[ardecila]

There wasn't any money to move it over to Ashland. Building an entirely new viaduct would pose numerous challenges (crossing the Eisenhower, moving sewer pipes and utilities under the road, etc).

Plus, you'd get an unsightly viaduct running down the middle of Ashland. It's much better in an alley, where buildings can conceal the tracks and muffle the sound. It also means CTA doesn't have to worry so much about the aesthetics of the track and structure, and can sink more dollars into stations and other public areas of the system.

[CTA Gray Line]

Why would you move it? You can route it to Ashland if a Circle Line is ever built (doubtful in my lifetime) and in the mean time it's much more efficient where it is, seeing as it can go straight up from the Pink Line's route on existing right-of way without covering a busy street with either disruptive or extremely expensive (or both) elevated structures.

The ROW North of Lake St. has been extensively built over, and would require much acquisition and clearance to restore rail service.

[ardecila]

Yeah, but the neighborhoods (Ukranian Village, Wicker Park, Bucktown) would never allow a new elevated line to be built past their homes. If, God forbid, the Circle Line is ever built, it will be in a subway north of Lake Street.

[J_M_Tungsten]

Wacker drive expecting 125 concrete trucks tomorrow. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-wacker-0413-20110413,0,7600828.story

[Baronvonellis]

Do you know what those plastic pipes in Wacker Dr. are for? Are they for heating the street in the winter?

[nomarandlee]

A new ORD express rail site now open......

http://www.ordexpressrail.com/

O'Hare Airport Express Rail Service Launch of Website and RFI & I

The Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and the O'Hare Express Blue Ribbon Committee announce the launch of the O'Hare Airport Express Rail Service website (www.ordexpressrail.com) and the release of a Request for Information and Interest (RFI&I) for the development of a rapid passenger rail system connecting Chicago's Central Business District and O'Hare International Airport.

The Chicago-O'Hare Airport Express Rail Service is envisioned to provide a world-class, expedient, convenient, efficient, and reliable link between downtown Chicago and the City's global gateway - O'Hare International Airport. Chicago's Central Business District is the City's and State of Illinois' major center for business, tourism, conventions, hospitality, entertainment, cultural attractions, restaurants and shopping. This service will alleviate traffic congestion on the region's roadways and is intended to be independent of, but supplemental to, other mass transit system connections.

The website will provide the public and interested parties with information and updated progress on the development of this vital infrastructure link between the two major economic centers..........

[CTA Gray Line]

A new ORD express rail site now open......


Let's choose up sides for convenience:

I am first on the "It'll Never Happen - For Good Reason" side.

[emathias]

The ROW North of Lake St. has been extensively built over, and would require much acquisition and clearance to restore rail service.

But that has nothing to do with the Paulina Connector.

[Mr Downtown]

^The Paulina Connector—back when it was just the main stem of the Met—extended all the way north to Milwaukee Ave. Today, the only real purpose is to interconnect the system; it's the only way to get rolling stock from the Blue Line to the rest of the network. To get state money to rebuild it, CTA pretended it was the first phase of a "Circle Line," but the state called their bluff and told them to run revenue service over it or give the money back. So CTA had to invent the Pink Line.

Do you know what those plastic pipes in Wacker Dr. are for? Are they for heating the street in the winter?

No, probably for post-tensioned rebar rods. Post-tensioning the slabs allows them to be several inches thinner than the old slabs.

[Beta_Magellan]

Doesn’t the Pink Line also help with resource utilization and frequency—by being separate from the Blue Line the Cermak branch can run shorter trains at higher frequencies.

[emathias]

I finally sat down to describe how I think my suggestion for a real airport express/downtown circulator might actually operate, and I sent it to that new group advocating for a private airport express, telling them a public/private partnership that did more than just a West Loop to O'Hare run might be syngergistically far better.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5052/5540629785_9f1258020a_b.jpg

What I sent them:


Dear ORD Express group:

Over the years there have been a lot of suggestions for express or enhanced rail service between Downtown and O'Hare. There have also been at least two different proposals for a "downtown circulator" that would tie together the West Loop Metra stations with the East Loop and Michigan Avenue.

I understand that your proposal is for a private enterprise to build and run an express train between downtown (probably from the West Loop) to O'Hare, with little to no public funding. However I'd like to propose a hybrid idea that would be a public-private partnership that would add considerable benefit to both the airport express idea and the downtown area circulation.

Attached is a very rough illustration of what I'm proposing. Basically a high-speed route between downtown and ORD would be built - I chose an alignment that roughly parallels the CTA Blue Line, however the exact routing doesn't matter for my purposes - you could run it along a Metra route or even in a deep tunnel subway with the same basic result. The bulk of my suggestion applies downtown, where I propose a large circulor subway be built (the exact streets could be changed to suit needs, but for example) such that it runs north-south along Clinton and Columbus/Fairbanks, and east-west along roughly Chicago and Adams.

For express trains, there would be not one, but two downtown departure stations. One in the West Loop, to serve the West Loop CBD, and one roughly near Watertower to serve the business and tourist district along Michigan Avenue. I know that your plan includes checking in downtown and shuttling people straight to the secure areas of O'Hare - my plan can still accommodate that, even with sharing tracks with a non-secure shuttle, by using sidings at the two departure stations to isolate people departing for O'Hare. Referencing my attached graphic, the departure station at Watertower would depart west, and not stop until O'Hare, bypassing the circulator station shown at Franklin. By only having one station between it and exiting this new Loop, it would minimize conflicts. Likewise, the West Loop departure station would bypass the Fulton-area circulator station on its way to O'Hare.

