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Saw a link on BoingBoing ....

Submitted by dan.greenblatt on 14 January 2009 - 2:28am to DIY Chicago.

... and was psyched to see that someone has already create a group for Chicago!

I *love* the idea of this site. The whole think global / act local mantra actually put into action in a formalized and repeatable manner ...

So let's get this party started! Unfortunately, there are no shortages of problems in our city. Corruption, rising cost of public transportation, insanely high taxes, homelessness, FREEZING COLD (though I suspect we can't do anything about this :)

So I'll throw something on the table: I would suspect that given the recent hike in the cost of the El to a non-even number of dollars ($2.25), a lot of CTA cards with money still on them (though not enough for a full trip) get tossed. Is there any opportunity here?

I'm also really interested in topics pertaining to sustainability, especially in the context of how and what we eat, and given Chicago's quest for 'green,' this could be another good place to start.

Any feedback / suggestions?

14 Jan02:57

Re: Saw a link on BoingBoing

By John Geraci

Dan,

Those are some great ideas. LOVE the CTA card idea - definitely potential there. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

As far as sustainability, that topic is central to DIYcity - the idea is that by making city living patterns more coordinated, more intelligent, more collective and more responsive, we can at a bare minimum create more efficient systems than we currently live with, and we perhaps can create something altogether different, and radically better, than our current cities would allow us to imagine. Sort of an emergence in city systems, based on these mass exchanges of information.

That's my idea, anyway.

Hope to see some good stuff coming out of DIY Chicago!

14 Jan04:52

Great idea

By clint

I think the cta card is a great idea. I have at least three or four cta cards with an odd amount of money on them and will probably never use them again. I would love to have a resource where I could pass them to someone who is in actual need of using them. Have you given much thought about the possible opportunities that are there?

14 Jan05:23

cta card

By dan.greenblatt

hi Clint -

i have a bad habit of thinking about solutions where the problems aren't defined or don't actually exist, and i think that this is an example of a problem-less solution. on the flip-side, because the solution is 'money,' i'm sure there's any number of problems it can be applied to :)

in the most basic incarnation, i can see somehow using this money to donate to a local charity. but even better - as you've suggested - if these funds can be somehow leveraged for travel by those who actually need it ....

i hear you though - i also have a couple cards with money 'locked up' into them and no way of getting it off. unless, of course you manage to put on just enough money on it so that when you swipe a fare or a transfer you end up at zero.

the cta is so fraught with problems of all kinds (financial, construction, usability), that i think this would be a great domain in which to start. but specifically, with this issue of locked-in cta cards, here are my thoughts:

1) In order for there to be any opportunity here, I think that we'll need some buy-in from the cta, because there's really nothing you can do with a card other than check the balance, add money, or swipe it for a fare. for example, there's no system in place to be able to transfer money from one card to another or use multiple cards to pay for one fare

2) it's probably not in the CTA's best interest to free up that money.- essentially a discareded farecard with > $0 balance is free income for them. Furthermore, there's no way of knowing (without talking to someone from the CTA) whether this extra income is actually accounted for in the current price scheme - i.e. if we took that money out of the system, would the CTA have to charge even more?!? Eek. (this is pure speculation)

Haha - this kind of reminds me of that harebrained scheme in the movie office space that eventually gets them all into trouble ....

I wonder if we can establish some contacts within the CTA to find out where all the lost fares end up?

16 Jan20:29

re: cta cards

By John Geraci

It seems to me that the DIYcity approach is to figure out some way to make use of that resource that doesn't require approval from the city, build that, and then afterward involve the city in a dialogue about it. That seems like a better strategy than waiting for buy-in from the CTA, which is a huge behemoth and is unlikely to respond to anything unless it is already going full-steam.

This seems like a really interesting idea. I think you should consider ways of making it happen.

I would just consider ways that require as little input/upkeep as possible, as it seems like something that could require continual oversight to work, and that could bog it down if you weren't careful.

21 Jan22:20

Good point

By dan.greenblatt

I agree, the more decentralized a solution, the more likely it will be sustainable. But short of hacking the cards (the legality of which is pretty shady), I'm not sure how this could advance without an official partnership with the CTA....hrmmmm.

To further corroborate your point, John, I had actually sent a well thought-out, lengthy email to the CTA and received a terse, one-line response: "You can only use one card to pay your fare.", which wasn't elaborated on any further, despite a request for more informration. Grrrrrr.