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CTA outlines Safe Ride Ambassador pilot after stakeholder workshop
Summary
CTA staff summarized a multi‑stakeholder workshop and outlined plans to develop a Safe Ride Ambassador pilot later this year, emphasizing de‑escalation, visibility and partner coordination; staff said pilot design will balance rapid deployment with partner resourcing and technology needs.
CTA staff told the advisory committee they are preparing to scope a Safe Ride Ambassador pilot after a late‑summer workshop that included CTA staff and more than 50 external stakeholders.
Kara Bader, vice president of strategy and innovation at CTA, said the half‑day workshop convened transit staff, community‑based organizations, behavioral‑health providers and peer transit agencies to shape program goals and inform pilot design. Peer presenters described multi‑year pilots in other cities that began small and scaled: TriMet (Portland), BART (Bay Area) and Metro Transit (Twin Cities) all emphasized visibility, empathetic engagement and de‑escalation, and used ambassadors as a complement to police and security resources rather than a replacement.
Bader said breakouts at the CTA workshop produced a toolkit of partner services, policies and technologies that participants recommended for a pilot; common priorities included trauma‑informed training, clarity on dispatch and dispatch technology, strong partner relationships with mental‑health and outreach providers, high‑visibility branding for ambassadors, and measurable KPIs to track outcomes and reporting.
CTA staff signaled they will draft a partnership scope and pursue pilots later this year, but stressed unresolved operational questions: how ambassadors will be dispatched and resourced day‑to‑day, what technology will allow real‑time coordination with control centers, and how to ensure partners have capacity to staff pilots. Bader cited peer programs that launched small (teams of 2–4) and expanded over 2–5 years, and noted the Twin Cities program benefited from a multi‑million dollar state funding package in contrast to CTA’s constrained resourcing and hiring/retention challenges.
Committee members asked about timelines and cross‑agency coordination; Bader said staff plan to document workshop notes, conduct post‑event surveys, and circulate a summary report and draft scopes to the advisory board and CTA leadership before pursuing partner agreements. No firm funding award or contract was announced at the meeting.
