Rachel's Democracy & Health News, December 20, 2007

TRANSIT'S LAST STAND?

Chicago is in the race to host the 2016 Olympic Games. But air pollution, congestion and transit woes might just seal Chicago's fate if government lets public transit slide further into disrepair and abandon.

[Rachel's introduction: Public transit is a vital service for livable cities. Transit reduces air pollution, improves public health, reduces traffic, and keeps communities efficiently connected. Chicago is facing draconian cuts to its ailing transit system because local, state and federal government can't make it a priority. Transit cuts will have severe consequences for the entire region but especially on the quality of life for low-income people.]

By Vera Leopold

For Chicagoans, the word "doomsday" has taken on new meaning. The city has the nation's second largest public transportation system but as any resident will tell you, the system is broken. For years the system has been falling into disrepair and now it's limping along on temporary cash infusions to keep the trains and buses running past so- called transit 'doomsdays.' But time is running out. If a full funding solution isn't found soon, the New Year will not be so happy when area residents, especially those from low-income communities, will face severe service cuts.

Despite the roughly two million rides taken each weekday on Chicago's trains and buses, revenue from fares isn't nearly enough to meet the costs of providing service. The Chicago Transportation Authority (CTA), which runs bus and "El" train routes downtown and to surrounding suburbs, is projected to have a $158 million shortfall in 2008.

As state legislators' deliberations continue, the CTA has named a third deadline of January 20 to receive more funds or be forced to institute fare hikes of up to $1.25 (a 60% increase), lay off 2,400 employees, and eliminate more than half its bus routes. The suburb-to- city Metra trains and the suburban Pace bus system are in similar situations and also have cuts and fare hikes scheduled for the new year. The threat of these deadlines has become something of a last stand for the transit agencies, which have been underfunded for years.

Cuts in mass transit service would have a disproportionate impact on Chicago's low-income families, who often don't own a car and would be cut off from their way to work. Many Chicago Public Schools children also depend on public transportation to reach their schools. And residents struggling to make ends meet will have to spend more of their budget on transit fares.

"Without a transit solution, real harm will come to individual residents," Randy Blankenhorn, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), said in a late-November statement. "These are people whose livelihoods depend on affordable public transit and who already spend a high percentage of their income getting to work."

Many Chicagoans would have to turn to other options, like biking and walking to work. The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a bicycling and pedestrian advocacy group, has developed a "Doomsday Survival Guide" to help stranded people find an alternate biking or bike-plus-rail route to their jobs.

According to Margo O'Hara, CBF director of communications, the current failure to find transit funding is problematic for people who use other non-car transportation as well.

"It does send a message that mass transit and alternative forms of transportation may not be a high priority," says O'Hara. "If mass transit's not being funded, it's not a good sign for bicyclists and the facilities that we need to get around."

Also, seniors and people with disabilities would be especially hard hit by service cuts; they often don't have the money or the physical capacity to use other modes of transportation, leaving them without mobility. Groups like Metro Seniors in Action and IMPRUVE (Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for Unity, Vehicles, Equality) have been joining in broader coalitions, such as the newly-formed Rider- Driver Alliance, to fight for solutions.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is required that paratransit services run complementary to all fixed CTA and Pace routes. People eligible for paratransit rides can be picked up and dropped off by van anywhere within three-fourths' mile of a regular route. If half of CTA bus routes are cut, this would also mean elimination of the paratransit services that operated alongside them.

For people with disabilities, that can literally be a matter of life or death, says Dr. Ayo Maat, the founder and coordinator of IMPRUVE.

If the CTA service cuts went through, "that would leave people who are dependent on paratransit, not only without service, but in life- threatening situations because they use paratransit to go to the doctor," she says. "This would really affect us socially and economically, because those who have jobs couldn't get to work; those who are looking for jobs can't look; those who are looking for housing can't. To be isolated again would be devastating."

Rider advocates don't think political leaders are doing enough to solve the problem. On October 29, the Rider-Driver Alliance joined with local advocacy groups like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) for a rally downtown at Federal Plaza to protest what they saw as local officials' lack of priorities on transportation.

"We need to focus on the problem now, and we need to focus on how it affects people who are the most transit-dependent," says Michael Pitula, a LVEJO community organizer for transportation issues. "We don't need to be talking about luxury rail projects for the Olympics, for tourism, for downtown business interests."

While transit workers have a lot in common with transit riders, the political appointees in charge of the CTA do not, Pitula says. "There's this divide between the people who make the decisions about transit and the people who ride it, and it falls very closely along race and class lines. There's a disconnect in [their] experiences, and it shows in the policies they enact."

