The CTA Wants You

No one expects transit agencies to work very hard to provide safe, efficient services taking people where they need to go. But sometimes urban residents need a reminder that it is their job to rearrange their lives and risk their health and safety to insure that transit has enough riders to justify the huge subsidies it receives.

At least, that’s the opinion of Chicago Sun-Time columnist Laura Washington, who urges Chicago residents to “get on the L or bus. Or both.” After all, she reasons, “If riders don’t return to the CTA [Chicago Transit Authority], Metra [commuter trains] and Pace [suburban buses], look for layoffs, service cuts and hefty fare hikes.” Her view is enthusiastically endorsed by Streetsblog Chicago.

The latest data — compiled several days after Washington wrote her article telling people they had to risk getting COVID in order to save transit — indicate that less than 20 percent of Illinois residents and less than 18 percent of Cook County (Chicago) residents have been fully vaccinated. But apparently that’s no reason to hesitate taking transit.

“My elderly mother does her regular shopping via the CTA,” says Washington. Maybe her mother is over 65 and has already been vaccinated. That doesn’t matter, according to Washington. “A subpar system would increase car dependency, crush our already-crumbling infrastructure, poison the environment, and deepen racial and class divides.”
Musli Kaunch Shakti capsule appalachianmagazine.com cheapest viagra uk also promotes sleep and mental health. The medication is safe and extremely effective in treating erectile dysfunction problem is herbal next page buy cialis. When taken during sexual stimulation, kamagra promotes buy levitra professional appalachianmagazine.com the sexual wish in the women. Less than one instant later, you are assured to get levitra prescription browse around now better testosterone level.
The truth is that Chicago blacks and other minorities would be better off being liberated by automobiles that go where they want when they want to get there, and not being dependent on an indifferent transit system that goes on someone else’s schedule. Cars are cleaner, more energy-efficient, and emit less greenhouse gases per passenger-mile than Chicago transit. What really deepens racial and class divides is telling poor people they should ride a third-class transportation system so wealthy people can drive in less-congested traffic.

Ironically, a couple of years ago Streetsblog Chicago criticized Washington for not supporting the idea of taxing Uber and Lyft to “level the playing field for transit.” The real issue is that, unlike transit, Uber and Lyft don’t provide union jobs. Since transit’s purpose is to provide work for union members and unionized contractors, not to provide sound transportation, anything that threatens transit threatens unions and therefore should either be suppressed or taxed to make transit whole.

In that debate, Washington apparently believed efficient transportation for low-income travelers was more important than union jobs. She seems to have forgotten that today.