CTA Tattler

Kruesi said he was surprised that test train surveys found more positive than negative reaction to the seating change.

Kruesi ought to be surprised he still has a job, considering how poorly he does it. I hope he and Carole Brown get a real earful next week at the Brown Line meeting. Perhaps this time they can refrain from whispering and joking with each other while audience members speak (anyone else remember that Reader article from a few months back?), though somehow I doubt it.

I HATE those new L cars. I can't believe these surveys. There's either a lot of fake numbers in there or then again people are real idiots these days. It flows from our representative top idiot in Washington all the way down the line.

If seated people lean out into the aisles, they're in the way of standing passengers. Way too many guys make a habit of sitting this way, no matter the size of the person sitting next to them.

i guess they're not concerned with having more people stand rather than sit. i'm a big fan of sitting!

Amazing how the CTA has no money and wants to cut back services, yet they can go out and buy 700 new cars! The new layout is going to be terrible. At least now there's only one body pressed up against you. Plus, this will let the chubbo's sprawl over 3 seats instead of 2.

dave, i don't disagree with you ONE bit. but, i guess i'm just ruminating here: how come we in america can't ever do the race thing, we are now getting to a point where we can't do the women thing (note: i'm happy about all these things), but somehow, we can still rip the shit out of the fat people??

i don't know. just thinking on a monday.

**full disclosure. i'd love to lose 20 pounds. i'm not obese, but i'd like to lose a couple of rolls.

I agree with Jocelyn. Why is it still okay to rip on the "chubbo's"? I recently lost 180 lbs so I was definately a chubbo and did everything I could to not have to sit next to anyone. I would purposely go out of my way to get on the train at the end of the line so I could get a single seat by myself and not bother anyone with my extra girth. Even though I am normal (sizewise) now, I still go out of my way to not inconvenience the skinny people.

The new seating shouldn't be the gross, felt-fabric, pee-collecting sculpted seats that all the CTA trains have now. What a bad idea. The people in charge must never ride the Red Line, which is a rolling lavatory. The seating SHOULD face the aisle, but should be in the form of one long slightly contoured bench, like the NEWER subway seating in New York (not the orange F/Q/etc. train seats). It just makes more sense ... fat, skinny, large, small: people can slide over and aren't forced to cram into a set, concaved area. Jamie, I am six feet tall and weigh about 180 and I often have to hang a third or halfway off the seat because of my shoulders and because of the length of my arms, not because of my weight or size of my posterior. The new concave-seating scheme will make the whole car like the priority seats: very tight and uncomfortable unless you are a small person. I'd rather stand, which will also be much easier to do with aisle-facing seats.

Re the "chubbo's", the intention wasn't to rip on them, just stating a fact. There's one I see almost every morning, taking up 2 seats, and always has the Burger King or Dunkin' Donuts bag with her. And if the seats are sculpted like they are now (good idea in Mike's post), she will take up seats on both sides of her. My experience is to have large people just sit down and crowd right up to me, and I don't like it. Sorry, that's the way it is.

I can understand where Sara and Jocelyn are coming from, in wanting to know why folks here are "ripping" on the weight-challenged. But I think it's more in frustration over not being able to sit down next to them.

That's why Mike's idea to do away with the sculpted seating and go for benches is a good one. I just hope there's a little bit of padding on the benches.