Commuters Take Action Collection

Commuters Take Action was founded in 2022 with the goal of persuading the Chicago Transit Authority and officials from the City of Chicago to acknowledge the decreased service of the Chicago Transit Authority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and work to correct it. Their focus has been on demanding accurate trackers and schedules, transparent hiring, fair working conditions for bus and rail operators, and for the Chicago Transit Authority and City of Chicago to create a plan outlining how they will return to and improve normal transit services.

Commuters Take Action has worked toward this goal in part through placing informational handbills, stickers, and posters at train and bus stops throughout the CTA’s network . The physical side of their campaigns has served to highlight the work the organization is doing to engage riders themselves to report late buses and trains. This reporting activity has in turn led to Commuters Take Action releasing regular reports showing the inaccuracy of transit tracking and schedules in Chicago. Their data driven approach has gone hand in hand with physical protests. The organization was the recipient of the 2022 Advocate of the Year award from the Active Transportation Alliance. As of the publication of this finding aid, Commuters Take Action is still organizing actively.