and that it's wrong of you to knowingly represent them as something else.
Now, this may not be the most tactful comment ever, but it certainly is a substantive one. And it is a virtue in an open society for people to call out government officials who they believe they are not representing things forthrightly. If government officials think the criticism is unwarranted, the solution is more debate, not censorship.
Accordingly, your response, addressing the substance of the comment, was the right kind of response. Deleting the post would not have been. A blog isn't likely to be a particularly interesting medium if the only comments that are permitted are those that don't disagree too pointedly with what the host is saying.
Anon 200:
I would suggest you review the definitions of "citizan" and "customer":
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Citizen
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/customer
Nowhere in the defintitions does it suggest that those who may be more influential or politically connected do not qualify. Being a citizan has nothing to do with whether they are an "everyman or everywoman" (whatever that means). Everybody who lives in the U.S., except for people such as resident aliens or those on tourist visas, is a citizan. Class and status have nothing to do with citizanship. You should have learned that in civics class. And class and status certainly does not have anything to do with whether someone is a customer or not. I have never heard anything so absurd as a suggestion that "elites" cannot be customers of something. So you are incorrect to say that Carole was incorrect to use the term "citizan-customers".
Carole,
In light of this discussion, has the CTA ever considered a team of 8-10 RESIDENTS of the actual CTA service area that are regular riders on the system (at least 6 rides a week)? Even something like an informal meeting/discussion once every couple months with you and Ron to go over the true rider experience from all corners of the city. Talk about issues, what is working, what is not. I think you could gain incredible insight doing something like this. It seems like the few comments you hear from riders at board meetings may not provide enough long-term insight that a panel of riders over many months or years could provide.
Also, Ron mentioned some months ago he wanted to start a CTA "secret shopper" program. Is this still going to happen? And how would one apply to be considered to be an official secret shopper? Thanks.
>Carole,
>In light of this discussion, has
>the CTA ever considered a team of
>8-10 RESIDENTS of the actual CTA
>service area that are regular
>riders on the system (at least 6
>rides a week)?
As someone who piled on up top, I just want to highlight this post as a better, more positive way of making the point I was making.
Anon 236:
Your comment is sort of a red herring. The point of the 200am post, which was not subtle, was that the initial comment in this thread was a substantive one and not simply an empty 'personal attack.'
Your comment, on the other hand, addresses a different question, namely whether the first comment was correct or not.
"Substantive," of course, does not mean "positive" or "correct." The online dictionary you mention can probably supply a reliable definition.
Per today's Chicago Tribune "The Chicago Transit Authority is being forced to cut $200 million from its already underfunded budget for new trains and buses, rail station improvements and other key projects because state leaders have failed to come up with a new capital-improvement program, officials said Wednesday."
I wonder if Daley still thinks he is getting the Olympics?
Let's see
-> savvy transit advocates, who both use transit regularly
-> South Suburbs
-> North Suburbs
-> West Suburbs
-> Business leaders
-> A senior citizen
-> And an architect who specializes in making our buildings and cities accessible for people with disabilities. Who happens to work in downtown Chicago and take both transit and paratransit.
C'mon folks. If you want to have the same input as these members do, come to one of their meetings and speak up, or show up at a CTA board meeting or hearing to testify. Or post a comment on this blog.
Anyone else know of a government entity in the state with as many opportunities to have input?
Anyone care to post minutes of what was discussed. That would be a good way to help people judge whether it's a useful committee.
In my opinion, a board of "customer-citizens" board would be concerned about many of the things that come up as topics here and at the other independent transit forums on-line.
- waits for buses and bunching
- progress on fixing slow zones
Suburbanites might well be pressing for information on fare integration, since many of their constituents would only interact with CTA at the end of a Metra or PACE ride.
Did any of these important topics come up? What was learned?
As the celebrated and widely quoted Bus Tracker Troll, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention it. I know it's not the key priority of every CTA patron, but it's a project that would help a fair number of "citizen-customers" and it's one whose implementation has been delayed a couple times. Surely one of these excellent citizen-customers asked for a more detailed progress report. What answer did they get?
Do tell -- what was the outcome of the meeting of these "citizen-customers"? There must be many interesting things to tell the rest of us customers who also happen to be citizens.
Just looked at part of the Huberman presentation from the other day:
http://www.transitchicago.com/news/motion/board/20080304cityclubRH.pdf
WARNING - THAT'S A 50 MEG FILE. Not 50K. 50M!
First, I give a lot of credit that you guys made this presentation, because the first step in solving problems is finding them, admitting them, figuring out how bad they are.
