Another voice for capital investment in transit
Illinois PIRG released its report, A Better Way to Go: Meeting America’s 21 st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit, on some of the challenges facing our transportation infrastructure and articulating the clear benefits of a healthy public transit system can have on our quality of life--reduced auto emissions, improved air quality, better land use patterns, etc. I'm happy that Illinois PIRG offered their voice to the large but still growing chorus that Springfield must step forward with a state capital program to invest in transit infrastructure so CTA and others can address these challenges now.
I encourage you to pay close attention to this capital issue---it's CTA's next big funding challenge.
I encourage you to pay close attention to this capital issue---it's CTA's next big funding challenge.
posted by Carole Brown | 3/26/2008 01:00:00 PM
15 Comments:
That doesn't mean anything. Do you actually think that Springfield pays attention to studies? I've never seen any evidence that policy benefits have ever remotely been one of the factors that they even consider when deciding on legislation.
to annyomous 2:21 PM, thanks for being so POSITIVE!
Julie Hamos led the charge for CTA funding, and has also pushed CTA reform, and in my experience, she is very attuned to policy considerations and research.
But the MPC link isn't quite the blank check implied in Carole's post. They said nothing in particular about capital funding for CTA. They give a lot of emphasis to the idea of developing better criteria for assessing transportation projects. It'd be more interesting to hear about the CTA's efforts to show its capital projects would be more beneficial than others.
That's tricky, of course, because what if the environmental, traffic mitigtion and energy reduction benchmarks don't point to the Mayor's favorite ideas, like the Block 37 project and the O'Hare express service, or the Circle Line?
I'm not criticizing Carole. I'm just pointing to the dilemma of any well-meaning administrator, caught between better policies and the capricious ideas and unstated motives of people with political power.
And for all I know, the Circle Line and the O'Hare express could be great uses of capital dollars. I'm just saying I'd rather see the benchmarks than hear how everyone supports a state capital funding bill because it's just so wunnerful.
That kind of thinking leads to bridges to nowhere and other such projects driven more by the needs of McHugh Construction and the Building Trades Unions and other major campaign donors than by actual public needs.
Crazy thought, but couldn't the needs of contractors and commuters be made the same? Obviously the easier the project the higher the profit for the contractor, while sometimes the more complicated and expensive (and hence less profitable) projects are the best for commuters. It'd be nice to be able to mesh them so patronage worked for everybody and the greater common good (such as increased transit ridership and less driving - for both health and carbon emissions). Like in the good old days of the Renaissance...
PS Carole, the CTA should really use the carbon footprint reduction in PR materials more, especially for the el.
anon 9:39am makes a good point - CTA's priorities (ie Daley's priorities) seem to be the Circle Line and airport express, and it's questionable that these are the best uses of capital funds. Projects that would expand the system far more at lower cost include the Red, Orange, and Yellow Line extensions and the Mid-City Transitway (MCT - a route between O'Hare, Midway, and the Dan Ryan Red Line). In addition, the Red Line extension and the MCT would bring El service to a number of underserved low income communities - contrast that with the Circle Line and airport express, which would expand service to already well-served neighborhoods and well-off people.
Now we learn that the MCT, already shoved to the back of the bus, is being proposed as a bus rapid transit line rather than a new El line (see the Cook Dupage corridor transit proposal). In the same proposal another O'Hare-Midway connection - this one thru the suburbs - is proposed as a rail line. It's hard to shake the feeling here that rich people are being given speed and comfort while poor people are given a bus twenty years down the road.
The CTA has done a poor job explaining its priorities and welcoming public participation in the formulation of capital expansion plans. Carole, I hope you will address these concerns at some point.
I saw something last night on the Red line that convinces me CTA needs to put cameras on right away -- or get security to walk the train.
A blk guy came in high and glassy eyed. He saw a white woman sitting by herself on a seat and went over and started to crawl over her. She let out a scream, that's when I got up -- and I'm a woman -- and told the guy, brother did you have a little bit too much tonight? He then backed off and stood in the aisle crazy looking. i went to tell the conductor who went with me back to the car. He said -- and it's true -- she should say something. In fact, I was surprised that MEN on the train didn't say anything. I think we're just so afraid of these young black guys that they will be carrying a gun...that people have become silent standbyers....we don't say nothing we don't get involved.
The woman's life wasn't in danger, but suppose he started fondling her and trying to kiss her?
CTA please find someplace in your budget for nighttime security.
Typical Edgewater, problem with black folk.
anonymous @ 8:07 -- WHAT? What does that mean? The discussion is about security, doesn't matter if he was black or white. He was obscene and threatening. Now, the young lady if she was in her right mind should have pushed the man off her or screamed louder as to cause a commotion. But I think people are so "gun" aware these days that they are scared to intervene or speak up.
I guess the thing is that most of us aren't any more afraid that "these young black guys" will be carrying guns than that somebody else would. You did kind of harp on that fact.
Most young black guys, it would never occur to me that they'd be carrying guns.
On the other hand, what you've described seems to be either a minor felony or at least a pretty serious misdemeanor (if he really "crawled over her", meaning he was somehow groping her or pressing his body down on her), yet the outcome sounds like almost nothing ("he stood in the aisle"), making me wonder whether something has been exaggerated in the telling. Did the conductor call the police and have him arrested? Or was this really just some drunk who clumsily tried to take a seat? Gross, icky, but not quite as threatening as it sounded in the telling. What, after all, would a security guard do? Tell him to be more careful when he sits down?
But you did a great thing to help out. Obviously, whatever he did was gross and made her uncomfortable, and you came to her assistance. More people should do that, I agree.
Carole, great job on the Southport renovation. Very happy to have my stop back. One question - media reports right after the opening stated that middle cars were full, and end cars were empty.
Have you noticed that the new staircase to the platform leaves people near the front of the train, and you need to walk about a city block to get near the end cars? I think this was a major design oversight, and would like you to comment on who's responsible for workflow design?
Stan,
My sense is that they intentionally have some stations where the flow leads you to the front of the train and some where it leads you to the middle or back. People naturally walk up the stairs, and then don't go far. Having different station designs balances against that impulse and leads to evenly loaded cars.
Before I'd complain about the design of a particular station, I'd want to know how it fit with the other stations on the line.
Most important, the media reports about cars at both ends with lots of space were from the first day of 8-car trains. People weren't used to spreading out any further in their station, and stood where they always did.
If there are still problems in a month, then CTA may want to think about how some passive station design could lead customers to different areas of the platform.
I had a good experience with the bus tracker on Western Avenue today. Thanks, Carole and CTA.
The speakers on the new Belmont platform are not working.
I was standing at Belmont Saturday night, waiting for a North bound Red line. North and South bound were running on tracks 3&4; the older platform was closed.
There was some message that the red line was delayed, but since the announcement was only on the old platform I had no idea what was said.
You know, when the CTA screams for money again and again and makes only trivial efforts to show it actually cares about service quality, it's hard to be sympathetic - and I *like* public transit.
I have a new stop, the Montrose stop on the brown line. Nice looking station. but every time it rains or snows, there are big, ugly plastic signs warning people about how slippery the floors in the station are - and they aren't kidding. A half *billion* dollar renovation project didn't include anything to keep slick concrete floors from being as treacherous as they are when they get wet? I've already seen a half dozen people slip on those floors. What is CTA waiting for before they do something? Repeated head trauma?
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