A spokesperson with CTA, Sheila Gregory, says the decisions on which routes to cut were made based on three principles: "maintain as much availability as possible for transit-dependent customers; maintain regional connections where possible; and spread the burden of cost reductions in an equitable manner." Gregory also says the CTA cuts are consistent with federal guidelines regarding impacts to minorities and people below the poverty level.

But, any cuts still leave people without a ride they had depended on.

The proposed service cuts would also impact Chicagoans across the board for two interconnected reasons: traffic and air pollution. If more people were forced to turn to their cars, Chicago's already congested highways would become even worse, significantly increasing the region's air quality problems, says Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health at the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago.

"Public transit takes a lot of people off the roadways and it promotes free flow of traffic," he says. "There just is no physical way to get all the people who work downtown to drive downtown without chaos ensuing -- total gridlock. That's going to create a huge amount of wasted fuel and a huge amount of air pollution, because people's commute times are going to skyrocket."

A nationwide study found that Chicago-area drivers already waste over 200 million hours and 140 million gallons of fuel per year sitting in traffic. More people in cars instead of on buses or trains would mean even more traffic jams, more stop and go driving, and much more time running the engine while commuting, all of which produces more air pollution, not to mention stress and expense.

"It's bad for the whole region, and not just for people who take transit," says Tom Garritano, spokesperson for CMAP. "I think that's a real fallacy. Some people out there who take a car to work think that this doesn't affect them, and they couldn't be more wrong."

Car engines give off two major types of pollution-volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, and nitrogen oxides. Both of these chemical compounds produce ozone, the main component of smog. High ozone levels can cause coughing, difficulty breathing, and serious complications for people who already have respiratory illnesses.

Releases of VOCs and nitrogen oxides, as well as greenhouse gases, from CTA's diesel buses are much less than cars. However, Chicago mass transit has its own pollution problems and public health impacts. CTA diesel buses and non-electric Metra trains give off particulate matter-commonly known as soot-from their tailpipes. More soot in the air contributes to more strokes, asthma attacks and heart attacks.

The majority of the city's aging buses do not have particulate filters installed that would make them 90 percent cleaner, a problem that Urbaszewski's group has been lobbying to fix. Urbaszewski says requirements to install those pollution filters should be incorporated into any new state legislation on transportation.

"Not only do we want transit that runs, we want it to run cleanly like other big cities around the country that have cleaned up their acts," says Urbaszewski. "This is the prime opportunity to solve the problem once and for all."

Other organizations are thinking big picture about transit, too. This fall the CBF released their 20-year vision for Chicago transportation. The group aims to reduce bicycle and pedestrian street accidents by 50 percent and to have half of the Chicago population using walking, bicycling and mass transit as their mode of transportation instead of personal vehicles by 2027.

"So much of funding for mass transit helps alleviate the problems that we're trying to work on, like preventing crashes, congestion, the environment, public health," says O'Hara. "If you have more people using more active forms of transportation that include CTA trains and buses, it'll have those same kind of benefits [as walking and biking]."

Many grass-roots organizations in Chicago have found transit to be an issue they can rally around. The Rider-Driver Alliance is a prime example. The group seeks not only to prevent service cuts and fare increases, but also to end worker layoffs, ensure better CTA accountability, and advocate for equitable funding sources for transit. More broadly, Pitula says they aim to win a voice in Chicago transit decisions.

"We really have a huge task in front of us," he says. "But we know from [other] examples... that it is possible for low-income people and traditionally underrepresented groups to effect change, and to get the services that their communities need."

As the final days before the deadline approach, pressure on state legislators could be enough to finally bring an agreement. Many Chicago organizations, like CMAP and CBF, are pushing for Springfield lawmakers to approve SB 572. The bill, sponsored and championed over months by State Representative Julie Hamos, is comprehensive transit legislation that would provide stable funding for mass transportation by raising the regional sales tax between one-fourth and one-half of a percent.

Some advocate groups take issue with the sales tax, calling it a regressive funding source. However, the bill also includes provisions to improve the services' accountability and to ensure more citizen participation in decisions, elements that have been applauded by rider advocates. While there's no guarantee the legislation will pass, there is still a chance Chicago's beleaguered mass transit will finally have more than a temporary fix to work with.

For information on how to contact IL state legislators: http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/

Learn more about the IL Transit Bill (SB 572) and get updates on its progress: http://www.juliehamos.org/transit/.

To view the Doomsday Survival Guide by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation: http://www.biketraffic.org/content.php?id=1368_0_6_0.

Learn more about the Rider-Driver Alliance and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization's transportation initiatives: http://www.lvejo.org/restoringCTA.htm.