Today’s Headlines for Wednesday, October 18

  • Emanuel Budget Would Use Ride-Share Tax to Help Fund CTA (Crain’s)
  • CTA Blames Ride-Share, Cheap Gas for Ridership Decline (DNA)
  • CDOT’s Woodall Discusses the Department’s Concerns About Dockless Bike-Share (Forbes)
  • How the Pullman National Monument Can Help Improve Transportation Access (Active Trans)
  • Police Are Trying to Find Man Who Attacked a Senior on the Red Line in August (WLS)
  • At VZ Hearing, Austin Residents Say They Want Safer Conditions for Walking (Austin Talks)
  • Driver Jumps Curb on Michigan Avenue — Miraculously No Pedestrians Were Injured (CBS)
  • Why an Alderman’s Proposal to Tax Bicycles in a Dumb Idea (The Chainlink)
  • Lyft App Will Allow Users to Support Purple Purse, Which Helps Domestic Violence Survivors
  • BGA: Ex-Metra CEO Alex Clifford’s Severance Package an Example of Costly “Golden Parachute”
  • Waguespack: “Defective” Wall Collapsing Along Metra Tracks in Lincoln Park (DNA)
  • Company Posts Video of Someone riding Electric Skateboard  on LFT — Which Is Illegal (DNA)

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  • Tooscrapps

    Re: Company Posts Video of Someone riding Electric Skateboard on LFT — Which Is Illegal

    Are segways also illegal then?

  • Courtney

    I totally support using ride-share taxes to fund the CTA. I’m often a reluctant Lyft user and it would make me feel slightly better to know SOME of the money I’m spending goes to support a system I use on a daily basis.

  • Cameron Puetz

    RE: Waguespack: “Defective” Wall Collapsing Along Metra Tracks in Lincoln Park
    Weren’t these walls planned to be replaced as part of the stalled out bridge replacement project?

  • F. Hayek 69

    CTA needs to raise fares to $3.00 for trains and $2.50 for busses to pay for capital improvements, not continue to tax people using a non competitive service.

  • I continue to be amazed by the lengths to which people will go just to avoid exertion.

  • johnaustingreenfield

    Ride-share is, in fact, competing with transit and reducing ridership: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/10/13/uber-and-lyft-are-cannibalizing-transit-in-major-american-cities/

  • F. Hayek 69

    “Between 49 percent to 61 percent of ride-hailing trips would have been made by transit, biking, or walking, or would not have been made at all, if the services were not available, according to the survey responses.”

    Nice that your article lumped all the responses together to imply a causal relationship when none is present. The survey also conveniently omitted cabs as an option.

    Regardless, CTA needs to improve their service and cut their bloated labor costs, not levy a tax.

  • Tooscrapps

    The gas tax needs to be raised in order to pay for capital improvements for autos, rather than largely subsidizing driving through sales, income, and property taxes.

    Cuts both ways.

  • Jeremy

    Instead of increasing fees on Lyft and Uber, how about banning them from the central business district during morning and evening rush hours? The drivers clog the streets, bus stops, and crosswalks at times when CTA service is plentiful.

  • Courtney

    Eh, maybe not a ban but it would be nice to see an increase in fees in those areas along with a bus-only lane on Michigan Ave and Sheridan Rd.during morning and evening rush hours

  • JacobEPeters

    along this line, are these motorized skateboards, hoverboards, & gyroscopic unicycle boards (whatever they are called) illegal on the 606? because I have seen a few speeding and weaving along it in recent weeks.

  • Tooscrapps

    Yah, I saw one on there last night.

    I would think anything banned on the LFT would be banned on the 606 as well.

  • rwy

    An increased gas tax could unfortunately send more money into the funds used to build more highways.

    Evanston is considering a fee for ridesharing. The city manager is recommending 20c per ride. Not a bad idea. Nothing against the companies, but they should be paying to use public infrastructure.

  • Tooscrapps

    Yah, I would love to see IDOT employ a “fix it first” policy.

  • FlamingoFresh

    Anyone read the BGA “Golden Parachute” article. If you want your blood to boil, give it a read.

  • Cameron Puetz

    It probably depends on the model. Some smaller Segways are classified as mobility assistance devices and protected by ADA.

  • johnaustingreenfield

    No. Years ago, shortly before Segway tours launched in Chicago, City Council passed an ordinance that allows them to use bikeways.

  • what_eva

    The part about “rivals golden parachutes awarded in the corporate sector” is something the author should look into. Golden parachutes in the corporate sector are disappearing rapidly.