On return runs, for arriving passengers, the trains could make all stops between their entry to the New Loop and their terminus. The runs could alternate entry directions, and if they enter clockwise, they would terminate (and become a new departure train) at the West Loop station, and likewise if they enter counter-clockwise they would terminate at the Watertower station. By using sidings, passenger access can be controlled fairly simply, while allowing arriving passengers to be dropped at one of several stations closer to their final destination. Stopping at local stations on the arrival runs is not a security problem because the trains can be cleared at the Departure station before allowing departing passengers on board by the simple use of waiting areas and secure gates.

So in addition to the increased speed between downtown and O'Hare, my proposal adds several significant advantages:

1) Reduces total arrival travel time to final destinations for most arriving passengers by increasing the stations they can arrive to downtown.
2) Reduces total departure travel time for people departing from the Michigan Avenue district
3) Simplifies travel for people who travel from the North or South sides to downtown who want to use the express to O'Hare - they can easily transfer from the Red Line to the Watertower station instead of having to travel to the West Loop, which is not an easy transfer to make.
4) Creates a circulator to improve transit accessibility between the West Loop, the Central Loop, the Michigan Ave corridor and the emerging River North/Kingsbury area (current home of Groupon and other fast-growing tech companies).
5) Together, this both induces additional ridership for the express through easier use and greater benefit, and by greatly expanding the number of people with convenient-enough access to it to make it competitive with taxis and existing rail service.

These are not small advantages, and I hope you share my belief that despite the cost increases associated with this plan, the overall increases in benefits make the additional investment well worth it.

[the urban politician]

^ Interesting suggestions. Hopefully somebody up there takes a look at it (although how much do you want to bet you'll get a response like "our focus is on ORD-Downtown express, any other projects are outside of our scope" since, after all, why would we ever engage in regional planning?)

Emathias, given the fact that they are seeking private capital from an entity outside of the United States who simply may not understand Chicago's mass transit needs, have you considered a way to present your proposal so that 1. Private investment towards a ORD-Downtown terminus can begin first and thus yield revenue, and 2. The latter portions (downtown circulator) that involve more public money can be phased in over time?

Finally, why is Daley forming a committee for a long term project 1 month before he leaves office? The future of this project is really up to Rahmbo at this point.

[CTA Gray Line]

But that has nothing to do with the Paulina Connector.

The Humboldt Park, and Logan Square Met routes operated in the
same N/S alignment North of Lake St. up to Milwaukee Ave., as the remaining Paulina Connector (Pink Line) South of Lake St.

The old 'L' bridge over the UP West ROW remains as a UP signal support; but there has been much construction over the rest of the old Met 'L' ROW since.

Google Earth: 1700 W. Lake St., Chicago and you can follow the old Met 'L' ROW North to Milwaukee Ave., and see all the new construction: http://www.google.com/maps?source=uds&q=1700+W.+Lake+St.,+Chicago

[emathias]

The Humboldt Park, and Logan Square Met routes operated in the
same N/S alignment North of Lake St. up to Milwaukee Ave., as the remaining Paulina Connector (Pink Line) South of Lake St.

The old 'L' bridge over the UP West ROW remains as a UP signal support; but there has been much construction over the rest of the old Met 'L' ROW since.

Google Earth: 1700 W. Lake St., Chicago and you can follow the old Met 'L' ROW North to Milwaukee Ave., and see all the new construction: http://www.google.com/maps?source=uds&q=1700+W.+Lake+St.,+Chicago

I'm sorry I didn't add "as it currently exists" to my sentence. I'm well aware of the history, however that's all it is today - history.

[Mr Downtown]

Doesn’t the Pink Line also help with resource utilization and frequency—by being separate from the Blue Line the Cermak branch can run shorter trains at higher frequencies.

I think that's open to debate, particularly since nearly half the line's mileage is non-productive replication of other services.

[Haworthia]

I think that's open to debate, particularly since nearly half the line's mileage is non-productive replication of other services.

There is another issue where more frequent than necessary service gets ran on the Forest Park branch of the blue line. If you live along this line, I imagine it's rather nice, but I don't think the ridership is there to justify that service level. I suspect the old configuration of a Douglas and Forest Park branch of the Blue Line was a more efficient system.

[ardecila]

Yeah, but the CTA short-turns trains after UIC-Halsted, so the Forest Park branch has half the frequency of the subway and O'Hare branch. Previously, they just ran every other train to the Douglas branch.

[VivaLFuego]

Yeah, but the CTA short-turns trains after UIC-Halsted, so the Forest Park branch has half the frequency of the subway and O'Hare branch. Previously, they just ran every other train to the Douglas branch.

I think there are only around 6-7 daily short turns at Morgan Middle Track --- it's definitely not every other train.

[Beta_Magellan]

Looking at the Blue Line schedule, it seems like, in addition to turning around at UIC-Halsted (only five trains according to the schedule), some trains seem to be held in Desplaines Yard after running south from O’Hare and through downtown during rush hour, so inbound frequencies are in the 7-10 minute range, not the 3-4 minute range of the O’Hare Branch. This leads to kind of a weird situation where the reverse commute trains on the Forest Park line running at higher frequencies than the regular commute. So peak headway is little bit longer than on the Green Line’s Lake Branch (6 min, IIRC), and both have around the same ridership (~27,000 weekday boardings on non-downtown stations), so I don’t think the line’s inbound frequency is too high.

Upgrading the interlocking and third track behind UIC-Halsted was proposed in the late nineties as part of the Schaumburg extension of the Blue Line—O’Hare trains would continue to Forest Park and Cermak, whereas the new Schaumburg service would end at UIC-Halsted. I don’t see any reason (besides money, of course) why they couldn’t do this now—it could also help boost frequencies for reverse commuters on the O’Hare branch, who definitely are a larger market.

