Merging Chicago-area public transit agencies has drawbacks

I noted with interest your Oct. 24 editorial, “Merging Chicago area transit agencies could be just the ticket for riders.” As a lifelong transit rider, advocate and chair of the Regional Transportation Authority, I am focused on outcomes and on what will ensure our transit system works better for riders today and in the future.

The RTA is ready to implement critical reforms that will make meaningful improvements to the system and help riders by providing greater safety, frequency and reliability. Yet, we do not believe full consolidation of the transit operators into a newly created agency is the best way to deliver on those common goals.

The survey referenced in your editorial mentioned that consolidation would “save” $250 million. Readers should understand that would require the elimination of more than 1,000 employees at a time when riders are demanding more and better service, and historically, Chicago’s transit system has the lowest operating cost per mile of any peer system.

The RTA is advocating for $1.5 billion in new operations funding to come with reforms that would establish a stronger RTA that directly interacts with riders to address their day-to-day issues. Sadly, the state of Illinois ranks last among state support for mass transit operations.

A stronger RTA could serve as a rider hub for fares and customer service at the regional level, ensuring all riders have access to simple, easy-to-understand fares and fare programs.

The Legislature could also direct a strengthened RTA to set regional service standards, with policies and mechanisms in place to monitor and enforce compliance, allowing everyone in the region to better understand the frequency and scope of transit that should be available in their communities.

And with greater responsibility for regional planning and capital project prioritization, RTA could partner with the transit operators and roadway agencies to lead planning for major regional transit and transportation projects, including roadways with the potential for increased transit use.

If paired with sustainable funding, these reforms would provide the RTA with the authority needed to improve efficiency and coordination at the regional level and provide state lawmakers, local officials and, most importantly, the millions of riders who depend on the system with more accountability for delivering these improvements. Together, we can ensure riders will get what they need and deserve, which is a safe, frequent, environmentally sensitive and reliable transit.

Kirk Dillard, chair, RTA

Your vote matters

Politics is always serious business, but paying attention to this national election is essential. You may not have the passion to be “into” campaigns, but voting is a collective responsibility that ultimately depends on personal action.

This past weekend, I made calls on behalf of Pennsylvania Democrats to get out the vote. Enough people were engaged and aware of the gravity of this moment to make me optimistic they are alert.

My favorite was a person who said, “I am 91 and never missed an election except once when I was pregnant." Where do we find the next generation of people committed to democracy who can attend to the fragility of our country with their vote?

We need them because of the threat the planned Project 2025 presents to stability and democracy.

This is not the first time human creativity has been misused to disenfranchise and harm people. We've seen master plans before in the Third Reich, Jim Crow, apartheid and genocide, including the treatment of Palestinians. It is not the first time evil has shown its face, and some people have turned away because what they want to win — the control of courts, or stolen treasure or land — benefits them.

And no privilege, boundary or imagined return to greatness can protect us if we don’t prioritize the climate crisis. Finding solutions to slow down a warming planet is our most significant collective responsibility. We are doing our part in Illinois, and the Biden-Harris administration has provided billions with the Inflation Reduction Act that is a powerful lever to fund sustainability and collaboration.

Yet for me, this moment feels like the first time collective trauma and self-induced stupor might collide as we sleepwalk our way to an authoritarian country on a planet we have made sick.

Goodness has often prevailed, and humanity has survived, but it’s very close. Ask questions, take action and vote.

Sylvia Ewing, Country Club Hills

Vote for wisdom, not ignorance

For many years, I was an ignorant man. Thanks to marriage and fatherhood and some well-placed comeuppances, I was able to crawl out of the realm of ignorance toward a place on the outer edge of wisdom.

Yet even in my ignorant days, I knew enough to cast my votes not for fellow benighteds but for smart people who resolved to get things done and who by and large took the public trust to heart. Even in my dazes and snafus, I hoped to count on the garbage being collected, the roads being maintained, and the U.S. Senate being a deliberative body.

Today I witness a political party that seems to have handed itself over to ignoramuses who are about as interested in the workings of governance as they are in the workings of our cosmos that serves as a model for scientific inquiry, rational thought and for that musical sphere we call democracy. Somehow in our era of identity politics, the identity of the ignoramus has become ascendant, even — to many — weirdly worthy of devotion.

A good first step in emerging from benightedness is some recognition that one has grown too fond of the night. A close second step is not to vote for a fellow ignoramus. Wisdom abounds and is there for the having, my friends!

Robert Chicoine, Brookfield

Democrats, unions hurt Chicago

Living in Chicago has one saving grace: one is not subject to presidential commercials every four years. The reason of course is that Chicago is a Democratic city, and no amount of information, from any candidate, will ever change that.

The people of Chicago, and their unions, negate any chance that it will ever change.

The educational system is completely dysfunctional. The emphasis of the teachers union is simply to enhance their salaries at the expense of the individual student and the average citizen.

I believe it was Einstein who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If that is indeed the case, I must seriously question the mental acuity of the individuals who make up the citizenry of this city.

Earl O'Connell, Old Irving Park