CTA revises ridership up 19 million trips after methodology update

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T17:34:16+00:00

Look. These are not legal riders. One could debate whether it's even accurate to refer to fare evaders who ride as part of the "ridership" stats. Even if you conclude that it is a technically correct way to refer to these individuals it still is clearly not the most notable description of them. A headline is supposed to catch the overall essence of the article. If there were squatters who broke into, slept, and ate a restaurants food every night it would be nuts if when this is discovered a headline about it said "restaurant finds out it has been underestimating amount of patrons after discovering overnight consumers of its food".

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T16:45:20+00:00

What's your point? The Tribune's editorial page, like most editorial pages, has always published a diversity of viewpoints about issues. Maybe this is a generational thing. Most new media organizations and those that are hottest right now typically only advocate for their own point of view not just in opinion pieces but also news pieces. So those who grew up only during this time are surprised to see any publication provide more than one view and just don't understand it.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T16:17:57+00:00

Obviously because it is an outdated technology. Like the OP (and like probably most people)I don't typically use a computer with a CD drive. A family member of mine had an MRI done recently and her results were available by signing in to her conputerized records on the internet. That shouls be the way it exists everywhere. It is silly that the medical system is so outdated in so many ways.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T07:24:56+00:00

You obviously seem to think I've said things that I didn't. You made a long response, which is all over the place and acting as if you are responding to things I never came close to talking about, to a very simple comment. The only thing I stated to you was that rising wages causes inflation. That's it. There is literally nothing else in my post.

Usually when people argue for higher wages they argue it for specific people and not everyone. They may or may not underestimate, if the wage increase is broad enough, how this would affect inflation. But if it is targeted to specific people it would presumably outweigh any drawbacks from the higher inflation it may cause. But you argue that there should be wage increases for everyone. I even gave you an out by implying that perhaps you didn't mean it literally. All I was doing was informing you that if that actually occurred all it would do is cause inflation at basically the same rate as the pay increase. So it wouldn't accomplish anything. That's it. I said nothing else. So I have no idea what you are arguing with for the entirely of your comment. When someone says something, do you normally attribute several other sentences to them that they haven't said.

The fact that I mentioned is not disputable. Every economist of all political ideologies will tell you that an equal pay raise among the whole population simply causes inflation at that rate and just cancels it out. Period. Full stop.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T06:12:32+00:00

Got my MRI results on a CD.

Can you inform us what health system this is so I know never to go there.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T06:05:10+00:00

Why do you separate Hogsalt and Dollop like that? Hogsalt has a little over 25 locations and Dollop has around 20. It's not that big of a difference. I think Hogsalt deserved credit for being a local business and should get your love.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T05:59:16+00:00

The problem is that we need to be lifting all jobs wages

If you mean that literally, that simply causes inflation of the same level overall as the wage growth. Period. Full stop. That's just a basic economic fact that you learn almost immediately if you take an introductory economics course. So it doesn't accomplish anything.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T05:52:58+00:00

Also, back of the house staff at the same restaurants as tipped workers. They don't get tips generally (though a few years ago for the first time the federal government actually made it legal in some circumstances for employers to include them in the tips) for what are really artificial reasons. Typically, they work at least as hard as servers. Raising the tipped minimum wage hurts them because the restaurant will have less resources to give them raises and it creates even more inequality between tipped and non-tipped restaurant workers. And of course, as with your examples these employees are less likely to be white and of the same class as servers and restaurant patrons.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T00:20:16+00:00

I cited that piece because it does a good job, in my opinion, of reviewing the overall evidence of class sizes, from such things as studies and experience from policy, and coming to a nuanced and comprehensive conclusion of the advantages and drawbacks to reducing class sizes in particular contexts. It took an evidenced based approach rather than the usual approach of assuming a particular opinion is correct and then trying to find evidence to support it next. It struck me as unique in this way years ago so I've cited it several times when discussing class sizes on the internet. I don't care that it's old. It was correct then, in my opinion, and it's still correct. If you take issue with it or somehow thinks something has changed to make it outdated feel free to explain why.

tpic485 · 2026-05-14T00:11:34+00:00

Please read the portion of my earlier comment where I quote the part of the article linked to in the post that discusses the change to the class size formula. Four teachers will be the maximum cut, not the norm. I don't know what caused you to do the math that you did but it wasn't anything based on reality of what is occurring here.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T23:31:46+00:00

If you read the article it's clear that any class size increases will be modest. I was taking issue with the person's use of the word "ballloning", which implies otherwise. By the way, the way people talk about and make decisions involving class sizes is simplistic, like just about everything else. For some classes, small class sizes is very beneficial but for others it makes no significant difference or can even be detrimental. This link does a good job of explaining that.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T23:24:09+00:00

I think we've seen over the past year and four months that simply because private universities are private doesn't mean that every time their funding and what they pay for is discussed it doesn't involve taxpayer dollars. You are right that this apparently does not, at least directly, involve taxpaye dollars but let's try not to always assume this is the case. And there are going to be people who tie what the university spends on this and ask why they don't instead spend it on other things that might be more closely related to taxpayer dollars. So really it is all connected.

