CTA Gets Safety Upgrade

By Jordan Kunkel

You may not have noticed that your Uber and Lyfts started costing 15 cents more in January.

That tax, part of Mayor Rahm Emmanual’s 2018 budget, is helping fund  major upgrades to CTA stations across Chicago.

Emmanual announced Chicago’s new “Safe and Secure” program on Tuesday. The program will overhaul lighting, security measures and other repairs at all 146 CTA rail stations and 100 bus stations, including those in Rogers Park and Edgewater.

The City of Chicago will add 1,000 high-definition cameras to rail stations without, and upgrade another 3,800 cameras to high definition. 100 bus stations will also receive new cameras.

An increase of crimes on the CTA the past few years led this push for increased safety measures. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times found that 90 percent of “serious” CTA crimes go unsolved.

Police officials stated in an NBC Chicago broadcast that cameras at CTA stations provide concrete details of incidents that help police solve crimes.

Rogers Park resident, Jenna Meyers, 21 said that the rideshare tax is a great way of supporting safety on the CTA, something she considers an act of social justice.

“No one deserves to be unsafe on CTA, especially those who have to use public transportation on a daily basis,” said Meyers.