Ups and downs at the CTA
The CTA reported good news yesterday about expanding ways to add value to Chicago Cards, but then got some bad news from Da Mayor on raising paratransit fares.
On the paratransit fares, the Trib reports: "Mayor Richard Daley has ordered the Chicago Transit Authority to scrap a plan to increase fares for disabled riders next year and said Thursday the system for handicapped customers should be overhauled to reduce costs."
On the Chicago Cards, you will soon be able to add value at currency exchanges, says the Trib.
I do sympathize to a degree with the CTA on how much they spend to provide the paratransit rides. So they deserve to get more than $1.75 for it. But the very poor certainly will be hurt by the big fare hike. Let's hope they work it out without going into deficit spending.
And I do applaud the expansion of places to add value to smart cards, but couldn't they put the machines in supermarkets too?
I do agree that putting the machines in supermarkets would be a good idea, but didn't they just do a study and find that some of the poorer areas of the city are lacking in supermarkets? Currency exchanges seem to be spread more evenly around the city as a whole.
Posted by: matt | December 03, 2005 at 11:19 AM
Unlike so many others, I find nothing wrong with charging additional fees to the handicapped. I'm sorry, but the CTA is a MASS TRANSIT operation, not a social service agency. The cost of paratransit and adding lifts to buses and elevators to subway stations is staggering, not to mention the added operating costs. On top of that, loarding and unloading a wheelchair onto a bus makes the bus fall even further behind schedule. One person in a wheelchair causes 50 or more people on a bus to be late.
No, it's not fair that you're in a wheelchair, but making the bus late isn't fair for me, so that I miss a connecting bus ot train, plus the added cost of carrying you around. There should be a dedicated system for wheelchairs, paid out of a sicial service budget, NOT A MASS TRANSIT budget!
Mainstreaming is a failure, plus a budget buster!
Posted by: jeff | December 03, 2005 at 03:55 PM
dear god, jeff. why don't you start a euthanasia program or something?
god forbid you ever take a step back from your self-centered view and try and think what life would be like for someone in that situation. compassion. look it up.
sheesh.
Posted by: matt | December 04, 2005 at 01:09 AM
Who else do you want thrown off the bus, Jeff? The overweight come to mind, because they take up more space than skinny people. How about children? The ones that can walk take up less space, but they wiggle about and make noise.
Posted by: Cheryl | December 04, 2005 at 02:27 PM
No offense to the previous two posters but practice what you preach. Your retaliatory attitudes show the same lack of care and respect you accuse Jeff of having. Rather than suggesting he start a euthanasia program or throw overweight people off the bus, why don't you try answering his question and have a conversation about the cost, benefits, and possible drawbacks of paratransit? now that would be some compassion.
Posted by: bobo | December 04, 2005 at 09:06 PM
I looked over the list of "recharge outlets," and they didn't seem well distributed throughout the city. For instance, there didn't appear to be any in the Hyde Park/Kenwood area (and neighboring areas down to South Shore) even though they do have CTA bus service, but are nowhere close to an L station with a card vending machine.
Posted by: jackonthebus | December 04, 2005 at 11:22 PM
It's painfully obvious that the people who hated my comment didn't really read it.
I said that the CTA is a MASS TRANSIT operation and not a SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY!
Helping the handicapped is social service and that's the budget that this should come out of. I never said not to help them, just don't penalize the rest of us to do so. Paying for it from another budget is not a penalty, but shifts the cost to where it belongs!
And by the way I do have a medical handicap, but I can ride the bus without using the lift or the L without the elevator. If you look at the enormous cost of installing elevators in the subway stations and having lift equipped buses, you see all the missed opportunities that the CTA could have used that money to improve and expand the system.
And do me a favor.
Explain to me how someone in a wheelchair gets to the bus or the L in winter, when 90% of the self centered jerks don't shovel the snow in front of their property! Even those that have no problem walking have a problem with this.
A simple, dedicated system would have worked better for the handicapped, at a far lower cost for all of us. They would have far better, door to door service. My guess is that subsidizing lift equipped cabs and their fares would have been the best way.
I repeat, mainstreaming is a failure. A 112 year old rail system is just not capable of being retrofitted to do what no one ever thought of doing. Only a completely new rail system could do that.
Do you have a spare $50 BILLION around?
Chicago doesn't, not even the Feds have it!
Posted by: jeff | December 05, 2005 at 08:10 PM
Jeff, we did read it. I did anyway. I still disagree with you.
Posted by: Cheryl | December 06, 2005 at 12:40 PM
Jeff, we did read it. I did anyway. I still disagree with you. I don't think we should lock the cripples away someplace where they won't be inconveniencing you.
Posted by: Cheryl | December 06, 2005 at 12:41 PM
oh, please. he's not saying 'lock the cripples away.' i'm not sure what i think of it, but i think it's an interesting point to consider.
i can't BELIEVE they got rid of transfers.... i am so glad i am currently able to afford a monthly pass/chicago card. i don't know what i'd do without it.
Posted by: jocelyn | December 08, 2005 at 01:15 AM