Second, I have noticed that bus bunching on routes I use has gotten better.
Third, god can it be bad. Huberman's presentation includes a chart (p. 13) of the westbound Chicago Ave. buses on August 1st. At Chicago and Pulaski, if you arrived at 5:31, just as the three bunched buses pulled away, you'd have waited till 6:15 -- 45 minutes later -- when 5 buses would have pulled up!!!
WOW!!
One of the neat things about the chart is that if you look at it and really take in what it's telling you, you can see the ridiculousness of holding buses at the front end of the route to make a neat 10-minute interval after the previous bus. You see that it wouldn't do anything, because the graph makes obvious that the problem is the big gap in front of the late bus, not the little gap between it and the one following it.
Seriously, though it's truly geeky stuff, that's great stuff Carole. I think the agency is getting a handle on things.
Yeh they got rid of some bunch crunching by eliminating buses I take in the morning. Where are the southbound #145 or #146 buses? When you have three #135 buses go by, you have to wonder what happened to a #145 or a #146. Its not fair!!!
I have also noticed a general lack of 145/146 buses in the AM. Where are they? Surely they aren't there as the schedule would indicate.
Regarding the gum on the buses and the trains, maybe you should put some undercover cops on the buses and trains and have them ticket or even arrest people who are leaving gum, eating and tossing their food garbage on the floor etc etc. If people see on the 10 PM news or in the newspapers that people are getting fined or arrested on the CTA for breaking the rules, they will start respecting the rules.
Hey Carole, the bus bunching in the AM on the 147 is getting ridiculous; this morning at Thorndale at 7:15 there were FOUR (yes 4) 147's in a row and needless to say they were all nearly empty after the first one. One of them was 7576 if that helps at all.
Anon 7:54; they started enforcing laws in NYC and it made a tremendous difference on the buses and trains, it can't hurt but to try here....
I worked 25 years for a major urban transit agency. First, I am very impressed that Carole is willing to run this blog and bear the heat that blogs invariably generate. Second, I am very impressed by the calibre of individuals that are willing to serve on an advisory board.
I do think there is also value in getting input from your core customer base and there are techniques for doing so. Hopefully, that is also being done.
Carole,
I know there's construction happening at the Howard station, but has it now moved into a phase where it is causing train delays, or are the increased delays of southbound red line trains caused by something else? It's been happening much more frequently then ever, especially in the last 30 days or so. Just this morning at around 7:10 there was another delay. Will this be rectified soon?
I do want to commend the MUCH improved announcements regarding these delays. Every time an express train is run there is an announcement, which _helps_ softens the blow.
Thanks.
Hey Carole,
I noticed something interesting about CTA's recent press release about the new express fare card machines.
With a "5.00" minimum credit charge on these machines, does CTA realize that they'll be violating the merchant agreement of all major card issuers (MASTERCARD/VISA etc) which explicitly ban any such "minimums" or "surcharges" on credit transactions?
I love the idea of paying for rides by credit/debt at the machine- im glad to see this happening.
I "love" the idea of subsidizing people like Chris who want CTA to pay a per transaction fee to the credit card company every time he makes a $3.00 purchase on his fare card by credit.
That's right. When you and I make a purchase with $3 cash, CTA gets the cash, minus a cost to process which is very minimal, 2 cents or so, less than 1% of cash receipts. When Chris makes a $20 purchase with credit, CTA gets $20, minus a percentage fee (probably about 1.4% - so $0.28) and minus a transaction fee (probably about $0.20) - they lose about $0.50 on the transaction. Already, it's a problem.
But when Chris makes a $3 purchase, CTA gets $3 minus the percentage fee (so 4-5 cents) but also minus the per-transaction fee. So CTA loses $0.25 on his $3 purchase, or roughly 8% of it's intake.
I "love" Chris's idea so much that it's one reason I never had much sympathy for the idea of accepting credit cards in this way in the first place.
I'd suggest CTA get around this problem, if it is a problem, by deciding that there are certain "products" it will take credit for, and making $10 and $20 passes those products. That's completely legitimate, at least in my merchant service agreement (I own a small business.)
If that doesn't fit the merchant service arrangement, another way to accomplish the same end would be to outsource the credit operation to a vendor. The vendor could be sold certain types of passes (like the $10 and $20 passes I mentioned above.) And then since they could only sell the passes that they had, that would be all that would be available from the credit machine.
And I'd suggest Chris, if he has any self-respect, get a loan from his mother so that he can afford to put $20 on his credit card all at once.
