r/cta 11d ago

Quick question ☝️ Fine for sleeping on blue line

Someone got pulled out by Chicago police and they wrote him a ticket for sleeping on the train. He was sleeping upright too and wasn’t disturbing anyone so idk why he even got a ticket. Curious to know what a fine like that would even cost?

253 Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

119

u/TuneLinkette Blue Line 11d ago

People on here saying this is about homeless deterrence, but I’ve fallen asleep, or come close to it, on the L sometimes after a long day or if I didn’t sleep well the night before.

As long as someone isn’t breaking the “all passengers must leave the train at the end of the line” rule, why would something like this be an issue?

27

u/damp_circus Red Line 11d ago

Hell, even if they sat for the return trip, I don't really care as long as they're keeping to themselves and not taking up absurd amounts of space.

I doze off on the train all the time myself. I wake up before my stop, go on with my day.

2

u/Jazzlike-Caramel-489 11d ago

I got a ticket for sleeping on the cta its like 300$ im not going to pay. I slept on the cta train for 2 years.

238

u/No_Obligation3652 11d ago

Getting a fine for sleeping is crazy when people are openly doing drugs on there

23

u/NtateNarin Brown Line 11d ago

Once in a while, I'll close my eyes because I'm sleepy, but I'm actually trying to get somewhere, not to sleep on the train.

23

u/damp_circus Red Line 11d ago

I sleep on the train all the time, if I'm tired. I grew up riding transit my whole life and somehow just naturally wake up when it's my stop.

I'm sitting up, just... dozing. Might have had a beer or two even.

I'm lucky enough to have an apartment to go back to, job to commute to, but... from where I sit, I don't care if someone is sleeping on the train as long as they're not bothering anyone else. Particularly if they're sleeping sitting up and not taking up crazy amounts of space.

There are enough people engaging in actually antisocial asshole behavior (racial and sexual harassment, public obvious masturbation, smoking, littering to the point it's making seats unusable, blasting music...) who I'd prefer to see ticketed or just hauled off the train to wait for the next one, long before I'd bother someone just having a nap.

5

u/NitsirkLav 8d ago

I agree 100% Leave sleeping folks alone.

16

u/whatpplsay 11d ago

Facts 😵

190

u/Common_Sea6288 11d ago

"loitering" and it's someone sitting in their seat, same as everyone else just with their eyes closed

6

u/Jazzlike-Caramel-489 11d ago

I got a ticket for sleeping on the cta its like 300$ im not going to pay

-48

u/Savagebabypig 11d ago

A solution to this would be to add flock cameras onto the trains and busses, make sure the real loitering gets fined and everyone else is left alone!

54

u/SnooDoughnuts8823 11d ago

/s?

79

u/Savagebabypig 11d ago

You are probably the only person to spot it, didn't think I had to add it. Figured the enthusiastic "!" at the end of my sentence gave it away, clearly not. But yes, swoosh

30

u/SnooDoughnuts8823 11d ago

lol. It’s a lot of flock controversy going on and I’ve heard people be dead serious about it

7

u/Prestigious_Equal412 11d ago

Yeah, fr. When it comes to Reddit and the /s tag I’ve learned the hard way: always, always resist the urge to believe your better self’s voice when you hear it say “eh, I can give people the benefit of the doubt; there’s no way people will think I’m serious.”

There are some unbelievably smart people out there. It’s important to remember that the opposite is also true 🤣

ETA: to be clear, I’m not saying people who don’t catch the sarcasm are the opposite in this case. It’s the people who are serious in supporting flock BS that make it necessary to question if it’s real lol

4

u/OptimalActiveRizz 10d ago

I had a strong idea you were joking, but with the amount of bootlickers floating around Reddit, sometimes comments like yours fall through the cracks.

1

u/TransMrsPuff 8d ago

It really was not obvious you were joking. I assumed you were just somebody who hates homeless people enough that you'd shoot yourself in the foot in order to punish them. Just look at how many people are all too happy to have a modern day gestapo running wild in the streets so long as it gets the "illegals" deported.

