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Originally Posted by C.
Here it is for MTA.
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Bulk of the funds are for salaries and wages, retirement and other employee benefits, and post employment benefits other than pension. Maintenance and other operating contracts professional service contracts are all expenses to have the right personnel needed to operate and maintain the system.
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Last time I looked at Chicago's CTA budget, personnel costs were almost exactly 2/3rds of the budget. One of the variances between at least American agencies is that some agencies have their own police force on their budget, some cities provide special police divisions for the transit agency as part of the police budget. The latter is the case with Chicago, which I understand was done as a back-door subsidy of the CTA by the city without violating the state-mandated "fare recovery ratio" which has varied over the years but historically has been slightly over 50% (the fare recovery ratio applies to the operations budget and is a state-mandated percentage of the budget that must be covered by fares instead of direct state or local subsidies).
Quote:
Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan
Its absolutely Uber / Lyft. I no longer take the train for any commute less than 10 miles, as its just easier and faster with uber. Pretty much the only time i take the train now is if im going to Hollywood or Koreatown from Downtown LA
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In Chicago and New York and I suspect Boston, Washington, San Francisco and maybe Philly, rail is faster during most rush hours except certain holidays where a lot of people are on vacation, as long as you're origin and destination are within a reasonable walking distance to the stations. I live in downtown Chicago right now and walk or ride a bike to work most of the time, but when I lived on the North Side, whether it be Rogers Park, Lakeview or Ravenswood/Lincoln Square, taking a taxi home was only a comfort option, almost never a speed improvement. When I lived in Gold Coast I lived nearly a ten minute walk to a train station plus it was so close to downtown that I usually had to let one or more trains go by in the morning, so oddly then it was usually faster to take a taxi as compared to a bus, the only real option for my commute then. But the bus was significantly cheaper, and not *that* much longer, so I used that most of the time except when I would work really long hours.
And, if anything, it's gotten harder to get on a Near North Side (Gold Coast/River North) train in the mornings than it was 15-20 years ago and driving has gotten much slower. It was usually a 10 minute ride back then - I even made it home during rush hour in 5 minutes once with a crazy French (from Toulouse) cab driver. More recently, it always takes at least 15 minutes and I live 3/4ths of a mile closer to the Loop then I did then. Some of that additional traffic is just because the population downtown has skyrocketed, but a significant portion of the worsened traffic downtown is a direct result of Uber and Lyft. So that's why I usually walk or bike. Biking is definitely fastest. Walking is frequently the same time from the office home in the evenings. I do walk faster than most people, but I'm definitely still walking and not running.
Long story short, Uber and Lyft have really negatively impacted traffic downtown. I actually suggested in Crains (local business magazine) that the City should tax Uber/Lyft rides that originate or terminate downtown the equivalent of a CTA fare and dedicate at least half of that tax to transit. And for trips that both originate and terminate in downtown, it should be a per-point tax, so such trips should be taxed double a transit fare. I suggested it apply to the area the City calls "The Central Area," which is an area of approximately 8 square miles consisting primarily of the Loop and Loop-adjacent neighborhoods that the city uses for planning purposes. Forcing people to pay an extra $4.50 or $5.00 to take a trip from the Gold Coast to the Loop or vice-versa won't impact everyone, but it would impact enough people that it would reduce traffic and provide an alternate source of revenue for transit both directly and by driving at least some additional trips to the CTA.