#506 Online: How Commuters Take Action in Chicago

Public transit is an essential means of transportation for millions of Chicagoans. However, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has significantly reduced service frequency. Throughout the past two years, the agency’s communication on these service cuts has gone from denial to dubious promises of improvement. The issue leaving many Chicagoans frustrated is not only the reduced service frequency, but the unpredictability of their transit arrival due to outdated schedules and inaccurate (“ghost”) tracker predictions.

Commuters Take Action (CTAction) was started by several frustrated Chicago transit riders who believe the city deserves better from the CTA. The goal of CTAction is twofold: to kickstart the public debate on the topic and to put pressure on the CTA and our elected officials to address the situation. CTAction has been busy stickering the city’s transit stops with Reprot the Ghost. These stickers ask riders to scan a QR code and share their transit experience. Then, we present this data at CTA Board meetings and to city officials. CTAction also provides daily updates on our rider reports via a Twitterbot. One member, Fabio Gottlicher, has been tracking the reliability of the blue line for the past 9 months and found that the line is only running about 55% of its scheduled service.

ASL This event will not have an American Sign Language interpreter.