Here’s an idea for next week’s Chicago Ideas Week: Try to create a Chicago transit card with modern conveniences.
Chicago is fast becoming known as a digital entrepreneurial hub, a place where big thinkers come to push the edges of technology.
One celebration of this innovation takes place next week in events across town. Chicago Ideas Week is an annual platform for forward thinking designed to inspire Chicagoans to improve their community.
One area of Chicago life that could use innovation is Ventra, the CTA and Pace suburban bus fare payment system that was first instituted in August 2013.
When the system was introduced last year, CTA President Forrest Claypool lauded its “flexible, convenient amenities.” “This is another example of how the CTA is working to modernize our system while leveraging technology to better serve our customers,” Claypool said in a press release.
Now more than a year later, some of these amenities are still not in place.
Sure, the very basic functions of Ventra work (though it took some months for those glitches to be ironed out). Riders can tap their cards on the readers to pay their fares. Ventra can also double as a prepaid debit card to buy goods at some retail locations.
But Ventra could be so much more. Users of Chicago Card Plus, the now defunct predecessor to Ventra, could manage their accounts online. That function is not new with Ventra, and is still not available to some riders.
CTA riders who don’t want a Ventra card can use their personal bank cards if they have a “blink” logo. But these riders can’t register their bank cards like riders with a hard Ventra card can so they can manage their accounts online.
In order to manage their accounts, personal bank card users can use Ventra vending machines at rail stations to load unlimited passes or create a transit purse to pay for fares. If they don’t, they pay full fare with each tap of their personal bank card.
And if riders are on the go, adding money to their Ventra card isn’t easy.
CTA has long said there would be an app to manage Ventra accounts. But there is still no app.
The CTA hopes to have the app ready next year and personal bank card registration later this year. Ventra vendor Cubic Transportation Systems is almost done testing the functionality of bank card registration, CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase said.
In some respects, Ventra seems to have backslid in technology. When a rider taps a Ventra card on the reader at a rail turnstile or a bus, it says “GO” or “STOP, INSUFFICIENT FARE” based on the balance on the card.
But even the lowly disposable, magnetic stripe card, which the CTA discontinued in July, told riders when their unlimited pass was expiring or how much money is left on the card when they swiped the card when boarding a bus or train.
Chicago deserves more—a transit card that reflects our place as an emerging tech city, not one that seems straight out of the year 1871.
Square roots
The Metropolitan Planning Council, a group of business and civic leaders focused on developing Chicago communities, is seeking input on improving the area around the Logan Square Blue Line station.
Participants can give feedback on recent community meetings about the area. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BN3HWHN.
Stationary: O’Hare Blue Line
A weekly dispatch from a CTA station of note
This week: Garfield Red Line
The Garfield stop, in the Fuller Park area, probably saw one of the greatest transformations in last year’s renovation of the southern Red Line to speed commutes. It was one of three stations to get elevators to make the stations accessible for riders with disabilities.
While the station was closed for five months for the $425 million project, many riders went blocks away to board trains at the Garfield Green Line station in Washington Park.
And they continue to do so. Despite the improvements to the station and the Red Line, Garfield Red Line ridership is down nearly 9 percent this year through June, compared to the same period in 2012 and down 11 percent versus 2011, according to CTA data.
Meanwhile, the Garfield Green Line ridership is up 18 percent this year compared to 2012 and 20 percent versus 2011.
Perhaps instead of an elevator, the CTA should have installed a moving walkway from the Garfield Green Line stop to lure riders back to the Garfield Red Line stop.
Next week: Harrison Red Line
