Given How Critical CTA is to The Region, Why Won't the State Legislature Pony Up?

Great Debates
1

Dear Cecil,

Maybe I’m naive. But it seems to me that over the last 5 to 10 years the CTA has gotten an awful lot better than it used to be, and for 12 years went without a fare increase. (Fare cards, friendlier customer assistants, cleaner buses and trains, automated announcements on buses and trains, on-line information, 800 customer assistance, newer buses, lighted bus storps, posted rail timetables and lots more.)

This is despite the loss of $80 million in annual Federal Operating assistance in the early 90’s that Reagan and pals cut from the operating budgests of all transit properties nation wide. Reagan’s assumption was that local states and municipalities would pick up the share that the Federal Governement had been picking up, but the State of Illinois didn’t bother to do so over all those years.

Maybe it was Republican control of the State house, maybe it was something else. But over the years, that’s something like $800 million that CTA has gone quietly without while the costs of operating paratransit have gone up. Each of those rides is what $17 a ride? And as the population gets older there are only going to be more of them every year paying $3 a ride. Or whatever.

So now, CTA says that it is in a really tight money crunch, and frankly, I believe them.
All of their scenarios look bad. In a year where gas prices look like they are going to go through the roof, it seems like a terrible idea to cut CTA service just when a lot more people are likely to switch or have to switch to CTA for economic reasons.

So why won’t the State of Illinos, or more appropriately, the Illinois legislature pony up?

They pony up for roads ok. We don’t have to pay for them as we go. The more people who take buses and trains the less crowded and congested the roads are and the fewer lane miles of roads we need. The less likely we are to need new roads.

Is it just that you can hire more contractors to build and maintain roads? And all those contractors donate money? Hey, we can build more rapid transit lines. Extend the Orange line to Ford City, or even 119th. Circle Line? You bet. Connect the Brown and Blue Line? Why Not? Light rail on Western? Talk about a street that is over congested. Heck, I’d settle for um, a monorail. Don’t quote me on that. The professionals would look at me funny.

CTA has about 1.5 million trips a day, translating to something like 600,000 households, but that translates to a heck of a lot more voters, because a lot of CTA riders must only ride sometimes. Don’t they think about how many people in the region use CTA even if it is only from time to time?

You know, if CTA does make the massive service cuts it talks about, there will be a lot of angry people, especially on the south side where I live. They may not have meant too, but there is no way that people are not going to think that all those south side cuts are not impacting African Americans disproportionately. They may be wrong, but they will believe it, and they will believe that the legislators either made it happen or let it happen, and will remember it at election time and that’s a fact.

Am I wrong in this? Or is it just that no one has ever lost an election here over funding transit? Well, there is always a first time. Just ask Mike Bilandic.

Peter

The Peter Files

2

This one seems more suited to Great Debates, rather than General Questions.

So I’m moving it.

samclem GQ moderator

3

I put it there because I wanted Ed, er, I mean Cecil to consider it as a column question, but you moderators know best.

I have been reading TSD for years and never really wandered to the site before so I think that this is great!

THanks!
Will it still be considered here?

4

Generally speaking, if you want Cecil to consider a question, it works best if you e-mail him.

However, I have to say that your topic doesn’t really qualify as the sort of question Cecil normally addresses, him being more interested in the easy questions like, “Will Mountain Dew make your 'nads shrink?”, rather than questions arising from the murky realm of Deep Metaphysics, questions like, “Why is Illinois politics the way it is?” which is one of the great philosophical conundrums of our time. I doubt whether even the Perfect Master could answer that one.
[yes, now I must be spanked for my unbelief, and after that…the oral sex!]

5

As Downstate resident, why should the citizens of Champaign, Decatur, Peoria, Normal, Bloomington, etc. subsidize something that gives us zero benefit. Look to the metro area tax base and leave us alone.

6

Well for one thing, all the goods and services that pass through the Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, etc, bottleneck must go through Chicago. Whether it is by truck or rail.

Even rail cargo goes through an intermodal transfer by truck from one freight line to another by truck in Chicago.

As a result of all of this freight moving through the Chicago bottleneck, and delayed by the congestion here, there is an added cost in freight cost and fuel/transportation cost added to every item that passes through this region, whether it is flowing from Canada to Cairo, or from New York State to Kankakee.

This directly impacts the prices you pay on everything from Jeans to Oranges.

Lowering the congestion on Chicago’s expressways, can save you money. Can in fact impact the economy of the whole nation, if only incrementally.

Also, the trucks that travel on those highways travel with cars. Cars eat up roadway miles decreasining the time between repair needed. These repairs also slow traffic and increase the cost of shipping goods through the region. This also impacts product shipping costs. On a statewide basis, this also impacts the pool of state money available for highway repairs. Fewer cars on the road in Chicago every day mean more time between road repairs, means more money for downstate road repairs, QED.

Since there are a lot more lane miles downstate than in the 6 county region in northeastern Illinois, I would think that this would be a good incentive to be cooperative on funding transit as one 8 car CTA train can take 1000 cars off the road, each way. That is a lot of lane miles and congestion saved. By one train. CTA serves 1.5 million trips a day. Can you imagine the extra cost to the state in congestion if one day all those trips were added to the streets and highways of Illinois?

