Tag: CTA

Widespread Violence on the CTA

With almost 20,000 CTA bus trips a day, tempers sometimes flare on a few of them. Regular users of the CTA know what an obstacle course it can be.

On the CTA’s 1,200 rail cars, riders are often met with a variety of frightening encounters- from armed robbers and cell phone thieves to fist fights and shoving.

Sometimes, shots are fired and people end up wounded or dead.

via abc7chicago.com.

Safe to say Chuck Goudie is not going to be invited to Rahm’s next party.

Then again… come-on Chuck, tell us something we don’t already know.

Woman Attacked With Human Feces Filled Sock

A woman riding the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line in Oak Park told police she was last week attacked by another passenger wielding a sock filled with human feces.

“He had a sock full of his poop on me,” the 21-year-old college student told the Pioneer Press. “It was everywhere; on my face, my hair, my clothes.”

via NBC Chicago.

This is the level to which Chicago has sunk.

The comments on the article are priceless.

CTA Scam Sucks Millions in Taxpayer Funds

It is after all the Chicago way.

The CTA has potentially inflated by up to $150 million the federal taxpayer money it received since as far back as 1982 by “fraudulently over-reporting” the number of miles CTA buses travel while in service, according to a new report by a little-known watchdog group.

In its report, titled “A bus tour of Chicago-style fraud,” Washington-based Cause of Action alleged that CTA officials reaped millions in extra federal money that the agency was not entitled to by improperly including “deadhead,” or out-of-service bus miles, along with funding-eligible revenue bus miles when applying for money from the Federal Transit Administration.  …

But Cause of Action, which said it based its findings on “insider audit information” from six years ago, said the CTA likely continues to get away with its inaccurate mileage reporting, with the knowledge of the U.S. government, because of the transit agency’s political connections stretching from Chicago to Washington.

It cited the clout of Valerie Jarrett, who is senior adviser to President Barack Obama and also a former chairwoman of the CTA (1995 to 2003), and Robert Rivkin, general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation. From 2001 to 2004, Rivkin was general counsel at the CTA.

Officials at Cause of Action said they brought the matter to the attention of the U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general, the U.S. attorney general and Congress, but no action was taken.

via Chicago Tribune.

Surprise Surprise Surprise!!

The good citizens of Chicago are naturally shocked and appalled that Valerie Jarrett and other stooges of The Machine have engaged in taxpayer fraud. Shocked and appalled.

This sounds like a Qui Tam lawsuit in the making.  Someone going to get on that?

 

Bus-Only Lanes Hurt Everybody

CTA super-express buses that will operate on 21-mile stretches of Ashland and Western avenues will have the benefit of using full-time bus-only lanes, under a still-evolving concept the transit agency and the city will present this week at three open houses, starting Tuesday.

via  Chicago Tribune.

This is just an extension of the ongoing war on vehicles & one of the dumbest ideas ever.  It makes no sense to make life more difficult for cars; which just so happen to be how most people get around.  Why punish the majority for the minority?  Some people literally must drive b/c they have to take children to school before work or otherwise travel on routes not covered by public transit.

Damen in one lane.  Halsted is one lane.  California is one lane.  It makes no sense to destroy the only two North-South arteries.  Between the bike lanes and the center islands it is getting impossible for vehicles to get around.  This includes police, fire, and EMS vehicles as well.

Lastly, what is the problem trying to be solved here?  That buses travel more slowly in traffic is not new.  It’s been that way since the invention of buses.  People on buses however can read, play with their phones, talk on the phone, send txt messages, and do all sorts of things that people in cars cannot (safely) do.  This is the advantage of taking the bus over the car… that, and the cost.

Chicago can be a great great city.  Truly world class.  But it will not become so by declaring war on vehicles which the majority of people use to get around.