Daniel B. Honigman's site

Couldn’t you imagine the CTA Blue Line running like this?

(Also posted on CTAStories.com)

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In a Sun-Times report today, Monifa Thomas writes that the Chicago Transportation Authority mulled around some ideas to help get rid of its $97.5 million budget gap yesterday.

One plan, she said, was to raise bus and train fares to $7 during rush hour.

If the CTA did this, then any claims that Chicago is a “green” city are void. With fares at seven bucks, low-income Chicagoans will have to buy old, low-priced, smoke-spewing cars to get to work. Chicago will be gridlocked and the CTA will bear all of the blame.

Just because Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich hasn’t signed another check to the CTA doesn’t mean that CTA President Ron Huberman has the right to approve this.

And you know what? I’ll finally have an excuse to buy a car.

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This is a huge pet peeve of mine. It makes the bus driver have to wait longer before moving, and more importantly, it pisses me off. That’s why it’s my latest CTA Pet Peeve.

Why is it that every Tom, Dick and Harry feels that the only way off the bus is through the front door? I mean, I understand if the Tom, Dick or Harry is a little old lady sitting near the front of the bus. But we’re talking about young, healthy individuals.

Are these people actually afraid of exiting the rear door? Does it take some ungodly amount of athleticism to step down to the street?

Maybe if people moved towards the rear of the bus in the first place, they’d feel more inclined to get off in the back.

Could ticketing be another way to fund CTA upgrades for a Chicago 2016 Olympics Games…?

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In my constant quest to improve my karma, here’s another edition of CTA Pet Peeves.

CTA riders who cluster near bus and train doors piss me off. I don’t know what else to say.

I shouldn’t have to shove my way through these people just to get off. (I am not, however, someone who waits until the very last second to get off the bus/train. That’s another pet peeve of mine, so stay tuned for that installment.)

Blocking doors:

A) Forces everyone to wait longer for the bus/train to start moving again.

B) Pisses everyone off.

Folks, just move away from the doors. If you can’t, be as accommodating as possible to people who need to exit.

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Hey, folks. I’m introducing (yet) another new feature on my site. I figure that since any hobo with a Web site in Chicago rant about the CTA, I should too.

Without any further ado, here’s my first CTA Pet Peeve. (You can find them at CTA Stories as well.)

Ever notice that CTA bus drivers, almost without exception, will start the bus as soon as riders get on, not giving them a chance to even swipe their fare card?

This gets rather funny when helpless people get strewn towards the bus’s windshield, but annoying when it happens to oneself. These angry, gas pedal-hugging drivers should get a taste of their own medicine sometime.

Perhaps they wouldn’t need to rush if they didn’t spend eons chatting up other drivers and timekeepers along the route.

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According to the CTA, the security needs of customers at the Belmont and Fullerton el stations needs to be re-evaluated.

What are their findings? I guess nobody’s wigged out yet, because I didn’t see one cop in the entire station.

Sorry for the CTA rant today, folks, but if you ever have a jolly bus driver on the #146 route, contact the CTA and compliment him. I don’t know his name, but he sings out the name of each stop as it approaches.

In honor of today’s inclement weather, check out this video that shows what happens when there’s ice on the tracks.

Watch out for that third rail.

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