Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
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Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Yesterday's Red Line derailment was another case of operator error, the CTA said today, and another case of a motorman blowing a red light. This time, the operator missed a red signal light then tried to back up, which is not what you're supposed to do, and that's when the train derailed.
"We are going to study both of these events incredibly carefully," CTA President Ron Huberman said by phone from San Francisco, where he is attending a transit convention. "We think we can figure out quickly what happened. What is important is why it happened so we can determine what needs to be done to safeguard the system."It's too early in the investigations to make recommendations for future changes, Huberman said.
According to Hani Mahmassani, a transportation prof at Northwestern, old and crappy CTA equipment may have exacerbated the problems. "It's operator error, but it involves signaling and signaling is part of the infrastructure...Modern systems tend to be more fault tolerant."
Speaking of fault tolerance, CTA ridership is up 4 percent over last year, which is part of a national trend of more people using public transportation. [Trib, S-T, AP, AP, photo by p2wy]
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"...CTA ridership is up 4 percent over last year, which is part of a national trend of more people using public transportation."
Yes, but there is another important part of this trend, noted most recently in a WSJ article in the past week or so: Decades of short-sighted and auto-centric planning, and current funding problems, are forcing many transit agencies--including those serving smaller cities in the USA--to cut back service or, at the least, balk at expansion called for by increasing demand.
In short, there seems to be the real danger that we are ill-prepared to exploit this situation of high gas prices and increasing willingness, no matter how grumpy, to ride buses and trains more often.
on my way home last night on the blue line, a warning came on saying that the train was waiting for signal clearance, but instead of sitting still, the train kept inching it's way, and then stopping several times jerking people everywhere, and even moved in reverse a couple times. i couldn't help but think about this story.