[ardecila]

I'd prefer if they relocated the holding track to west of the Medical Center station. With 900k boardings in 2010, it has more traffic than Clinton or LaSalle, but much more than stations further west. Plus, it would allow for a high frequency of service to a major employment center (in 2010, Medical Center captured more riders than Polk, despite a less-convenient location).

CTA has a massive four-track right of way, with extra room for station platforms, so they can put the holding track anywhere, and construction is a breeze.

[djlx2]

Looking at the Blue Line schedule, it seems like, in addition to turning around at UIC-Halsted (only five trains according to the schedule), some trains seem to be held in Desplaines Yard after running south from O’Hare and through downtown during rush hour, so inbound frequencies are in the 7-10 minute range, not the 3-4 minute range of the O’Hare Branch. This leads to kind of a weird situation where the reverse commute trains on the Forest Park line running at higher frequencies than the regular commute. So peak headway is little bit longer than on the Green Line’s Lake Branch (6 min, IIRC), and both have around the same ridership (~27,000 weekday boardings on non-downtown stations), so I don’t think the line’s inbound frequency is too high.

Upgrading the interlocking and third track behind UIC-Halsted was proposed in the late nineties as part of the Schaumburg extension of the Blue Line—O’Hare trains would continue to Forest Park and Cermak, whereas the new Schaumburg service would end at UIC-Halsted. I don’t see any reason (besides money, of course) why they couldn’t do this now—it could also help boost frequencies for reverse commuters on the O’Hare branch, who definitely are a larger market.

The long delay at desplaines yard totally caused interference between the running times of commute on either track. I don't know how the situation stands with the interlocking track. I know that they upgraded the system in the signal station to create more immediate communication of where the traffic is at specific moments to try to make the running times more harmonious. This was a little while ago.

[Jenner]

Thanks for all the comment regarding the Paulina branch. I guess I didn't realize that the CTA wasn't really serious about the circular route. Sounds like the CTA could use a master plan. One thing that may be useful would be to buy the ROW of abandoned tracks. The CTA could always use the ROW for later purposes.

Emathius: I was doodling around, and created an outer downtown circulator similar to your diagram. There probably wouldn't be enough demand to justify its construction, but hey, its a good dream to have. Also, I think I heard that the CTA was considering a bus route that would do the same thing. Right now, the diagram is attempting to reuse the IC tracks, but would probably be better aligned next to Michigan instead. I'm not sure that such a route would alleviate any bus traffic along Michigan Ave.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5228/5625527176_efe79970b2.jpgClick here for Larger version (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36457406@N07/5624895093/sizes/l/in/photostream/) This diagram shows a proposed "Gold" line outer circulator. This would give more transit options for west and south downtown. Having the access to the transit would probably make the property values skyrocket.

[CTA Gray Line]

Thanks for all the comment regarding the Paulina branch. I guess I didn't realize that the CTA wasn't really serious about the circular route. Sounds like the CTA could use a master plan. One thing that may be useful would be to buy the ROW of abandoned tracks. The CTA could always use the ROW for later purposes.

Emathius: I was doodling around, and created an outer downtown circulator similar to your diagram. There probably wouldn't be enough demand to justify its construction, but hey, its a good dream to have. Also, I think I heard that the CTA was considering a bus route that would do the same thing. Right now, the diagram is attempting to reuse the IC tracks, but would probably be better aligned next to Michigan instead. I'm not sure that such a route would alleviate any bus traffic along Michigan Ave.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5228/5625527176_efe79970b2.jpgClick here for Larger version (http://www.flickr.com/photos/36457406@N07/5624895093/sizes/l/in/photostream/) This diagram shows a proposed "Gold" line outer circulator. This would give more transit options for west and south downtown. Having the access to the transit would probably make the property values skyrocket.

Great, I like it.

[ardecila]

Thanks for all the comment regarding the Paulina branch. I guess I didn't realize that the CTA wasn't really serious about the circular route. Sounds like the CTA could use a master plan.

The Circle Line was the pet project of Frank Kruesi, the CTA's former chairman. There have been two new chairmen after him, and neither of them seem very dedicated to the Circle Line concept.

The recent mayoral election exposed the resentment that outlying areas have towards the constant re-investment in downtown. The near-downtown neighborhoods served by the Circle Line are targets of the same resentment. Because of this, I think neighborhood-focused transit projects will dominate the next decade.

Already on the table are the two Red Line projects and the Orange Line project, which I'm fairly confident will be started before the decade is out. Beyond that, there are the recurring efforts to start Rapid bus/BRT service on major corridors like Jeffrey, Western, and Ashland.

[emathias]

...
The recent mayoral election exposed the resentment that outlying areas have towards the constant re-investment in downtown. The near-downtown neighborhoods served by the Circle Line are targets of the same resentment. Because of this, I think neighborhood-focused transit projects will dominate the next decade.

Already on the table are the two Red Line projects and the Orange Line project, which I'm fairly confident will be started before the decade is out. Beyond that, there are the recurring efforts to start Rapid bus/BRT service on major corridors like Jeffrey, Western, and Ashland.

I think you need to add a "percieved" to that. Objectively, I don't think there is a case to be made that downtown has proportionally received too much funding. It's classwar-driven perception, continued by politically-motivated, intentional fostering of class divisions. Look at the Pink Line. Objectively the Douglas Branch could have been torn down and replaced with enhanced bus service just going off ridership numbers. But not only was it rebuilt, it was kept open (unlike the Green Line), and split into a separate line to enhance service flexibility and yet all of that was still attacked at various points by political figures in its service area. It's hard to take "neighborhood groups" seriously when stuff like that happens.