Clearly that is not going to happen. But the severe service cuts scenario would have an impact on life in downstate Illinois one way or another. It would certainly slow down truck traffic trying to get into Chicago a lot sooner in the morning.

Another reason is that your legislators will want to pass things of local benefit to you. Like signal interchanges where there have been accidents. Important construction bond funding measures, things like that that require more than just the downstate votes to pass.

As Franklin once said “We must all hang together now, or surely we will hang seperately.”

Peter

A complaint has been by a moderator that I am posting just to popularize the name of my blog, so I am no longer listing the link to it at the end of each post. Sorry. While I am a non-commercial blogger who just likes to write and feels that the first amendment protects my right to list the name of my blog; rather than risk losing my ability to host here I will only mention that it can be googled if you think about what the name of my blog might be and are genuinely interested in what I might be saying on a day to day basis.

7

Politics. No more and no less.

You have a First Amendment right to create your own blog and maintain it. As a private entity, the SDMB can regulate what is published on their web site. It’s not a First Amendment issue in the regard you claim. We’re all here as guests of the SDMB, a private organization. (Well, some of us are paying guests but that just entitles us to the keys to executive washroom down the hall. Nonpaying guests have to use the little house on the prairie out back.) Also, there is the SDMB rule: “Do not post spam, including but not limited to advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, solicitations, or other messages primarily intended to promote a cause, venture, organization, event (except Straight Dope-related events), website, or other entity or activity, whether or not money is involved.”

8

If I Google “the peter files”, I get an adult website devoted to, “A community of male masturbators and the females who guide them. This site contains sexually explicit material concerning males addicted to chronic masturbation and the role of females in guiding their behavior. Entry is restricted to adults only. Proceeding beyond this point constitutes your acknowledgement that you are an adult interested in receiving such material and that it is not illegal for you to receive it. Please confirm your understanding and agreement by selecting the statement below that applies to you:”

And a photo of a naked-butt guy spread-eagled across a gal’s lap, being spanked. That you?

Err…no, thanks. I’ll pass.

9

States shell out for local transportation improvements all the time. By that logic, the state would never pay for any transportation improvement that didn’t benefit every citizen of the state - i.e., nothing.

10

Along the lines of what This Year’s Model wrote plenty of things are financed by the state government that do not benefit everyone equally. Happens all the time. Chicago may be seen to get more than those downstate but then 85% of the population of Illinois lives in the Chicago metro area so that is hardly surprising.

Politics aside I think funding of any given thing, be it mass transit for Chicago or an irrigation project for downstate famers, is fine if it can be shown to have a broader economic impact than just lining a few people’s pockets.

Of course, it is impossible to set politics aside in Illinois. As mentioned the bottom line becomes political BS that pays little to no attention to what might actually make sense.

11

That was an off-the-cuff percentage but then thinking about the SDMB and what is espouses I figured I should do better than that.

A quick bit of math with some hastily Googled numbers puts the Chicago metro area at about 65% of the population of Illinois.

12

:smiley:

[innocent look]
Doesn’t the Chicago Metro Area include a part of Indiana?
[/innocent look]

13

!!! BLASPHEMER!!!

DOOM! DOOM WILL BEFALL YOU!!!

Ahem. DOn’t say that to a Hoosier. It could result in unanticipated fireworks.

14

No. As I mentioned my blog, repeat blog, is non-commercial and written solely for pleasure and is entirely safe for work. The name Peter and the concept of files both predate any adult group sick enough to have deliberately chosen to use the name of the first Apostle and the Founder of all Christian Churches is such a way. Peter is my first name. I envisioned each post like a little story or file, that’s why I chose files. Anyone coming to my site looking for the above will find himself lauging hard but getting no help with his problems or voyeuristic benefit out of peering in on the problems of others. So now you know the history of my blog name. Boring ain’t it? After reading your post I checked, they are literally a group of Yahoo!'s and their choice has nothing to do with me.

As to my name on this site, I will change that if I have to. I am now logged into a bunch of sites and frankly it is easier if the name is the same on all sites. I can easily have different passwords, but it helps me a lot if the account name is the same.

As to putting the name of my blog in my post, I have found that I do not have to do that. I have found that intelligent members can find my blog if they want to.

Thank you for taking the time to do that hard core reseach. I am sure you enjoyed investigating the site in detail, that is assuming you were not already a group member and were offended at my use of the name.

Thanks for your concern. :wally

Peter
P.S. The more pressing issue I wrote about is still a major concern for the region. The CTA board has taken the severe service cuts, low fare increase option. My own thought is that with 1/3 of bus routes gone the impact will be dreadful. I am currently disabled, I won’t feel the impact as much as most of you because I hardly travel. If I can get back to a good state of health and in working condition it will be a massive headache, but for now, I am not the one who is going to be stuck in the gridlock.

Good luck. I have taken the time to bring this up. The ball is in your court. Call your state legislators or don’t.