Last November, 72-time arrestee Lawrence Reed poured gasoline on a CTA Blue Line passenger in Chicago and set her on fire. The incident was so egregious that the Federal Transit Administration got involved, threatening to withhold $50 million in federal funds unless the CTA enhanced systemwide security. The CTA implemented its plan in March, but the benefits have been hard to detect so far.
Congress is poised to repeat the FTA’s ineffective intervention. The Surface Transportation Reauthorization—the government’s five-year approval of road and rail funding—features several similar attempts to improve public safety.
