NEWS
December 5, 2012 | By Tracy Swartz, @tracyswartz and RedEye
The CTA today launched its campaign about stroller use on buses, reminding riders that priority seating is intended for the elderly and riders with disabilities. "Open strollers may be parked in this area if these seats are not in use, but must be moved if a customer with a disability or a senior needs the seat," says the placards on CTA buses and trains. Bus operators, who received retraining on the stroller policy, which has been in place for nearly 10 years, will pass out fliers with the policy to riders with strollers when they board the bus. The leaflets are available at rail stations, the CTA...
NEWS
May 14, 2014 | By Tracy Swartz, @tracyswartz and RedEye
The CTA is making progress cracking down on strollers that take up space in priority seating on buses, CTA president Forrest Claypool said today. Stroller complaints were down 60 percent in the six months after the CTA introduced an information campaign in November 2012 to remind riders that priority seating is intended for the elderly and riders with disabilities, Claypool said. There were six complaints about strollers in priority seating in the six months after the campaign launched compared with 15 complaints in the six months prior to the campaign,...
NEWS
April 30, 2012 | By Tracy Swartz, RedEye
Six male riders - including a teenager - have been killed on CTA tracks since March, an increase from previous years, according to the transit agency's data. The most recent rail death was last week, when a 27-year-old ex-Marine visiting Chicago was electrocuted after touching the third rail at the South Boulevard stop on the Purple Line. Evanston police said he was on the tracks urinating and accidentally fell on the third rail. Zachary McKee's death was the second CTA rail death in April.
NEWS
May 26, 2014 | Tracy Swartz, @TracySwartz and Going Public
If you were given an unlimited-use Ventra card for free, how often would you ride the CTA? If you're CTA board chairman Terry Peterson, the answer would be 17 times in eight months. If you're veteran CTA board member Alejandro Silva, it would be five times. If you're longtime CTA board member Rev. Charles Robinson, it would be zero times. About half of the seven-member CTA board rode the system regularly from August to April, according to information Going Public obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request for the number of times CTA board members and...
NEWS
June 10, 2013 | By Tracy Swartz, @tracyswartz and RedEye
Gov. Quinn last week picked a longtime politico to sit on the CTA's board--and he doesn't live anywhere near a CTA stop. Quinn nominated Frank Zuccarelli, a 20-year supervisor of Thornton Township in south Cook County, to replace John Bouman, who is leaving the board after nearly four years. Zuccarelli, who resides in South Holland, did not return a request for comment. At least one of the members of the seven-member CTA board has to live outside Chicago city limits, according to state law. But every board member should have easy access...
NEWS
February 21, 2012 | By Tracy Swartz, RedEye
Forget about rush hour. Every day on the CTA, it's crush hour - on men. For more than nine months, the website ctacrush.com has encouraged Chicagoans to submit photos of their CTA crushes. A new photo is uploaded about once a day. Sometimes they're of crushes on the buses, sometimes they're of crushes on the trains. The one thing all these crushes have in common: They are all men. Only one photo of a woman, a blond in a trench coat holding a pen and biting her finger in the back of a CTA bus, has been submitted.