by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
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The CTA has introduced new three and five day unlimited ride visitor passes. The five day pass is $18. For those who do a regular five day commute with transfers both ways, the new pass is equal to your weekly commuting expenditures. Assuming there are no scam protection features in the five day pass, you could buy it and be guaranteed to be no worse off than your regular full fare and if you ride any time other than commuting, it's free. Best of all, this still adds up to less than the cost of a monthly pass. You'll have to run the numbers to see if you can get any benefit out of this.
The CTA has a new transit map out. I presume it reflects some of the cutbacks the occured in April plus other changes.
New York City just introduced a 30 day unlimited ride pass that only costs $63 per month. Contrast this with Chicago's $88 monthly pass and see how outrageous the CTA's fare policies are with regards to passes. (I'm not necessarily a big fan of passes, but if you are going to offer them, you should price them to make it attractive to people who are willing to pre-pay their fares).
The CTA just approved $38 million to purchase the first 150 of the proposed 470 new air conditioned low floor busses. Assuming funding comes through for the remaineder of the upgrade, the bus fleet will be 95% handicapped accessible and 70% air conditioned. [ Source: Chicago Tribune 7/9/98 ]
7/6/98, 7:15am. A southbound Evanston Express stands at South Bvld for two minutes (per the motorman's announcement) because the train is ahead of schedule. It's too bad they can't perform similar magic when the train is behind schedule, which is the more frequent occurrence. While I hate standing, this was probably for the best. Getting ahead of the schedule just screws up Clark Jct and the Loop interlockings and this delay also allowed incoming Skokie Swift passengers to make their connection.
I just had my first bus experience in Indianapolis. I was there over the weekend and decided to take a bus from downtown to Broad Ripple. The #17-College is one of only two busses with headways that make it possible to just show up at the stop and wait. That's just what I did and 15 minutes later had a bus going north. The initial wait was my only bad thing to say about the experience. The fare was only $0.75. The bus made good time despite frequent stops (about 75% of the seats were taken at 1:30 pm - not bad). I was the only white rider, but did not feel out of place. Contrary to my expectations, the bus seemed populated with mostly middle class folks instead of the transit dependent poor I had expected. Most bus lines run once an hour or less in Indy, making the car the preferred mode of travel for those who could afford one - or so I thought. Maybe the fact that the College Ave. bus has decent service makes a difference. I picked up a schedule on the trip up and used it to time my arrival at the bus stop for the trip back. The bus showed up right on time and it took me back quickly to where I had left my (rental) car. This time the bus had only about ten or so passengers, including several white teens who used it to save the six to twelve block walk to SoBro. I was pleasantly surpised with the promptness of the busses and the very courteous bus drivers. I also was surprised at the passenger base which, based on my admittedly very limited one trip experience, is far more pleasant to be around than Chicago's bus denizens. I didn't see a single freak or vagrant. Nevertheless, when the bus line with the best service only runs once every twenty minutes (fifteen minutes during the peak period), you realize just how good it is to live in a place that allows you to get around with relative ease while not owning a car.
The Weekly Breakdown is a small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. I would be happy to hear about and include your experiences. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com.
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