At the same time, the Loop itself has never been rebuilt, is the heaviest-used part of the system, and yet is still not fully ADA-compliant. Objectively, Downtown does NOT receive too much investment and I think that in a purely objective world where politics were not played for purely personal gain that it would be clear Downtown needs MORE, not LESS investment. It seriously does worry me that the neighborhoods are going to continue to be getting a lot more investment at the expense of downtown. Pink Line, Orange Line, Brown Line, even back to the Green Line, Blue Line O'Hare branch tie replacement, all these neighborhood lines have had significant investment in the past 20 years, while Downtown has gotten what? Tie replacement in the subways, some necessary rehabilitation of subway stations and ... what? Even for the first proposal for BRT, all the proposals were for BRT in neighborhoods. Now there's one in the Loop, but originally, they were ALL in the neighborhoods.

Downtown gets a lot of grand proposals, but what's actually happened downtown? Next to nothing, despite it being the clear leader in population and business growth over the past 20 years. That's not a sustainable trend - throwing investment in declining areas while ignoring the growing areas. Something will give - either Rahm or his successor will face down the partisan actors who are only interested in their own local rabble-rousing and not in the long-term health of the city, or downtown will choke and growth will stall due to a lack of infrastructure. We have maybe 20 years to work it out, which given the history of planning in Chicago really isn't very much time at all.

[CTA Gray Line]

I think you need to add a "percieved" to that. Objectively, I don't think there is a case to be made that downtown has proportionally received too much funding. It's classwar-driven perception, continued by politically-motivated, intentional fostering of class divisions. Look at the Pink Line. Objectively the Douglas Branch could have been torn down and replaced with enhanced bus service just going off ridership numbers. But not only was it rebuilt, it was kept open (unlike the Green Line), and split into a separate line to enhance service flexibility and yet all of that was still attacked at various points by political figures in its service area. It's hard to take "neighborhood groups" seriously when stuff like that happens.

At the same time, the Loop itself has never been rebuilt, is the heaviest-used part of the system, and yet is still not fully ADA-compliant. Objectively, Downtown does NOT receive too much investment and I think that in a purely objective world where politics were not played for purely personal gain that it would be clear Downtown needs MORE, not LESS investment. It seriously does worry me that the neighborhoods are going to continue to be getting a lot more investment at the expense of downtown. Pink Line, Orange Line, Brown Line, even back to the Green Line, Blue Line O'Hare branch tie replacement, all these neighborhood lines have had significant investment in the past 20 years, while Downtown has gotten what? Tie replacement in the subways, some necessary rehabilitation of subway stations and ... what? Even for the first proposal for BRT, all the proposals were for BRT in neighborhoods. Now there's one in the Loop, but originally, they were ALL in the neighborhoods.

Downtown gets a lot of grand proposals, but what's actually happened downtown? Next to nothing, despite it being the clear leader in population and business growth over the past 20 years. That's not a sustainable trend - throwing investment in declining areas while ignoring the growing areas. Something will give - either Rahm or his successor will face down the partisan actors who are only interested in their own local rabble-rousing and not in the long-term health of the city, or downtown will choke and growth will stall due to a lack of infrastructure. We have maybe 20 years to work it out, which given the history of planning in Chicago really isn't very much time at all.

From the work I have observed them doing already, I am sure that by mid-2012 when Cambridge Systematics and O-H Community Partners complete the South Corridor Study; they will have identified a cost-efficent Eligible Project(s) to submit for New Start funding. And the Communities involved will really push for it.

[the urban politician]

The recent mayoral election exposed the resentment that outlying areas have towards the constant re-investment in downtown.

^ How did you come to this conclusion? Rahm was endorsed by the business community and most of the big power brokers who also supported Daley. Rahm's constituents are essentially a coalition of the luxury class and the black community, not too dissimilar to Daley's. If anything, the vote for Rahm was a vote for the continued revitalization of downtown and the lakefront areas.

If people were resentful towards downtown, they would have put Del Valle into office, or perhaps even Chico, instead of Rahm.

At the same time, the Loop itself has never been rebuilt, is the heaviest-used part of the system, and yet is still not fully ADA-compliant. Objectively, Downtown does NOT receive too much investment and I think that in a purely objective world where politics were not played for purely personal gain that it would be clear Downtown needs MORE, not LESS investment.

^ Couldn't agree more. What downtown needs is to fix up the L. The Randolph/Wabash stop just looks horrible walking in from Millennium Park. That painting is nice but it looks so cheap. Something really attractive and modern could serve as much better gateway to the Theatre district/State St.

But fine, lets keep throwing money after dying neighborhoods. I'm sure they'll show their appreciation by approving suburban shopping centers with seas of parking right next to their newly minted rail stations...

[k1052]

^ Couldn't agree more. What downtown needs is to fix up the L. The Randolph/Wabash stop just looks horrible walking in from Millennium Park. That painting is nice but it looks so cheap. Something really attractive and modern could serve as much better gateway to the Theatre district/State St.


Randolph/Wabash and Madison/Wabash should be combined into a new station over Washington. There is no real reason to keep 3 stations on that side and it will speed up operations and reduce costs.

The city/CTA really needs to totally rebuild State/Lake first though. For the traffic it gets the station is a decrepit and unsafe embarrassment.

[Beta_Magellan]

Currently the central area plan calls for State/Lake to be rebuilt and a new Washington/Wabash station to replace Randolph and Madison—don’t remember the timeline, but I think they’re slated for after 2015.

Personally, I like the old idea (http://www.chicago-l.org/articles/randolph.html) of combining all three into a “superstation” at Randolph/State which would connect to Millennium Station and the Randolph-Washington Red Line mezzanine via the pedway.

[denizen467]

a new Washington/Wabash station
This could destroy the view corridor from the western Loop that is terminated by the Gehry pavilion.

