Let Chicago motorists save Chicago transit
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If you were the union rep, would you let 1,100 workers lose their jobs when the city cuts bus and train routes? Or would you spread the pain across your membership by reopening hard-fought contracts, letting politicians whittle away your security/their overhead?
There ought to be a better choice, and maybe there is: let people who drive cars in Chicago subsidize its buses and trains.
It’s high noon on State Street again, with Mayor Daley facing off against the unions that represent Chicago Transit Authority workers. Their war of wills reaches most of us in the form of relentless automated messages on buses reminding us of service cuts to take effect Feb. 7.
Express routes will be eliminated, some buses will stop running overnight and on weekends, the routes that continue will run buses less often, and 1,1oo CTA employees will lose their jobs.
This is nothing new in Chicago. The CTA’s doomsday scenarios are at least an annual event. But this year, fare hikes are out of the question as a condition of the CTA’s most recent state bailout, just three months ago, from Gov. Pat Quinn.
If fare hikes really are ruled out–(rules have a way of bending in Illinois)–the service cuts can only be avoided, according to the mayor, if Amalgamated Transit Union 241 and other CTA unions will agree to renegotiate contracts. If the unions absorb the CTA’s $95 million deficit, they can minimize job losses and lessen the pain for those of us who rely on buses and trains.
So far, the largest union says no:
“I’m not sure what they want, but what they’re asking for is definitely not going to happen,” ATU president Darrel Jefferson told Chicago Public Radio.
The bus-riding public is stuck in the middle. The union wants us to press the city to–what?–raise our fares? The city wants us to pressure the unions, motivating us with relentless automated messages on buses.
And the mayor wants us to show more fight.
“I really believe you have to start building a huge advocacy group for public transportation,” Daley said Wednesday. “You have to start realizing that public transportation is the future of a city like ours.”
Public transportation is also the past of a city like ours.
Once upon a time Chicago had a network of electric streetcars that ran on nearly every arterial. In 1929, they carried more than 900 million rides, compared to 520 million on buses and El trains in 2009. In 1947, when the CTA took over the streetcar lines, the fare was 10 cents, the equivalent of $1 in 2010–half the fare we pay today.
But Americans came to believe that the individual American needed the individual automobile. Choked by congestion and unable to compete, the steetcars died, and the buses and trains have limped along.
Might handicapping the automobile bring them back? Idle streetcar tracks still sleep under many Chicago streets.
Mayor Daley’s wildly unpopular privatization of the city’s parking meters may not have been smart politically or financially, but it is brilliant environmentally.
Cars make the city more dangerous, more dirty, more angry, more ugly. By making it more more difficult and more expensive to park them, more frought with hidden perils, the new parking system improves the market for public transit.
It could do so better. The revenue could go to the CTA instead of to a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley-JP Morgan-Chase. And while it’s too late for that now, the idea could help us solve our perpetual transit woes. Gas tax, parking fee, city sticker, I don’t care: let those who enjoy the private ride fund the public one.
Instead of cutting jobs, instead of cutting bus and El service, instead of raising fares, bring back the streetcars. Or at least solvency for the buses.
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Well, let’s get radical:
People who live within the actual metro-Chicago limits can own only one car (per married couple or per unmarried individual) and can use it on weekends only. City residents use public transportation on weekdays.
No one who lives outside Chicago can drive into the city on weekdays. The city & state build giant parking garages on every main artery leading into Chicago. You park there and take public transportation into, out of, and all around the city on weekdays.
How unAmerican, eh?
That does sound a bit unAmerican, Scott. A far more American, if vaguely Swedish, thing to do would be what Daley is already doing: making it expensive and difficult to drive a car in Chicago. And more expensive and difficult to own one here. Cars generate a lot of revenue for the city, which seems fair to me because they place no small burden on life here, but unfortunately the revenue they generate isn’t going directly to transit. I’d like to see them linked. As cars become more expensive, they’ll generate revenue for transit, building up the public infrastructure. As people respond by using cars less, they’ll switch to public transit, increasing both demand for it and direct revenues from fares. It could be a lovely transition.
Scott your idea sounds rather German:
In response to another comment. See in context »http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html
Ha, I remember reading that article.
I just hate driving in cities. So if I could park in a secure garage at the edge of a major metropolitan center, and then ride public transportation into and around Gotham all day, I’d be all for it. Maybe this could work for smaller American cities.
No, I’m not moving to Germany.
In response to another comment. See in context »Public transportation subsidizes private by taking cars off the road, hence lessening congestion and shortening commute times for cars. Saving only five minutes a day each way adds up to more than 3 hours a month. What is that time worth to commuters? Perhaps they will soon find out. Night and weekend buses are a tougher sell.
And Scott’s idea of at least leaving your car outside the city core is a good one. It also works using a bicycle, or in my case, an electric bike that I tuck in my trunk, or place on a bike/bus. Works best in arid places. You never need to sweat on an e-bike.
Getting around Paris by Metro is glorious. Imagine a society that demands and is willing to pay for high-quality public spaces rather than insular private spaces.
In addition to this parking concept, what about congestion pricing for drivers? New York City tried and ultimately failed (unfortunately) to pass congestion pricing. Does Chicago do congestion pricing at all, and if so, does it benefit public transit?
Thanks for bringing that up, Emily. I remember the New York experiment, and I believe London has a congestion zone. Chicago doesn’t, and I can’t see Chicago embracing that strategy, even though we have been quick to embrace many other doomed social experiments (massive public housing projects, urban renewal…). We have a kind of congestion pricing built into parking costs. If you want to park in the Loop it’s going to cost you. But Chicago’s congestion is not concentrated in the Loop the way New York’s congestion may be concentrated in Manhattan. Cicero Avenue, far from the Loop, can often be completely gridlocked. North Clark Street is a constant dribble of traffic. Try getting out of the city on almost any east-west street, and it’s likely to be stop and go for most of the day. The map of Chicago is a map of congestion. But often one sees, while idling on a clogged expressway, an el train zipping past between the lanes. You’d think we’d find a way to fund the obviously smarter alternative.
In response to another comment. See in context »Yes, it’s 8 pounds, about $12 for a day pass into the London core. Here’s what they say about the “scheme”:
Since the Congestion Charge scheme started:
Traffic entering the zone is 21 per cent lower than pre-charge levels (70,000 fewer cars a day)
In response to another comment. See in context »There has been a six per cent increase in bus passengers during charging hours
£137m has been raised, in the financial year 2007/08, to invest back into improving transport in London. By law, all net revenue raised by the charge has to be invested in improving transport in London.
Thank you to Bob in our London bureau for that report.
In response to another comment. See in context »Another form of transportation that is immensely popular in European and Asian cities is e-bikes. Look at the vast array this London shop offers: http://www.poweredbicycles.co.uk/. E-bikes were unknown in China only 8 years ago. This year approximately 25 million will be sold there. I’ve logged about 20,000 miles on mine over the last 5 years or so, all in place of miles I’d have put on my bourgeoise Prius.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] of public transit is failing. In February I suggested that Chicago motorists should help pay for public transit. Let those who enjoy the private ride, I argued, fund the public one. They make our city more [...]