7 ms·

> In my city, 70% of the operating budget is labor Link? Because, well, your city is certainly special! Unless, like, you group things like 'pension liabilitie

> In my city, 70% of the operating budget is labor Link? Because, well, your city is certainly special! Unless, like, you group things like 'pension liabilities', and 'insurance involving personnel' under 'labor', which is... creative but not accurate.

xnx 2y ago
"Labor" $1.3 billion of $1.8 billion budget: https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/cta%E2%80%99s-fy2023-18-billion-operating-budget-approved https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/cta%E2%80%99s...
- antithesis-nl 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - xnx 2y ago
    I didn't want to link to a PDF, but here you go (PDF page 41): https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/FY2025_CTA_Budget_Book.pdf https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/FY2025_CTA_Budget_...
- xethos 2y ago
  You should probably know that "Labor" includes a hell of a lot more than drivers though. That's, at minimum, the tiremen to the body guys to the mechanics that maintain the busses. That's the electricians, the carpenters, the plumbers, that maintain the shop(s). That's the planners (that dictate "X bus will be due for an oil change this day, we need to make sure it's here"), the office administrators, the shop supervisors, the road supervisors. Paying the bus drivers does not account for 70% of the budget, I assure you.
  - xnx 2y ago
    Absolutely. Having so many drivers, and so much custom hardware, leads to a cascade of additional employees and expense for legacy transit systems. A transit system (self-driving cars) oriented around driverless vehicles and very lightweight support infrastructure (distributed charging, cleaning, repairs) can be much more cost efficient and agile.
    - xethos 2y ago
      I mean sure, drivers need support, but getting rid of drivers increases the support requirements. Drivers perform the legally-required pre-trip every time they leave the yard. This finds things that must be fixed. The coach will then spend 12-28 hours on the road (across multiple drivers), with a driver making sure anything that feels off gets reported. I've dealt with self-reporting systems in this area, and I do not have the words to tell you how much less I trust self-reporting than an 8 hour test-drive by someone that knows the bus. This skips over all the local police's missing person reports that show up for every driver that can help. Completely unrelated to the job of driving - but when it's my kid that doesn't come home, arguably more important to me. Drivers are sticking around, and I think a lot of people are confused about how much they do to keep things running

xnx 2y ago

"Labor" $1.3 billion of $1.8 billion budget: https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/cta%E2%80%99s-fy2023-18-billion-operating-budget-approved https://www.civicfed.org/civic-federation/blog/cta%E2%80%99s...

antithesis-nl 2y ago
[flagged]
- xnx 2y ago
  I didn't want to link to a PDF, but here you go (PDF page 41): https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/FY2025_CTA_Budget_Book.pdf https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/FY2025_CTA_Budget_...
xethos 2y ago
You should probably know that "Labor" includes a hell of a lot more than drivers though. That's, at minimum, the tiremen to the body guys to the mechanics that maintain the busses. That's the electricians, the carpenters, the plumbers, that maintain the shop(s). That's the planners (that dictate "X bus will be due for an oil change this day, we need to make sure it's here"), the office administrators, the shop supervisors, the road supervisors. Paying the bus drivers does not account for 70% of the budget, I assure you.
- xnx 2y ago
  Absolutely. Having so many drivers, and so much custom hardware, leads to a cascade of additional employees and expense for legacy transit systems. A transit system (self-driving cars) oriented around driverless vehicles and very lightweight support infrastructure (distributed charging, cleaning, repairs) can be much more cost efficient and agile.
  - xethos 2y ago
    I mean sure, drivers need support, but getting rid of drivers increases the support requirements. Drivers perform the legally-required pre-trip every time they leave the yard. This finds things that must be fixed. The coach will then spend 12-28 hours on the road (across multiple drivers), with a driver making sure anything that feels off gets reported. I've dealt with self-reporting systems in this area, and I do not have the words to tell you how much less I trust self-reporting than an 8 hour test-drive by someone that knows the bus. This skips over all the local police's missing person reports that show up for every driver that can help. Completely unrelated to the job of driving - but when it's my kid that doesn't come home, arguably more important to me. Drivers are sticking around, and I think a lot of people are confused about how much they do to keep things running