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CTA reviews camera-enforcement pilot data as city expands automated bus-lane enforcement
Summary
CTA staff described the Hayden AI bus-based camera enforcement pilot, the city's larger automated enforcement rollout, early warning/ticket counts presented by city staff, and CTA's plan to expand bus-mounted cameras pending funding and interagency coordination.
CTA presented early results from a camera-based enforcement pilot designed to keep bus lanes and stops clear and improve ramp-deployment access for riders with disabilities.
Angel Lang, a project manager in CTA's planning and innovation department, described an automated enforcement system that pairs a context camera and an automated license-plate reader on buses. The onboard processor identifies probable parking violations in bus lanes, bus stops and bike lanes, packages video and ALPR evidence, and uploads it to the vendor (Hayden AI) for initial review; the city's Department of Finance (DOF) performs final review and issues warnings or tickets by mail.
Lang reviewed the timeline: cameras were installed and calibrated in mid-2024, an initial warning period began Oct. 15, 2024, and enforcement followed in November. The presentation said the city's enforcement program recorded 44,390 warnings and violations through Dec. 31, 2025; the city reported that 75% of those were zero-fine warnings, fewer than 2% were contested, and about 40% involved non-Chicago plates. Lang told the committee that the City of Chicago expanded the program area in early 2026 and that the city and CTA are coordinating on data sharing via an intergovernmental agreement.
CTA's own buses began a focused pilot on two routes (six CTA buses) and the presentation reported CTA-captured warnings and violations during the warning/enforcement period. The slide deck stated, verbatim, that "we've had a total of 13,16 warnings and violations that have been captured" by CTA buses during the period covered, and Lang showed heat maps of locations with the highest rates of detected violations. Lang said initial comparisons at 50 high-ramp-deployment stops showed an 18% decrease in violations from December to February, which CTA linked to increased enforcement hours (a 14% rise in enforcement hours during that period).
Committee members asked operational questions: whether the system records moving violations (it does not; enforcement targets parked vehicles), whether tickets are contestable (yes; education hearings exist), and whether repeated unpaid violations may result in booting (a committee member stated it can be a bootable offense). Members also asked how revenue is used; Lang said that, at present, DOF manages revenue and none is returned to CTA.
Lang said CTA aims to scale the bus-mounted camera fleet to more buses (a target of up to 94 buses was mentioned) as funding becomes available; CTA will continue to analyze month-to-month data, share results with City agencies and present a summary to City Council as required under the Smart Streets pilot rules.
What's next: CTA and city staff will continue data collection, refine deployment plans for more buses and present consolidated results and recommendations to City Council and CTA leadership before any permanent expansion.