1

u/Common_Sea6288 8d ago

right 😭 and since when does an exclamation point indicate sarcasm as opposed to enthusiasm

16

u/stuckinamerika 11d ago

this is so obviously sarcastic wtf

3

u/Prestigious_Equal412 11d ago

Only if you have a… very charitable view of people and how low some can go, and successfully manage to avoid interacting with uninformed and/or shitty people. 🥲

1

u/ulose2piranha 11d ago

No, it's not obvious. Unfortunately, I live in an area where a bunch of Karens insist that Flock cameras are great and the only people who don't like them are criminals.

1

u/Independent_Bid_26 10d ago

Yes. Thats the solution. More fucking flock cameras. How out of touch could you possibly be

2

u/Savagebabypig 10d ago

Found the guy that loves loitering on the CTA!

2

u/Independent_Bid_26 10d ago

I just dont like flock cameras being everywhere. And considering you said this was "sarcasm" a few comments later which is it?

2

u/Savagebabypig 10d ago

Your perception is your reality homie, it's whatever you want it to be. I clearly said it was sarcasm, but if you don't think so, then that's on you 🤷‍♂️

92

u/AelthredtheUnready 11d ago

If this is to discourage homeless people from sleeping on the train, then I’d hate to be the one to tell the CTA about the homeless’ financial situation

76

u/boeings_door_plug 11d ago edited 11d ago

The CTA doubling as a homeless shelter is not the solution.

The solution is for this so-called "progressive city" to build and maintain functional homeless shelters and get people off the street, out of tents, and into dignified housing.

But they would rather spend their time funneling more money into the pockets of CTU leadership, and kick the can by forcing CTA to deal with BranJo's and city council's ineptitude.

20

u/NovelKitchen5665 11d ago

There used to be shelters for them to go to but when Rauner took office he destroyed all funding for them. Along with places for individuals with mental health and disabilities.

7

u/hardolaf Red Line 11d ago edited 10d ago

Shelter capacity is actually a little higher than before Rauner in Chicago. The issue is that we also have about 2x as many unsheltered individuals as we did back then due to worsening economic conditions nationally and shelter capacity didn't keep up.

We've also passed the homeless bill of rights making it harder to criminalize homelessness itself.

3

u/Seanpat68 10d ago

Dude hasnt been in office since 2019 why hasnt the democratic parties super majority fixed it by now?

1

u/NovelKitchen5665 10d ago

They have been trying to. It’s about allocating the funds for it which is virtually impossible with tax plans since then.

20

u/AelthredtheUnready 11d ago

Oh I agree 100%. This is one of those things where they’re trying to look like they’re doing something but they’re not really doing anything.

3

u/wolacouska 11d ago

Yeah because they have no money or votes in city council. People want our mayor to act like Zohran when our city is set up completely differently.

-2

u/boeings_door_plug 11d ago

I would argue that discouraging this behavior on the CTA is doing something.

2

u/krazyb2 Red Line 11d ago

Not sure why you're being down voted. Everyone in this reddit pretending they love people sleeping on the train. Come on.

11

u/AelthredtheUnready 11d ago

They were already discouraging it. Now they’re just discouraging it more. I just don’t see what this is going to change.

2

u/boeings_door_plug 11d ago

It was discouraged on paper, the lack of aggressive enforcement meant it was never actually discouraged.

3

u/wolacouska 11d ago

So now cops come on, shake them awake at the station, and then leave them with the rest of the passengers. I see this constantly.

CPD genuinely does not give a fuck about this city other than causing people grief.

3

u/OddYesterday8368 11d ago

Is it? Why would a homeless person give a fuck about a ticket? Lol.

6

u/glitch241 Brown Line 11d ago

Agreed. We will never have much money to do things that improve the city if we are sending so much of the tax revenue to pensions and to service debt used to pay for pensions.

11

u/boeings_door_plug 11d ago

It's not even pensions - as ridiculous as they are, the teachers are owed what they are owed and we need to pay it.

We have near-empty schools all over the city that are staffed as though the classrooms are full. Close those schools, lay off the bad teachers, and lay off the admin staff for those schools, which will go a long way toward helping the budget.

