CTA Safety Project
UX Research, Experience Design, Mobile Design
My team was tasked with finding ways to make the CTA safer for passengers. In our initial research we found that gender minorities (transgender people, non-binary people and women) were the most at risk group. Through user research and design my team developed a set of resources readily available through a personal smartphone to help make the CTA safer for gender minorities.
Problem Statement
How might we increase the experience of safety and accessibility for gender minorities on the CTA?
Research
Secondary Research
Our team began our research by performing a literature review to identify safety concerns, CTA’s current practices, safety precautions, and what other public transit systems are doing.We found that the CTA measures its incidents per 100,000 miles and that the CTA has documented incidents such as bomb threats, robbery, larceny, burglars, and arrests. We also discovered that nation wide gender minorities were under real threat and had a real need for further safety measures on public transit.
via Chicago Transit Authority
User Interviews
Our team conducted interviews with gender minorities who regularly use the CTA. We defined gender minorities as women, trans and non-binary people. Our goal was to understand how people define safety and whether or not they felt safe while on the CTA. I along with two other teammates conducted the interviews over Zoom.
Findings & Insights
After synthesizing the information from the user interviews our team noticed three main insights emerging:
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Riders are uncomfortable using the safety button on the train, as they feel it may cause things to be less safe
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Riders feel particularly unsafe when they perceive themselves to be alone in certain situations
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Riders feel they are not properly informed when it comes to the CTA information and arrival timings.
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Our team used these insights to collaboratively develop opportunity areas in order to ensure our solutions addressed specific needs from our users.
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Create alternative safety measures that decrease the emotional load of calling for help when needed
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Create a safe space for gender minorities on the CTA that gives them a sense of belonging when traveling by themselves
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Create an efficient flow of communication between riders & CTA to give people a heightened sense of safety & control
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The Solution
My team decided to create a solution that addressed all opportunities and that was integrated into the already familiar Ventra mobile app. To prevent our users from needing to become familiar with a new app we designed our solution to exist within the Ventra app, which many of our users expressed already being familiar with. Users also noted that they used mobile phones as a way to avoid negative or unsafe interactions. Therefore our solution needed to be able to exist on a mobile platform. Our solution has three main components, The Safety Toolkit, Community Space and Real Time Information.
“Looking at these concepts they seem so obvious I can’t believe Ventra hasn’t already done that.”
Saftey Toolkit
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A safety button on the user's phone that works as the current safety button and alerts the driver of the bus or train you are riding on.
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Live chat feature to talk to and track when help will arrive
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Ability to share your location with a friend
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Ability to contact CTA authorities, police, or friends
Community Space
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Created a community space on Ventra for different groups to join to help promote a sense of belonging and safety
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Users can connect with and plan to travel together to help promote feeling safe while on the CTA
Real Time Information
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A real time map where users can track visually where the train or bus is located.
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Live news feed on the Ventra homepage where users can be notified about delays and have a choice to only see news about trains and buses they have ‘liked’.
Conclusion & Reflection
This project allowed me to collaboratively work through the entire user experience design process. I performed a literature review, conducted user interviews and collaboratively developed insights and opportunities that our team used to create a solution. This project shows my ability to work through the entire design process and collaboratively work with a team. As a gender minority living in Chicago this project felt very personal to me and it was meaningful to create a solution that could potentially benefit others in my community. Throughout the research and design process I was sure to keep and open-mind and truly listen to what our users were saying to ensure that I was not making quick assumptions based on my own personal bias. This project directly addresses a very real and prevalent issue on the CTA currently. Our solution would aim to reduce the amount of gender-based violence on the CTA as well as make gender minorities feel safer while using the CTA.