The real scam in all this is that the legislature banned passing along a discount to cash purchasers. It used to be that most gas stations offered a discount for paying in cash, but the credit card companies made some substantial political donations and "convinced" the legislature to ban that practice. Now, anyone using cash, or using credit in responsible ways, is subsidizing the Chrises of the world.
"does CTA realize that they'll be violating the merchant agreement of all major card issuers (MASTERCARD/VISA etc) which explicitly ban any such "minimums" or "surcharges" on credit transactions?"
Where have you heard about this? I know of around a dozen merchants in Chicago that have a minimum amount for credit card puchases and charge a surcharge if you use it below that minimum.
"I "love" Chris's idea so much that it's one reason I never had much sympathy for the idea of accepting credit cards in this way in the first place."
I think the overwhelming majority of businesses accept credit cards (and don't have a minimum) because they realize that the fees that come with them are hugely outweiged by the increased business. It is 2008. Many people only carry a minumum amount of cash and expect to be able to make transaction with the technology that is available and utilized by around 95% of storefronts. I think that the businesses that still don't accept credit cards (I don't care how small they are) are being increadibly short-sighted and are forgoing a lot of money that they thing they are saving. And your suggestion that those who use credit cards for small puchases are somehow being irresponsible is absurd. If the retailers did not make money off of these purchases (which many people wouldn't have made otherwise) then they wouldn't allow them or would have a surcharge. Right now, only a few (probably shortsighted) independant businesses do that.
Anon 4:18 -
Those merchants are in violation of merchant policies for Visa and Mastercard (see links and excerpts bellow). You should report them to the company that issued your card (Capital One, Citi, etc...).
In defense of CTA, they could argue that they simply don't sell transit cards valued less than $5 at the machines. However, also requiring a minimum on reloads could be considered a violation.
Visa: http://tinyurl.com/37zpfz
"Visa merchants are not permitted to establish minimum transaction amounts, even on sale items. They also are not permitted to charge you a fee when you want to use your Visa card."
MasterCard: http://tinyurl.com/332gr4
"Merchants must follow certain acceptance rules in order to be granted the privilege of accepting MasterCard cards. One of these rules specifically prohibits the practice of surcharging, that is, charging a customer a fee for using a MasterCard card over and above the sale amount ... Another MasterCard acceptance rule prohibits merchants that accept MasterCard cards from establishing any minimum amount below which the merchant won't accept payment via MasterCard card."
You know what, anon? I don't appreciate your attacks at me. I'm sure Carole doesn't appreciate it either.
Be a pal and sign in. Your anon bullying is shameful.
"sympathy for the idea of accepting credit cards in this way in the first place."
Your view on credit acceptance is ridiculous. Your profit margins are that razor thin? Sounds like you're already driving your business into the ground. Don't blame Daley and Stroger when you go belly up.
Yeah. Anon 328 is probably that guy who owns that awful overpriced fast food place on the east side of Broadway, around a block north of Diversey. The last time I was there (which is the last time I am going to be there), he acted completely annoyed that I was paying with a credit card despite the fact that his prices are around $2 higher than just about every comparable place. He probably has profit margins of around 70% and he actually says "you don't have cash?" because of a 2 or 3% tranaction fee. People like him and anon 328 (if they are not the same person, I really would not be surprised if they are) have no idea how to attract customers.
Hey Ron Huberman, you use to be a cop so if you saw someone tossing their gum, eating peanuts and dropping the shells on the floor, eating seeds and spitting the shells on the floor or eating fast food and leaving the garbage behind on the train or the bus, what would you do? Fine them? Arrest them? Enforcing the rules with fines and arrests is the only way you are going to get a buzz for people to stop breaking the rules so the CTA is cleaner. Maybe you should go undercover with some cops when you ride the CTA - wear a hat, dark sunglasses and don't wear a suit, it gives you away.
>You know what, anon? I don't appreciate your attacks at me. Be a pal and sign in.
Welcome to the World Wide Web, Chris. It's been coming together for a couple decades now, and we're delighted to have you join us.
Like the early newspapers of the republic, the web avoids the downfall of modern news -- the named source. People who have something to lose by expressing the truth in their own name can speak anonymously here.
As a result, truth gets told. If you're afraid of truth, you may want to avoid this wonderful thing, the World Wide Web.
And by the way, feel free to remove your name and begin posting anonymously. People will judge the value of what you have to say by how it matches with life, regardless of your name, so it doesn't add a whole lot. Or, you could post with a pseudonym. That makes give and take easier, but doesn't actually compromise your anonymity.
