On Oct. 16, 2026, ReoFact photographed a camera on a CTA X49 bus and filmed Chicago police SUVs parked in a bike lane downtown and driving in a red CTA bus lane. The city now uses cameras on CTA buses to ticket drivers who block those lanes. Here is what the city says about the cameras, and what our footage does and does not show.
What we saw
At 2:48 p.m., our video shows Chicago police SUVs stopped in a bike lane next to traffic cones in the downtown area. At 5:02 p.m., our video shows Chicago police SUVs with their emergency lights on driving in a red CTA bus lane.
Each clip is only a few seconds long. We do not know why the vehicles were in those lanes, and our footage does not show whether any of them received a ticket.
We also photographed cameras on CTA buses. At 8:20 a.m. on Oct. 16, we photographed a CTA X49 Western Express bus with a small white camera housing mounted on the roof line above the front window. We do not know what that device records. On Oct. 22, we photographed a CTA bus on the Homan route, number 8822, and two round camera lenses are visible through its windshield. The CTA announcement described below does not list the X49 among its camera routes.
How the bus cameras work
The Chicago Transit Board voted on July 8, 2026, to expand its automated bus lane enforcement program from six to 52 camera equipped buses, with installation expected to finish this fall, according to a CTA announcement. Each system has an onboard processor and two windshield mounted cameras that record violations in bus lanes, bike lanes and at bus stops. The technology vendor manually reviews the violation data before sending it to the city, which makes the final determination and issues the ticket. The CTA says it is not involved in reviewing violations or issuing tickets.
The CTA announcement names the No. 20, No. 36 and No. 66 routes as the current focus and the No. 8 as planned. WTTW reported in October that eight city vehicles also carry license plate readers and cameras, and that fines run $250 for blocking a bike lane and $90 for obstructing a bus lane. The City Council made the program permanent and citywide on Oct. 14, and the ordinance lets the CTA add cameras to as many as 100 buses, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
A 2023 report on the mayor's motorcade
In December 2023, CWB Chicago reported that four SUVs assigned to Mayor Brandon Johnson had collected 21 citations and one warning in the seven months since he took office, with $2,130 in fines and penalties unpaid at that time. We have not found a more recent count, so we are not drawing conclusions about today.
Our question
Should city and police vehicles follow the same bus and bike lane rules as everyone else? Tell us on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram, or write to contact@reofact.com.
Photos and video: ReoFact.