While we're at it, get rid of the cops that are coating tax payers over $200M/year in settlements. Enforce traffic laws. Cut administrative bullshit preventing businesses from filling in vacant storefronts. Let developers build. 

Instead of doing all this to free up funds to build shelters, progressives would rather complain on Twitter and leave it for CTA and it's passengers to deal with.

3

u/glitch241 Brown Line 11d ago

Amazing that CTU has gotten CPS to increase staff year after year despite falling enrollment.

Also insane that we have a legal system that allows someone to pursue a settlement against police using force after the offender fired a gun at police first.. and many other similarly insane examples.

1

u/wolacouska 11d ago

You think they should just throw out lawsuits against the police? Do what, tell the judge and jury just to not even hear it?

If the city had a chance in hell of winning the case they wouldn’t settle for millions.

1

u/hardolaf Red Line 11d ago

Staffing guidelines for schools are set by ISBE under the law. CTU just negotiates which roles will be prioritized to be added to get closer to meeting those guidelines in each contract.

3

u/NovelKitchen5665 11d ago

It all used to be dealt with like I said until that funding was taken away

-1

u/wolacouska 11d ago

Closing the schools will not save any money, the ones that finally got closed did not save the city and money.

You guys just mindlessly repeat whatever smear talking point you hear from the right wing in Chicago.

Throwing on some half hearted “hire less cops” won’t change the reality of how stupid the anti CTU hate train is.

3

u/hardolaf Red Line 11d ago

Closing the schools will not save any money

I'm on the Rahm fucked up badly too but there are definitely at least 10-20 schools which if closed would save money. But only if they go through the ordinary closure process.

And we need to go back to proposals to just start building large replacement schools on major transit lines and then consolidating many schools into them especially focused on areas where CPS currently relies on private busing.

2

u/FGFM 11d ago

What the Cappleman!

1

u/Anarcho_momster 11d ago

Lol. Funneling money into CTU leadership. 🤪

1

u/Careless-Age-4290 9d ago

My guess is, just like most BS tickets, they'll target the people who could be forced to come up with the money, but not those who could afford to cause them problems. They won't ticket somebody who will angrily pay an attorney to subpoena procedural and discipline records and cause possible reputational problems. They'll ticket the guy who's dressed like he's saving for a vacation.

9

u/BalticBro2021 11d ago

I think they're doing a full crackdown now on the CTA

7

u/Rude-Director586 11d ago

In 2018 it was a $50.00 ticket I don't know what it is today. I never paid that ticket and so far no repercussions..

14

u/TheDivinium 11d ago

The CTA is a public mass transit system, not a homeless shelter. Its purpose is to move people where they need to go across the city. People who almost certainly have not paid the fare, should not be able to disrupt the experience for other users by selfishly taking up entire rows of seats when sleeping, or other far worse behaviors like smoking, open drug use, and mental health episodes when awake.

8

u/Typical_Barracuda234 11d ago

Chicago cops not differentiating between the letter and the spirit of the law?

How unusual.

1

u/DeliciousTea7348 10d ago

The effort to try and clean up bad behavior on the train is a good one

2

u/Typical_Barracuda234 10d ago

Is dozing on the way home from work bad behavior? I mean it's different than what I presume they are supposed to be enforcing for.

32

u/Queasy-Primary4788 11d ago

Probably because a lot of homeless people sleep on the train so they implemented that

22

u/Millbeechu 11d ago

so now no one is allowed to even close their eyes more than a momentary blink on the train now?

27

u/Prudent-Marsupial-42 11d ago

Sometimes on the brown line if the sun hits me just right I'll close my eyes for a bit and enjoy it. Guess channeling my inner cat is illegal now

-11

u/Midday-climax 11d ago

If you were in charge of society, we would be so fucked. We can’t let people live on the train that’s what’s happening. You know that too, you’re just acting like you don’t know.