Enjoy surfing in this brave new world.
Right, guys. Small businesses are evil for not hewing to the line of the all-powerful but wise and well-meaning credit card companies.
Have fun when your digging yourself out of that new crime "identity theft."
Which is really that old-fashioned crime "credit card fraud." Except that by calling it identity theft, they make you responsible for their failed security measures.
What a bunch of pawns you people are.
No wonder Carole doesn't post any responses. Nobody posts anything about transit on this site!
Carole and Ron-can you post No smoking signs at the bus shelters? I am tired of waiting for the bus standing next to smokers inside the bus shelter.
First: On the no smoking sign in the bus shelter suggestion, amen! It's 2008, people need to take that stuff somewhere else already.
Second: On the credit card issue, generally the reason transit agencies have tried to move away from cash operations is that the cost of maintaining cash receptacles and sending people around to collect cash from time to time is more expensive than credit card fees, on the whole. Hard to see why that wouldn't be true of the CTA, as well. Even if this doesn't entirely compensate for the cost of the credit card fees, there's also some value to making life convenient for your passengers; I'm sure the CTA could save money by not heating or air conditioning its trains, but that doesn't make it a good idea!
If the CTA wanted to keep a higher fraction of the money people pay for farecards, actually selling all their fare media at stations (rather than principally at CVS and Jewel, who presumably take a cut) would probably be something to consider. The CTA doesn't sell its own unlimited passes except at airports and online -- what a cockamamie business plan!
Anon 320:
It is not a cockomanie business plan at all. The reason why they don't sell the unlimited passes at the rail stations is because, for the people who would be interested in buying them, they cost less than the regular fares. It is not in the CTA's(nor the rest of the riders) interest to make discounted fare media as easy to get as the normal transit passes. It is the same reason that Jewel and Dominick's do not just hand their discount cards to everyone that enters the store. If people are interested enough in the money saved by using the passes they will take the three minutes or so to get them (same with Jewel's preffered card and everything like that). But there are many riders for whom the money saved means virtually nothing and are not likely to take time out of their busy lives (even just a few minutes)to buy these cards. And that means that more revenue is generated and therefore everybody's fare ends up being lower. So it is nothing you should be complaining about.
Hi Carole, Bus #5818 needs to be taken out of service; diesel exhaust fumes seep out of the engine compartment at higher speeds.
Thank you for allowing this communication
The bus tracker roll-out looks interesting (13 routes on April 7th). Looking forward to trying it.
Hi Carole,
I'd like to let you know about a situation I ran into last weekend. I was riding the 36 Broadway bus from approximately Irving Park to North Ave. The bus driver ran the entire route at around 5-10mph, regardless of whether there were any cars in front of him, or pedestrians, or riders waiting to get on/off. This continued the entire ride until we got to Fullerton, where he finally sped up. By the time we got to North Ave., the driver was blowing through red lights because "I needed that light" because he was clearly way behind schedule since he dogged it the whole route.
Josh - your comment doesn't help unless you provide the badge number of the driver, the bus number, the bus run number and what day and time.
Does anyone know if the slow zone, Sheridan to Wilson (NB), is being worked on or will be worked on?
It's definitely much better than it used to be, but not nearly as fast as the SB side.
Anon 7:52, yeah I know. My goal isn't to get the driver punished (although he should be), but rather to make it known that this is happening. And from what I hear, it actually happens quite frequently (drivers taking their route extra slow...to avoid another run at the end of their shift perhaps?).
JT:
The CTA Track Dept. is working on a slow zone on the Red Line north of Sheridan. The work should be completed at the end of March. If you use the train during peak hours you may not see track crews as they cannot work during the morning and afternoon peak travel times due to the frequency of trains in the area.
Carole, thanks for the response re. the NB Sheridan to Wilson slow zone ... but do you have any more detail than this? I've noticed that it is being worked on, but it is still there and has been there so long it's notorious. Another benefit of these slow zones being fixed is that people who ride at off-peak times will benefit too. I went into work at 10:00 last week and it took ages to get downtown due to all of the track work that goes on when rush hour ends. There was a lot of activity at the Sheridan-to-Wilson area. Thanks.
Well, anon 542, the slow zone is gone now. At least it seemed to be when I took the train today. As is, apparently, all the slow zones northbound from Clark/Division to the end of the subway. So between that and the switch of the three tracking on the north side to the southbound tracks, the northbound red line trips are now probably almost ten minutes shorter than just last week.
10 minutes shorter than last week? Possibly.
30 minutes faster than when someone else was managing the CTA?
Most definitely
;)
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