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Chicago’s Public transportation has been criticized for being dangerous and unsafe. However, how unsafe is it? The media deemed the city was also violent and hazardous by the press, but even if that were true, the CTA can’t be that bad. Right?
It is time to explore how and why safety is a problem: Perhaps find some solutions regarding safety on Chicago’s trains and buses. The reason why is because public transportation is an extremely valuable resource that so many people are without other means. Many people would not be able to travel to their jobs. For these reasons, public transportation within Chicago must be safer.
The question of CTA’s safety is unambiguous. There have been 391 attacks, including batteries, assaults, and homicides, on the city’s buses or trains, up 37% from last year as of June 21, 2022. That matches the pre-pandemic levels of crime on public transit, with 44% attacks on buses and 56% on trains, according to Chicago Police Department crime data.
This is simply inexcusable. How can the city of Chicago reconcile this contradiction with all the people that use public transit? Why should those without a vehicle suffer merely because they have no other means of transportation? Why should those who don’t have the means to buy and maintain a car be punished for it?
The answer to all those questions is that they shouldn’t. No one should endure the stress and anxiety of wondering whether or not they will die trying to get to work. No one should have to wonder whether or not their children will be safe going on a bus or a train after school. These are not the features of a functional and secure society.
This would be decay if there were ever a greater example. There are older people on these trains and women and children. How can the city of Chicago allow these statistics to continue reflecting the city of Chicago? Something needs to change within the city. This cannot continue to be normal. This cannot continue being ignored by the city officials.
So why, why have the politicians forsaken the people and residents of Chicago? Are the citizens not deserving of a safe and healthy city?
Are Chicago’s beautiful Black, brown, and working-class people not deserving of good, safe, and clean public transportation? Yes, they are, and they always have been. The onus is not on the residents and people of Chicago to simply “adapt” to the current state of public transportation. Administrators, politicians, and the mayor must mitigate and eliminate this major problem.
However, if politicians can get away with keeping their power and not doing anything about significant problems, they will; if no one stands up to them and they remain in control with no sustained force against them, there will be no change.
Regardless, there is something Chicagoans should do. They should organize a strike and protest for better public transportation. The effort must continue until effective changes are made because one of the many strategies of those in power is to wait until protests die down, then make a symbolic gesture to say they “did” something to resolve the issue; lip service. Nothing will happen if Chicagoans do not stand their ground.
Action means everything, and inaction communicates everything. Something needs to change, and it needs to change now. Every person that dies because Chicago’s politicians didn’t fix this major problem is on their head. How many people will die because they choose to do nothing?
Opinion News by Kenneth Mazerat
Edited by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
ABC 7 Chicago: CTA bus drivers, train conductors want more security after increased violence; by Evelyn Holmes
Chicago Sun-Times: More CTA riders are getting attacked, with violence at a level not seen in over a decade; by , and
Block Club Chicago: CTA Leaders Vow To Fix Unreliable Service With More Hiring, Improved Train And Bus Tracking; by
Inset Image Courtesy of Discosour’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Swerz Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
