Do You Feel Sufficiently Patronized Yet?
A while back, the CTA created a plan to reroute the Douglas Branch of the Blue Line up to the Green Line and around the Loop. This means that there would be trains between 54/Cermak and The Loop rather than 54/Cermak and O'Hare. The plan was announced without public input and community reactions were fiercely negative. A great deal of noise came from UIC, where students wouldn't be able to use the L as a shuttle between East and West campuses, but even "real" residents of the neighborhood were angry, principally over the lost one-seat ride to O'Hare.
At the time I believed it was a good plan, and I still do, but I was working on other political things with the CTA and saw their poor handling of the Blue Line situation as being a mirror of our experiences with them. They are arrogant, presumptive, and heavy handed. At any rate, the plan fell apart and the CTA had to slink away with its tale between its legs.
Now, the plan is back, but with some changes:
- Rush hour trains on the Douglas branch will alternate between the new routing and the old one to O'Hare, producing a very complicated routing situation but cutting complaints about getting to O'Hare jobs off at the pass.
- There were public meetings this time, which I missed but were no doubt as useful as all the other CTA meetings: the public is told what will happen and then the CTA reps sit back and passively pretend to listen to people vent.
- The thing is being implemented first as a 180 day "trial," to "gauge public reaction," but the conclusion is foregone: the CTA will determine that the public likes it.
- Most amusingly, the CTA is turning over planning to the community on one important issue: school children will be tapped to choose the new color-name for the line.
Clearly, the CTA is moving into a new era of public involvement in transit planning.
[Mar 08, 2006] | [transport] | # | G