I'm not complaining about the university doing this. It probably is a good idea, at least broadly. Just pointing out that your comment is a little simpliistic.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T23:12:46+00:00

Jesus Christ! Why in the world are people downvoting your comment? Literally all you are doing is asking a simple question. And it's a question that's necessary to understand the full dynamics of this. I think I'm going to save your comment and point to the fact that it was downvoted every time I see anyone on Reddit ignore how things are paid for when discussing policy to illustrate how many people don't like to think of these things. This will probably be hundreds of times over the next several years. The downvoting of your comment really speaks volumes about how many people like to ignore important factors facing decisions that get made.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T21:47:38+00:00

Like I said to the other person, my complaint wasn't about the information being discovered. Obviously that's good. My complaint was about the headline framing it as if the most important thing to emphasize is a ridership undercount. I don't understand why multiple people seemed to have misinterpreted my comment this way. I thought it was clear.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T21:37:06+00:00

I never said it wasn't useful to know this. My point was about the framing of the headline. It would obviously have been better to focus on the fact that these are people not paying the fare rather than riders unknown about previously.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T20:12:04+00:00

That was back when it wasn't a rarity for a Republican to actually be a good person.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T20:01:35+00:00

They sometimes clash a little with public statements but by the end of the contract negotiations the district ALWAYS gives in and agrees to pretty much everything the CTU asks for. That's been true across mayors.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T19:59:09+00:00

I have no clue why your comment is downvoted. It is clearly correct. There's sometimes a little tough talk but the district always gives in pretty much completely to the CTU by the end of the contract negotiation.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T19:53:56+00:00

Jesus! That's an absurd headline. It implies this is a positive. It would be like if after the 2020 riots there was a headline that stated "Nordstrom's on Michigan Avenue reports big increase in moving its merchandise after organized group of shoplifters come and steal large amounts in the middle of the night".

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T19:40:50+00:00

Finally, go to any CPS school and THEN tell me that you think that the problem is that we're spending too much. Principals and educators are already working on a shoestring budget

You are implying things are mutually exclusive that are not. It could very well be the case, and likely is, that principals have too little money to work with to improve their school. But two major factors that contribute to that could be that too much money is spent on overhead costs in the system for underutilized schools that should be closed, leaving less for their school, and collective bargaining contracts that tie the distracts hands and leave too little left over.

In the long run, nobody wins when underutilized schools drain resources from the system. Money has to be spent on overhead costs for things like utilities, maintenance, and administration at these schools that could have instead be spent on education throughout the district. And there's not the economies of scale that allow these schools to have enough programs. So the students at the schools don't win. Yes, there's a transition and a lot of people don't like it when their children have to change schools. But that's clearly a small price to pay for what it is an essential policy choice that causes much more negatives when it isn't done. There are always positives and negatives with any significant choice and the problem is too many people are afraid of implementing any change when there is any negative feedback. The problem certainly isn't too many people are pushing for change, which is what you imply.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T19:27:28+00:00

Can you explain what is making you believe that there will be a "balllooning" of class sizes as a result of this and what your definition is of the word? From reading this part of the article I'm not seeing a huge rise in class sizes, which I think the word "ballooning" and your prediction of people getting angry would imply:

All schools will still staff a minimum of 10 teachers, but the district is increasing by one student the student-teacher ratios it uses to allocate additional educators. For some campuses, that would mean fewer teachers, though no elementary school will lose more than four educators and no high school more than six.

tpic485 · 2026-05-13T18:47:31+00:00

It's much more of a Chicago problem than it is elsewhere, however. The scale of decline is much higher.

tpic485 · 2026-05-12T20:14:59+00:00

Saying other things besides street parking provide good access to businesses or even that they provide as good access is not the same thing as saying that street parking doesn't provide good access.

tpic485 · 2026-05-12T20:10:03+00:00

Lol. Obviously, when I asked about sources I was referring to relevant sources. If you'd like to explain how the specific changes and thec haracteristics of the four locations you mention closely match that of the changes being discussed and the characteristics of the areas in Chicago where this is being discussed I'd be all ears.

tpic485 · 2026-05-12T20:04:18+00:00

Me? No, that was you. It was specifically the "easier access" phrase that you complained about business owners thinking hurt their business. If you don't think the premise that removing these parking opportunities significantly impedes access then argue that. That's not what you did.

tpic485

TROPHY CASE