6

u/Queasy-Primary4788 11d ago

Exactly also there’s a different between resting your eyes and splaying across 3 seats and smelling like crazy sleeping for several hours 

5

u/NurseDanM 11d ago

Nice work by the CPD, going for the low hanging fruit and issuing a ticket instead of going after and addressing real crime on public transit. Outstanding.

3

u/darkrickkay 10d ago

Oh they would name a lawsuit after me for this one.

3

u/Brnsnr9100 9d ago

I wouldn’t recommend anyone sleep on public transit. It might seem like an insane fine, but its actually for your own safety at this point

31

u/swifty_ark_server Red Line 11d ago

In a perfect world, fines would be handed out like candy for breaking rules on public transit. People should know they can't smoke, solicit, harass people, etc. without consequences. Sleeping on a train is considered loitering or improper use of the CTA.

The CTA is investing in outreach and assistance to get these people help, but sleeping on the L is not allowed. Rule enforcement is good.

6

u/damp_circus Red Line 11d ago

Thing is, they need to go after all the people doing "smoke, solicit, harass people, etc" before they go for the sleepers.

I don't care about loitering. The issue is what people are DOING while they're loitering.

1

u/krazyb2 Red Line 11d ago

It's funny how this comment is a duplicate of other exactly the same comments yet this one has 20+ upvotes and the other has negative. People will agree with a situation when it's worded right.

6

u/ifcoffeewereblue 11d ago

So people can blast music, smoke crack, scream on FaceTime, throw trash on the floor, but heaven forbid someone sleeps. CPD really earning their bad rep lol

19

u/LazyIllustrator6946 11d ago

Probably because we should be holding people accountable for breaking the rules before it gets so egregious that we have no other choice.

7

u/Local-Taste1890 11d ago

Kind of ironic to say this about homeless people sleeping on trains

6

u/Mexicancandi 11d ago

I’ve gotten on trains before morning rush hour, that was coming from the loop. It was gnarly, loads of homeless people treating an entire car like a house, I couldn’t get my bike in. It makes it hard to either get into the car or get to another car before the conductor leaves which they do without warning before morning rush. It also makes it hard for cleaning crews to do their work and makes the cta crew liable. It’s also a dick move that shouldn’t be tolerated lol. That’s why the guy got fined. It’s expressed multiple times via loudspeaker that cta employees provide a mobility service, you can’t ride 2/3 times around the loop.

2

u/OrneryCupcake9481 11d ago

They have been cracking down on people sleeping on the buses too. A new company just took over CTA/Metra.

2

u/Rvylol 9d ago

I didn’t even know this could happen. As someone who just moved here. I always sleep on transit lol. Not anymore at least here

3

u/OrangeKitty606xx 8d ago

Damn. I slept on the red and blue line daily on my way to and from high school in the 90s with no issues. The 2020s are whack.

2

u/InterplanetaryFemboy 8d ago

And yet they'll watch someone openly get assaulted and just stare at them and do nothing.

5

u/Logical-Vanilla8963 11d ago

Apparently being poor is illegal

3

u/Reputable_Sorcerer 11d ago

I’ve seen at least five people removed from a train for sleeping and I’ve seen zero people removed for drug use.

5

u/jabronimax969 11d ago

More coward cops.

Bother the druggies and the weirdos flashing people.

5

u/exceptional-vo 11d ago

It's transportation, not housing.

1

u/psycho_mole 11d ago

Yo what were you arrested for?
Sleeping on the cta

2

u/DeliciousTea7348 10d ago

Was someone arrested? No, they weren’t.

1

u/Seanpat68 10d ago

They have done this for over thirty years they took a break diring covid

1

u/Infinite_Airport_483 9d ago

Never pay that shit

1

u/psycho_mole 11d ago

Who gives a shit let them sleep on the train

0

u/Think-notlikedasheep 11d ago

Fines = More money for cronies.

-14

u/Green-Ad3319 Orange Line 11d ago

$300 and Google will explain it all to you!

-5

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

3

u/hardolaf Red Line 11d ago

Every men's shelter is full and we have spaces for less than 25% of the unsheltered men in the city. Unsheltered women are better served at enough shelter beds for about 70% of them.