Sustainable Transportation Field, Public Transportation Category

Emcee: Debra Poneman

Our next inductee is the Chicago Transit Authority. By providing an alternative to the automobile, the CTA is by its nature an eco friendly company.

CTA moves 1.8 million Chicagoland riders a day. A full 8 car train takes the place of more than 800 people using automobiles. For every passenger mile traveled, public transportation uses about half the fuel of private automobiles. In Northeastern Illinois alone, public transit saves 276 million gallons of fuel annually, and at $4 a gallon amounts to more than $1,100 million dollars in fuel savings. At this rate the CTA saves at least 1.4 million tons of carbon dioxide carbon emissions from being emitted into the environment.

Obviously, public transit is a key to any discussion about energy independence, pollution control, and sustainability in the future. Accepting this award on behalf of the CTA. and to tell us a bit more about what the CTA is up to, is Lydia Murray, Chief of Staff.