CTA Tattler

For those of you that hold the the DC Metro up as a model for the CTA, here's a little article detailing their problems;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/26/AR2008032602879.html?wpisrc=newsletter

I can see the leave-your-garbage-on-the-train thing. It's a lot easier to clean a train at one station at the end of the line than have a cleaning crew drive to each station.

But yeah, just take it with you and put it in a can. How hard is that?

I had a delightful experience on Metro last summer where my train was stuck between two subway stations for a half hour due to what I found out on the 6pm news was an electrical problem. There was absolutely no communication from the operator about why we were standing and this caused a lot of anxiety among the passengers, most of whom were tourists. We were somewhere near McPherson Square, which is near the White House, so it was easy to think something really bad was happening. There were plenty of announcements that we were standing between stations, which was very helpful because it was hard to tell that we weren't moving and the ventilation system had stopped functioning. :P Metro looks pretty and its trains are certainly cleaner than CTA's, but it's not perfect. There are serious capacity and infrastructure issues under all that bling. The garbage lobber would, however, been ticketed immediately on Metro for his/her transgression.

Garbage lobbers should be hauled off to jail.

Well, DC is in a unique position. They obviously need a higher level of security than most cities. Being so obsesive about litter accomplishes three things:

1) A cleaner system makes it easier to pretend it's a better system. (Look at all the times people point towards them as being a model system! ha!)

2) The security forces need something to do to keep them alert. They can either play "spot the French Fry", or they can nod-off, hypmotised by the repetitive cycles of the system.

3) It keeps public awareness of the security forces up. If it's known you can't even get away with snacking on a hidden candy bar, then it follows that it must be harder to do something really suspicios without being spotted.

I don't think that this is the right way to go with CTA. To use a phrase that's been used a few times around here recently, DC's Metro is a prime example of "lipstick on a pig".

I couldn't believe it when my friend called to say they have a SOLAR POWERED Big Belly trash compactor at the State/Lake underground Red Line station.

According to the BigBelly.com website, it is a “compacting trash receptacle that is completely self-powered. Instead of requiring a grid connection, BigBelly uses solar power for 100% of its energy needs."

But wouldn't you need the SUN for that??

silentk, you don't really have much of an imagination, do you? Right off the bat I thought of a solar panel above ground with a line reaching down to below ground.

I thought of a Daley and/or Stroger relative whose 6 figure income job it is to shine a flashlight on the panel a couple of times a day.

Mike, check out the pics at http://johnfritchey.blogspot.com/
looks like the panels are in the subway.

maybe they could put garbage cans on trains

Yes, I also saw that solar power trash compactor last week as I LOOKED out the window of my Northbound red line train. How silly. I couldn't believe they hauled a solar powered device down into the subway. What happens if it doesn't get enough light to keep its battery charged? Does it quit working and then it overflows all over the place? Yuck. Talk about a great way to create an environmental hazard. Does anyone know how much $$$ one of these trash machines cost? The city does own the subway and the stations, NOT the CTA, so its very possible the trash machine is city owned. They do have several around the parks and certain locations in the Loop.

On the subject of dirt....I've noticed some Red line cars are spotless and others have FILTHY seats and have a terrible order, something like rotting asparagus. I'm going to start reporting the filthy cars more. The car I was in this morning was horrible. I still think the key is more enforcement, in all my years riding the CTA I've yet to see someone ticketed for eating or throwing trash around on the CTA. There just is not enough police presence. I say do a HUGE crackdown for 2-3 weeks, fine the heck out of people right and left littering or having a 4 course meal on the train.

Hey maroons. The cans can be plugged in!

Yeah. It can be plugged in just like your trash cans at home.

;)

So I take it that the bright florescent lights in the subway aren't strong enough to power it?...

Sure it can be plugged in, but the point is that they paid up for a SOLAR model and put it underground. Classic.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the solar/AC powered Big Belly was the easiest and probably only ready made solution for a compacting can that can be easily placed anywhere.

Arfo got it, I'm sure. The City of Chicago (again, not the CTA) probably bought a bunch of these things for various uses, getting a volume discount, and this one was left over and placed in the subway. They're all over the city.

Jason has it right -- having garbage cans on trains makes it much easier to actually throw things away. It works for Metra!

The CTA has redesigned their website! Check it out. The main page still seems very cluttered and slightly overwhelming when it first appears. I like the big "buttons" now in lieu of the text links before. Now just get rid of some of the extra garbage and it would be a lot better.

So, the incredibly logical idea of actually having garbage cans on the trains isn't one of the most celebrated ideas?