Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Ventra

The Challenge of Making Divvy Accessible to People Without Bank Accounts

By Steven Vance | Sep 5, 2013 | 40 Comments

To use Divvy you must have a debit or credit card. Currently, there’s no way around that, so even though an annual Divvy pass is a bargain at $75, the system is unavailable for many Chicagoans. A significant share of city households — 12.7 percent — don’t have bank accounts, according to graduate research by […]

Getting to Work With Ventra: An Uneventful Experience

By Steven Vance | Aug 23, 2013 | 15 Comments

The multi-week Ventra rollout ramps up this week as thousands of college students have received their U-PASS-enabled Ventra cards. The same card will be with them through their entire enrollment at 41 participating colleges. Outside the semester, though, students can load cash or passes onto the Ventra card to give them transit access when U-PASS […]

Metra Headaches Continue While Quinn Forms Committee to Reform Transit

By Steven Vance | Aug 16, 2013 | 29 Comments

A fifth Metra board member gave up his post Thursday after the Chicago Tribune wrote that Stanley Rakestraw no longer lived in suburban Cook County – as required – and the person who appointed him, Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, asked him to tender resignation. Board members are resigning after allegations of double dipping (for […]

For Some College Students, Ventra Rollout Begins Today

By Steven Vance | Aug 5, 2013 | 14 Comments

The Chicago Transit Authority’s revenue director, Eric Reese, hosted a gaggle of reporters on Friday to show off the Ventra “outreach bus” and demonstrate, for the first time, a Ventra vending machine. Ventra is set to replace the current fare media for CTA and the Pace suburban bus system, including all passes, Chicago Card/Plus, and […]

CTA: Poor People Will Register Ventra Cards, Won’t Get Debit Card Hard Sell

By John Greenfield | Aug 2, 2013 | 41 Comments

A recent discussion of Ventra, the new fare payment system for the CTA and Pace, with CTA spokesman Brian Steele, has allayed some, if not all, of my concerns about the impact on low-income Chicagoans. The cost of a single-ride ticket will rise from $2.25 to $3. This price hike can be avoided by purchasing […]

Ventra to Launch August 5; Concerns Remain About Impact on Poor People

By John Greenfield | Jul 29, 2013 | 37 Comments

Today the CTA and Pace announced they’ll begin rolling out the new Ventra fare payment system for select customers on August 5, with access for all riders starting on September 9. The agencies are touting Ventra as a more up-to-date, efficient and convenient replacement for the nearly 20-year-old swipe card technology. However, as the launch […]

The Long, Hot Summer of Transportation Initiatives

By John Greenfield | May 28, 2013 | 21 Comments

[This piece also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield’s transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the street in print on Wednesday evenings.] Trust me, my friends, this is the year sustainable transportation blows up in Chicago. Say what you want about Rahm Emanuel’s record on education, crime and privatization. But since he took office […]

CTA to Reduce Fees for Ventra Debit Card

By Steven Vance | May 24, 2013 | 6 Comments

The Chicago Transit Authority announced this morning that some of the fees associated with using the optional debit account on a Ventra transit card will be eliminated or reduced. There were never fees associated with using Ventra to ride transit. But there are fees associated with the Ventra-linked retail debit account that card holders can […]

Ventra Will Be Anything But a Smooth “Retail Experience”

By Lynn Stevens | Mar 28, 2013 | 36 Comments

Editor’s note: Streetsblog accepts guest posts with viewpoints different than our own. Lynn Stevens is an urban planner, blogger at Peopling Places, and long-time neighborhood booster for Logan Square where she’s been an active participant in Bike/Walk Logan Square, the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, the Logan Square Corridor Development Initiative, and the (now defunct) Zoning Advisory […]

You Might Already Be Ready to Use Ventra

By Steven Vance | Mar 18, 2013 | 96 Comments

Ventra, you may have heard, is the new fare payment system for Chicago Transit Authority and Pace. (Metra will not be joining the Ventra system, and is currently testing other fare payment methods.) CTA is switching to Ventra to save $5 million per year on maintaining outdated fare collection technology, according to spokesperson Lambrini Lukidis. […]