Unless only the entrances/exits were at Washington, with the platforms and other station facilities shifted just north or south of that intersection. That would presumably cast a lot of darkness on the sidewalks below, but it's still preferable I think.

[ardecila]

Why not just get rid of the Madison station and rebuild Randolph where it is? The businesses around the Randolph intersection are already geared toward transit service, and Randolph is still the closest L station to all of Lakeshore East and Illinois Center. CTA could lease some space in one of the neighboring buildings for a transfer from elevated-pedway, kinda like the one in 203 N LaSalle (they should do this at State/Lake, too, and at Van Buren/Jackson).

Alternatively, they could keep both the Randolph and Madison mezzanines and just link the two platforms and combine them into one stop with two sets of entrances. The west facade on Madison is beautiful if a bit decrepit (it's orange-rated). I'd love to see it restored and then cloned on the other side.

http://img861.imageshack.us/img861/9018/madisonwabash01.jpg

[sammyg]

. Beyond that, there are the recurring efforts to start Rapid bus/BRT service on major corridors like Jeffrey, Western, and Ashland.

How about they just restore the express service on Western, Ashland, Irving Park, Cicero, etc. that was taken off last year?

[Beta_Magellan]

:previous: Someone from inside the CTA told me that restoration of express service is basically dependent on tax revenues going back up again—they aren’t going to sacrifice local service for express service.

I’m they’ll get around this issue on Jeffrey because the Jeffrey BRT is really just a series of improvements for the 14-Jeffrey Express, which is already a limited-stop (approximately every quarter-mile) service.

Although it would be difficult politically, I think the CTA should really look into stop consolidation—this would improve operating speeds (peak-period), resulting in lower operating costs, and attracting/retaining more riders, improving revenue.

[Mr Downtown]

^It's my understanding that the discontinued X routes—lacking signal priority—were not that much faster than the regular routes. By the time you figured in waiting time, they often saved less than a minute for the average rider.

[Beta_Magellan]

Based on what I heard, the time differences were definitely appreciable at peak, but not so much off-peak, when the local buses would skip a number of flag stops anyway. (I didn’t have much experience with the west and north side lines, but the X55 was definitely quicker, even at odd hours.)

[ardecila]

Well, I'd prefer to have express buses that only stop every half-mile, as well as rail stations and major employment hubs (factories, hospitals, etc). The quarter-mile stopping pattern of the X-series express buses wasn't limited enough to really save time. It might also help if the express buses were more frequent than the local ones. Able-bodied people would gladly walk an extra block or two in order to save time on a cramped, crowded bus, while older and disabled people would still have their local service on a lower frequency, and they would encounter less crowding on the bus as a result.

Personally, in the dead of winter, I'd much rather spend my time walking to an express bus stop with really frequent service, than standing still freezing my ass off at a local stop waiting for a less-frequent bus. Maybe this isn't a factor now that Bus Tracker exists, but I haven't had the chance to rely on Bus Tracker since my phone is pretty ancient.

CTA should also look into establishing transit zones at major intersections, with prepaid fare machines (2 for each intersection, catercorner from each other) and rear-door entry.

In the most congested corridors, a dedicated bus lane might be looked at as an option, but this needs to be balanced against the needs of retailers and local residents to have street parking. CTA's idea to restrict the bus lanes to rush hours only is a good one, but tricky for enforcement - and a decline in the availability of street parking might lead developers to build more strip malls, which should be avoided at all costs anywhere on the North Side or within the boulevard ring.

[Beta_Magellan]

And on a related note, this CTA Press Release:


CTA Amends Capital Budget (http://www.transitchicago.com/news/default.aspx?Month=&Year=&Category=2&ArticleId=2820)

4/15/2011

Federal Dollars Fund Green Technology and Project to Study Western Corridor


The Chicago Transit Board today approved an ordinance amending the CTA’s 2011-2015 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to include a $2.2 million Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant for the purchase of two electric buses and a $1.6 million grant for an Alternative Analysis of transit along Western Avenue. The ordinance increases the capital budget from $649.7 million to $653.5 million.

“These grants are a welcome addition to CTA’s capital budget as they allow the agency to explore different methods of providing bus service while not taking away from the funds needed for investment in the infrastructure,” said Chicago Transit Board Chairman Terry Peterson. “CTA needs to look to the future and stay abreast of advancing technologies to ensure it is providing the most efficient and cost-effective service possible. Electric vehicles can help reduce fuel costs and have environmental benefits, and finding ways to improve travel time is important to overall service operation and customer satisfaction.”

CTA will test the 35-40 foot electric buses for approximately one year. Typically, electric buses can travel 30 to 40 miles on a single battery charge. Travel distance is one of the main items CTA will monitor closely to determine whether the electric buses can eventually be used along an entire bus route. Weather conditions and weight load will also be monitored to determine how those variables affect travel distance. Much like electric cars, lithium-ion batteries will power the electric buses.

“This grant is an excellent opportunity to test how electric buses can perform,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez. “The CTA is always looking at new, green technologies and how to incorporate them into our operations,” Rodriguez said.

The grant also includes the purchase of charging stations. The agency is in the process of developing specifications for requests for proposals to go out for bid later this year.

CTA also received funding for an Alternative Analysis (AA) of the Western Corridor. The study corridor includes Howard Street on the north, Western Avenue on the west, Ashland Avenue on the east, and 95th Street on the south.

The Alternative Analysis will examine the feasibility of Bus Rapid Transit service in the corridor as a means to provide faster service, improved connection points and enhanced transit services at affordable prices. The study area includes connections to CTA’s rail lines, Metra rail lines and Pace suburban bus routes. Among areas CTA will analyze are parking, current street signals, traffic patterns and the potential for a dedicated bus lane.

