2018 CTA budget

[Busjack]

47 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Probably if they breached the contract they would just be sued for the just amount.

Ir isn't any different than if you take out a 6 year lease on a Huyndai Sonata. Hyundai Finance doesn't care if you drive it or not, just that you make the 72 payments. If you wreck the car after 56, and don't have insurance (and CTA doesn't), you still have to pay the balance. It's CTA's decision whether to operate the leased equipment or pay off the lease.

[jajuan]

22 hours ago, BusHunter said:

It still doesn't make much sense to make lease payments on something that sits in the south shops junkyard. I dont know of anyone making lease payments on 15-17 year old equipment. 

As far as ridership is concerned, not only are the ride sharing services cheaper than taxis they also go where the bus can't and are a more personalized service. I can't help but wonder how much they are eroding the cta ridership.  Did you know multiple passengers can ride for the same price as one passenger!!  A party of 3 would be paying close to 7 dollars on cta when the average fare is not much more on a ride share. It's no wonder they are so successful.

Yeah true, but that success is still being mitigated by bad behaviors on both of that ride share coin. Drivers have been hurt and attacked, and riders have had issues with drivers including a lawsuit reported a few weeks ago on ABC 7 Eyewitness News from a young business woman after a rideshare driver allegedly groped her, would not let her leave his car until she gave her phone number and left harassing phone calls on her cell phone. From stories like this, there still might be a dynamic where maintenance of current transit service on the North Side and planning of new might have to take ride share services into account when it comes to adjustments to frequency and hours served, while West and South side service might not see as much a dent just yet. 

[Busjack]

1 hour ago, jajuan said:

but that success is still being mitigated by bad behaviors on both of that ride share coin.

Of course, the taxi dispatch industry was dominated by the Northbrook mob, which was indicted for laundering vehicle titles.

One plus for the CTA budget is that starting tomorrow, I can go back to fast casual restaurants and take advantage of the Mariano's 4 for $10 offer south of Lake Cook Road. CTA only gets 48% of 0.25 of the sales tax when I take my business a couple of miles north. This way, it gets an additional 0.5%.

[jajuan]

5 minutes ago, Busjack said:

Of course, the taxi dispatch industry was dominated by the Northbrook mob, which was indicted for laundering vehicle titles.

One plus for the CTA budget is that starting tomorrow, I can go back to fast casual restaurants and take advantage of the Mariano's 4 for $10 offer south of Lake Cook Road. CTA only gets 48% of 0.25 of the sales tax when I take my business a couple of miles north. This way, it gets an additional 0.5%.

Good point. I see the fun you were putting into along with the simultaneous more serious practicality. CTA, Metra and Pace's doomsday scenario of 2007-2008 was responded to in part by the RTA getting a portion of the sales tax increase that got passed for the region for transit funding. And with CTA and the other boards already feeling a squeeze from lower sales tax receipts with high property taxes and other issues pushing folks out of Illinois and the Chicago region in particular. Preckwinkle only served to exacerbate that problem with that ridiculous tax that went for more than just regular soda and basically targeted almost anything that wasn't water or 100% juice.

[artthouwill]

On 11/30/2017 at 10:43 AM, Busjack said:

Of course, the taxi dispatch industry was dominated by the Northbrook mob, which was indicted for laundering vehicle titles.

One plus for the CTA budget is that starting tomorrow, I can go back to fast casual restaurants and take advantage of the Mariano's 4 for $10 offer south of Lake Cook Road. CTA only gets 48% of 0.25 of the sales tax when I take my business a couple of miles north. This way, it gets an additional 0.5%.

Don't buy your sodas from the vending machines in Cook County.  Even though the Soda Tax went away, the price increase that came as a result of the tax didn't go away.

[Busjack]

28 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

Don't buy your sodas from the vending machines in Cook County.  Even though the Soda Tax went away, the price increase that came as a result of the tax didn't go away.

Depends which soda machines. The manner in which it was taxed is bizarre, but one bunch of soda machines that had the "price includes Cook County Soda Tax" decals lost them about a month ago and the price went down from $2.75 to $1.75. More typical are machines that last week went down from $2.25 to $2.00.So, the question gets down to whether a 20 oz. is worth $1.75 or $2.00 to you, but the money stays with the vendor.

On the other hand, at the same time, the vendor with the $2.75 soda raised snacks from $1.00 to $1.35. Those stayed up. I no longer buy chocolate peanut wafers after my workout.

I hadn't gone to my local Dunkin Donuts yet to see if the tape doesn't have the 3 inches of 10 oz SBT..., 12 oz SBT.... I got ticked when I got 10 oz SBT 10 cents on a hot chocolate. I guess I can get the any size hot chocolate for $2 (plus 9.75% sales tax) now.