Crime and the CTA Rapid Transit (Golden: safe, station, rating)

[Chi-town Native]

not 100% on topic, but some good points here that do tie in to prevention:

The 6 Weirdest Things That Statistically Lower Crime | Cracked.com

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by deliz

I agree with you 100%. I take the red line and I haven't seen a police presence -- ever. This could all stop if they'd put a police officer on every platform. Just a bunch of nasty thugs destroying a great cities reputation.

Do you mean on the trains?? I take the red line and see cops in the stations every single day. Morning and night. Normally the stations downtown will have officers. There's always the same guy at the Brown Line Merch Mart as well. Normally police on the platforms as well as the pay areas up on the mid-level.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

not 100% on topic, but some good points here that do tie in to prevention:

The 6 Weirdest Things That Statistically Lower Crime | Cracked.com

Interesting stuff. Thanks for posting that. I was hoping they would get the #1 reason right, and they did.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by emathias

Were they drunk?

When the CTA had conductors (as recently as 12-15 years ago), they walked between cars, and I think at the time it was accepted for passengers to do the same. It's only relatively recently that it's become frowned upon, and while it's not exactly as safe as laying on your back in the middle of a park, it's not exactly a huge risk to do so.

Not huge but still risky. I have done it to get to a car with open seats. I have been on trains that hit a bad section and bucked, trains that had brake problems(as in they were locking on and the train had dragged the bad cars a while). Trains that jerked to a start or stop(esp. an unplanned stop). There have always been warning stickers on or near the window telling you not to go between cars(or as long as I remember).


Conductors did it cause that was how they collected fairs(at night) and to some degree to monitor the train. Plus they had to do it for their job (door jammed in one car and the manual override is in that car…). For the most part they rode in a car towards the middle. In terms of security what amazes me is how the driver is now very locked into his booth, before they used to keep the door cracked sometimes.

As for the guy it was either Schizophrenia or drugs not drunk. However I have been next to drunks, once next so some who discretely snorted cocaine, Once had a tape recorder thrown at me by a crazy woman who latter hit another person at 95th station. For the most part my experience was safe very safe, but you are still dealing with the general public(i.e. anything can happen….anywhere).

[Golden Camel]

People have reported getting ticketed for walking between cars (using the doors at the end of the car, not running out to the platform) even when a train is stopped at a station.

When a train is waiting in the middle track at O'Hare, the signs at the end of the station point to both sides of the train. More often than not, only the doors on the left side are open and tourists stand on the right side scratching their heads in bewilderment. It used to be you would just get up and pull the emergency cord to open the door for them, but with this new zero-tolerance attitude on the part of the police department, I'm scared to do that any more.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by gomexico

The Chicago Tribune is featuring an article today which discusses crime on the CTA rapid transit and identifies locations in the system at which the highest rates of crime are reported. These are statistics which the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Transit Authority have been reluctant to publicize.

You can read the article in its entirety by clicking on the link which follows:

Tribune analysis reveals hot spots for CTA-related crimes - chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...941854.graphic

Very interesting, reaally wish there was a way for the good people to avod the bad guys, the bad people need the good people to victimize.

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by chirack

The trouble with walking between cars is that the train can throw the person. Which can cause delay, injury, death, possible law suit. However you need the ability to walk between cars in emergancies which is why they don't lock the doors. I know from a good source of someone who was paralized from the neck down by walking between cars.

what happens, does the person fall onto the tracks under the train?

[FlyiMetro]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

not 100% on topic, but some good points here that do tie in to prevention:

The 6 Weirdest Things That Statistically Lower Crime | Cracked.com

I read this article & I think about all the rappers who claim they make money selling crack, when people are not rally buying crack anymore. If people are no longer buying crack why do they keep rapping about it?

[chirack]

Originally Posted by FlyiMetro

I read this article & I think about all the rappers who claim they make money selling crack, when people are not rally buying crack anymore. If people are no longer buying crack why do they keep rapping about it?

From living on the west side, still plenty of crack about. As for walking between cars yes in theory you could be thrown under but I figure more likely you will be thown to the side and miss being run over. If thrown to the side you could fall onto the support structure of the EL and miss the third rail or the street(in certain areas) or the area where the trains run in the expressway. Depends on where you were when you got thrown.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Golden Camel

I'm not sure I understand. If Station X had 100 murders last month, I would call that a dangerous station regardless of whether 1000 or 100,000 passengers boarded there last month. And whether the crime was caused by tourists or locals would be of little concern to me. In fact, I would be glad to know that there were a lot of tourists in the vicinity that were causing (or attracting) crime so that I could avoid the area if I had a choice (or at least demand more police patrols or whatever).

I really don't understand why a larger ridership would make crime more acceptable. And I don't understand why the fact that it was occurring in a tourist district would make me feel safer passing through there than if it were occurring in a residential district.

Since they measure crime NEAR a station and not IN a station it matter quite a lot. Roosevelt probably has on the order of 1,000 times (I'm not exaggerating - I literally mean 1,000 times as many people) as many people near it in the course of a year compared to, for example, the Damen stop on the Brown Line or the California stop on the Pink Line. If you end up with 200 crimes at Roosevelt and 2 crimes at either of the other two I mentioned, it actually means you're 10 times as likely to be a victim at the "safer" stations than at Roosevelt (1% of the crime, but .1% of the people near the station = 10 times "worse" on a risk basis).

So, yeah, it matters a lot.