“The study area is highly populated with residents who depend upon public transportation in their daily lives,” added Rodriguez. “With better travel and transfer points between Metra, Pace and CTA, this project is a good way to examine the most efficient method to make connections between different modes of travel between multiple agencies for customers who are traveling outside of the central business district.”

[k1052]

And of course today a NB Brown Line train derails over the triple crossover at Clark Junction during rush. :rolleyes:

Whatever the Red Line rebuild happens to turn out as it would be fantastic if they could build a flyover or anything really to eliminate this conflict.

[OrdoSeclorum]

Well, the CTA was just awarded the Best Transit System in North America, beating out NYC, Sao Paulo and Montreal. Huh.

http://www.terrapinn.com/awards/the-metros/winners.stm

[Cirrus]

Rahm Emanuel names DC's Gabe Klein to head Chicago DOT

This is really great news for Chicago. Klein was fired by DC's new mayor who is anti-reform, but under the previous mayor Klein did really fantastic things with the DC DOT. He's very much a "doer" and is totally on board with the progressive urbanist agenda for cities. He's responsible for most of the city's best bike infrastructure, especially.

Before working for DC, he was an executive with ZipCar.

Big win for Chicago.

http://transportationnation.org/2011/04/19/breaking-rahm-emanuel-names-dcs-gabe-klein-as-chicago-transpo-chief/

BREAKING: Rahm Emanuel Names DC's Gabe Klein As Chicago Transpo Chief

Transportation Nation has learned that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has picked his transportation chief. Gabe Klein, former head of Washington D.C.’s Department of Transportation will become the head of the Chicago Department of Transportation next month. An announcement is expected later this morning.

Klein tells Transportation Nation that he hopes to build on the innovative programs that were put in place in Washington, D.C. and transform Chicago into a world class transportation city. During his tenure, D.C. launched a bikeshare program, expanded bike lanes and installed several electric car charging stations.

As we’ve reported here before, Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, is largely supportive of public transit, is a cyclist himself, and has said he wants to build 100 miles of new bike lanes during his first term.

His transportation plan when running for mayor was, in essence, a transit plan. Emanuel also impressed local transit and transportation activists with his interest in the topic and detailed knowledge of the issues including having a specific favorite bike-lane design.

Now Chicago has a pro-bike, pro-transit pair in charge of transportation policy.

[Chicago3rd]

Chicago Tribune
April 19, 2011
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2011/04/emanuel-names-claypool-new-cta-president.html

UPDATED at 11:15 a.m. by Kristen Mack; first posted at 11:02 a.m.

Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel today named City Hall veteran Forrest Claypool to take over as president of the Chicago Transit Authority and announced another Daley Administration insider, Terry Peterson, would stay on as chairman of the CTA board.

[ardecila]

Rahm Emanuel names DC's Gabe Klein to head Chicago DOT

This is really great news for Chicago. Klein was fired by DC's new mayor who is anti-reform, but under the previous mayor Klein did really fantastic things with the DC DOT. He's very much a "doer" and is totally on board with the progressive urbanist agenda for cities. He's responsible for most of the city's best bike infrastructure, especially.

Before working for DC, he was an executive with ZipCar.

Big win for Chicago.

I figured Cirrus would jump on this before I could get to it. :haha:

Klein represents a major shift from Daley's typical transportation chiefs, who were part of a revolving door between a small handful of big road-engineering firms around town.

As you might expect, none of them ever showed much sensitivity to proper urban design, other than the bike lanes and the token streetscaping that Daley himself pushed for. Outside of that, there was always an odd disconnect between the big-ticket projects downtown that showed some level of sensitivity to pedestrian concerns, and the boneheaded decisions in the rest of the city (like in Uptown, where Broadway was widened and sidewalks narrowed right in front of a massive redevelopment with a Target and hundreds of units of new housing, one block from an L station).

We couldn't get Janette Sadik-Khan, but we got the next best thing. Hopefully Klein will push for some of the major projects currently in the study phase (like the Bloomingdale Trail, the Polish Triangle at Ashland/Division/Milwaukee, and the West Lakeview intersection of Belmont/Ashland/Lincoln) to incorporate proper pedestrian and bike planning like the advanced thinking that's been shown in DC and NYC. I also expect a proper bike-sharing system to be implemented within 18 months.

[emathias]

Well, the CTA was just awarded the Best Transit System in North America, beating out NYC, Sao Paulo and Montreal. Huh.

http://www.terrapinn.com/awards/the-metros/winners.stm

I'm pretty sure it was best in the the Americas. I mean, I know Brazil is everybody's favorite right now, but if it can even be a contender in a *North* American contest, I'm sensing a fix. ;)

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-transportation-summit-20110419,0,4736023.story

Transportation summit targets I-90 corridor
Mass-transit option pushed between O'Hare and Rockford

By Richard Wronski, Tribune reporter
9:18 p.m. CDT, April 19, 2011


..........Tuesday's session brought together almost all the chairmen, many of the board members and the top staffers from all the region's transit agencies in the same room, along with leaders of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.

Planners once envisioned the proposed Metra suburb-to-suburb STAR Line running down the median of I-90, but state and federal funding for the multibillion-dollar project has dried up.

"The days of money raining down from Washington are over," said Randy Blankenhorn, executive director of the metropolitan planning agency.

A cheaper and quicker option would be to run express buses on I-90 and other parts of the tollway system, and Pace is ready to do that, said Richard Kwasneski, Pace's chairman.

"We're ready to go, but we have to figure out what the best approach is," Kwasneski said. "The financial part is the most difficult question: Who pays what and when?"
..........;...

[lawfin]

^^^^This is an example of roosters coming home to roost.

The land use patterns and consequently the density patterns in all but a very few Chicago suburbs make PT all but impossible to implement successfully....most development is far too sparse.


Better to focus PT in areas where the underlying land use make its adoption amenable..ie certain inner ring burbs and the city itself.

[ardecila]

Finally, a realistic plan. I'd be happy to see some dedicated bus lanes and stations (not shoulders) pitched for the inevitable Addams Tollway rebuild that's coming up in a few years. Houston's bus lanes on US-290 are pretty cool. The buses have their own exit ramps to get to park-and-rides.

[ardecila]

Finally a realistic plan for transit in the Northwest Tollway. Hopefully in the inevitable reconstruction/widening of the expressway we can get some dedicated bus lanes.

Mr. Downtown's plan (and illustration):
http://www.chicagocarto.com/NWC.gif

[Trantor]

I'm pretty sure it was best in the the Americas. I mean, I know Brazil is everybody's favorite right now, but if it can even be a contender in a *North* American contest, I'm sensing a fix. ;)

maybe the original mentioned St Paul, and then the dumb writer of the article thought St Paulo was a translation of São Paulo instead of really being the US city? :shrug::shrug:

[Cirrus]

Not to rain on anybody's parade, but I'm not sure the APTA "best transit agency" thing should be taken very seriously. In 2008 they gave the award to Richmond, VA. I don't know what their criteria are (maybe administrative/management as opposed to service?), but I promise that Richmond does not have the best transit agency in the state of Virginia, much less the continent.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/4673930076_b16cb9dd7c_z.jpg

[ardecila]

I believe the award was given purely based on the CTA's innovative development, testing, and implementation of Bus Tracker and Train Tracker - not any other, more substantial measure of CTA's quality. If CTA was really America's best transit agency, then I shouldn't need a train tracker.

[CTA Gray Line]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-21/news/ct-met-lahood-transit-0422-20110421_1_cta-red-line-transit-cta-estimates


LaHood offers only wait-and-see for Chicago-area mass transit funding

April 21, 2011|By Jon Hilkevitch, Rick Pearson and Patricia Callahan, TRIBUNE REPORTERS

Chuck Berman, Chicago Tribune

During a visit to Chicago on Thursday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood offered no federal commitments to help rebuild or expand the region's deteriorating transit system.

That was a marked contrast to his last visit to the area about a month ago, when he brought $155 million for the expansion of O'Hare International Airport,

"We'll work with the folks at the CTA or Metra or whatever in terms of what their needs are. And if we can be helpful to them, we will be helpful to them," LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Peoria, told the Tribune's editorial board.

But LaHood focused much of his message on the Obama administration's efforts to build a national network of high-speed passenger trains. He vowed that opposition from the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida and Republicans in Congress will not derail the plan to spend $53 billion over six years to create routes that would eventually be within reach of 80 percent of the U.S. population.


So far, $10.5 billion has been appropriated to more than 30 states, including about $1.4 billion to Illinois for the 110 mph Amtrak route between Chicago and St. Louis.

Asked what he would do to help reduce travel times for train and bus commuters in the Chicago area, which suffers from the worst congestion in the nation, LaHood said increased federal investment in local transit systems will hinge on the outcome of the debt-reduction debate in Washington and whether Republicans and Democrats come together this year to pass new transportation spending legislation.

LaHood made no commitment to fulfill Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's stated plan to line up federal funding in his first year in office to extend the south branch of the CTA Red Line from its current terminus at 95th Street another 5.5 miles to 130th Street. The project is estimated to cost more than $1.2 billion. Emanuel also set a high priority on modernizing antiquated CTA stations and old tracks on the North Side, which the CTA estimates would cost up to $4 billion.

"We're always going to have money at DOT for airport expansion, for transit. We'll see what the mayor's vision is, and then we're going to see how it fits into our budget," LaHood said.

[lawfin]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bike-dooring-accidents-0425-20110424,0,2629398.story
chicagotribune.com
Illinois to start tracking bicycle 'dooring' collisions

By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune reporter

5:09 PM CDT, April 24, 2011

Dangerous collisions caused by the doors of parked vehicles opening into the path of bicyclists will for the first time be counted as crashes in Illinois, under a change ordered by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The new rules, which officials said will be announced Monday and take effect immediately, require police departments across the state to record "dooring'' accidents on Illinois traffic crash forms.

The dooring data will be incorporated into annual traffic accident summaries compiled by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Officials described the policy shift as a starting point to help reduce dooring crashes, which can result in injuries and deaths.

Quinn sought the change after reading a March 21 Chicago Tribune story. The article reported on a long-standing IDOT policy to exclude dooring crashes from annual state traffic accident statistics because the motor vehicles involved in such collisions are not moving.

"Anyone who rides a bike can tell you that dooring is a serious issue," Quinn said. "One of the best ways we can increase public safety is by making sure we've got the best and most comprehensive data possible. That's why we've made this change."

The Active Transportation Alliance, a safety advocacy group that represents bicyclists, had appealed to IDOT officials, without success, since last year to collect dooring data as a means to understand the extent of the problem.

IDOT officials expressed concerns that such a requirement would burden police with additional paperwork and that there were few complaints from the public about doorings.

"We were never against collecting the data. There was never really any large effort to make us aware that doorings could be an issue," IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said.

Alliance officials said dooring accidents are common, basing the conclusion on reports from bicyclists. But without a standardized statewide reporting system, there has been no way to accurately quantify the problem or pinpoint locations where such accidents frequently occur and where modifications to street layouts would help, alliance officials said.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gotta say the knuckle dragging visigoths are out in force in the Trib's comment section over this article last I checked

[Beta_Magellan]

Hey! Don’t knock the Visigoths!

Some of those comments were pretty funny, though—an obvious case of reading comprehension classes not being so good back in the “good old days.” The knuckle-draggers have generated a fair amount of pushback, fortunately.

My favorite comment said that all these doorings were happening because schools don’t teach traffic law anymore because they’re too busy teaching kids how to put on a condom. Crazy old conservative cootiness personified.

Although these responses do make me wonder about how Emanuel’s (likely ambitious) bike plans will shake out, I think we can take some comfort in that a lot of these commenters probably live out in the ’burbs, and I don’t think we have quite the same power dynamics or physical issues that New York does, either.

[lawfin]

I don't recall this being put on this forum:

http://www.cnt.org/repository/NSNJ.pdf

Almost half (49 percent) of Chicago’s population, 72
percent of its jobs and 66 percent of its businesses are
located within a half-mile radius of a transit station,
based on Local Employment Dynamics (LED) data
from the 2000 U.S. Census and 2004 Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

---------------------------------------

If this is the case then why oh why is Chicago's boarding / route mile so low....I mean it is something like 1/3 of boston's and half Philly's....I think it is even less than LA's. NYC us something like 5 times ridership per route mile.

How can Chicago and CTA get the ridership / route mile increased to say Philly or Boston's level.....and perhaps equally importantly does they want to?

[ardecila]

3 reasons.

1)some of those stations are Metra stations, which don't have frequent service.

2)a half-mile is pushing it for walking distance, especially given Chicago's brutal winters. Stations are spaced every half-mile so that the maximum walking distance is a quarter-mile (spare me the geometry lecture, i know about taxicab geometry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry), etc)

3)distance is not the only factor. the environment around train stations needs to be designed to encourage pedestrianism. people working in unsafe neighborhoods may feel uncomfortable walking 5 or 6 blocks to an L station, especially when they get off work at 6pm in, say, late october and it's already night.

[elguero]

I wonder if it also has something to do with the amount of trackage and stations that are not in job or population dense areas. the high percentage of population/jobs/etc near transit seems like it must be disproportionately located in and around the loop and the north side L lines. i'd guess those lines probably have much more comparable ridership/route mile numbers to other cities. on the other hand, there are definitely station areas in other parts of the city that proportionally contribute a lot more to track mileage than to population and jobs (and by extension, ridership). wish i had the energy to actually do a more formal analysis of this, perhaps another time.

[Jasonhouse]

I don't recall this being put on this forum:

http://www.cnt.org/repository/NSNJ.pdf

Almost half (49 percent) of Chicago’s population, 72
percent of its jobs and 66 percent of its businesses are
located within a half-mile radius of a transit station,
based on Local Employment Dynamics (LED) data
from the 2000 U.S. Census and 2004 Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

---------------------------------------

If this is the case then why oh why is Chicago's boarding / route mile so low....I mean it is something like 1/3 of boston's and half Philly's....I think it is even less than LA's. NYC us something like 5 times ridership per route mile.

How can Chicago and CTA get the ridership / route mile increased to say Philly or Boston's level.....and perhaps equally importantly does they want to?
Ok, so what does that translate to in total density of population plus jobs? And how does the density number compare to the same for the other cities being mentioned?

[lawfin]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-bullet-train-costs-0428-20110427,0,3868843.story
chicagotribune.com
Midwest bullet train network to cost $83.6 billion, study says
But the potential benefits from a 220-mph system are far greater than those from a cheaper one, report adds

By Jon Hilkevitch, Tribune reporter

8:34 PM CDT, April 27, 2011

A Midwest network of bullet trains that could travel at 220 mph and higher would cost $83.6 billion, but the benefits would be far greater than those from a less expensive system of trains topping out at 150 mph, according to a study to be released on Thursday.

The study, commissioned by the Midwest High Speed Rail Association and Siemens Corp., argues that going slower than 220 mph makes little sense, both in terms of construction costs and the ability to deliver passengers to their destinations quickly.

Building a passenger rail network topping out at 150 mph, which is still faster than the 110-mph maximum speed in the current high-speed rail plans for Illinois and nearby states, would cost $74.7 billion, according to the study, prepared by the Economic Development Research Group Inc. and AECOM, which designs transportation systems.

The price tag for a 220-mph network might be out of reach, with some members of Congress trying to gut the Obama administration's plan to invest billions of taxpayer dollars in high-speed rail as a way to expand employment and the nation's transportation options.

All of the plans for high-speed rail envision Chicago as the hub of a Midwestern network. The rail association's study recommends corridors to Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit/Cleveland. Trains would operate at 220 mph on dedicated track with no grade crossings.

Travel times would be three hours or less between Chicago and the farthest points of the network — up to 450 miles away — the study said.

The cost of a 220-mph network versus a 150-mph one is 12 percent higher, but that would be offset by higher ridership and increased annual revenues, the study concluded.

"The Midwest has been working on an upgrade plan for Amtrak services. But there should also be a plan beyond that — true high speed — in which rail becomes a game-changer," said Armin Kick, director of high-speed rail development at Siemens.

"When you get trip times down to two or three hours, that allows for much more exchange between cities, and it becomes an economic driver. You really cannot achieve that with the plans being pursued now," Kick said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation, prodded by the rail association, agreed to conduct a preliminary study on the feasibility of building a bullet train network. But IDOT has failed to get a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration for the study.

IDOT officials did not address the findings of the rail association's study. But agency spokesman Josh Kauffman said ongoing construction on the 110-mph Chicago-to-St. Louis corridor "represents the beginnings of a system to connect the Midwest region," and that Gov. Pat Quinn supports "the longer-term vision of higher-speed trains where feasible."

The association's study estimated 43 million riders a year from 13 cities and metro areas on the system, based on offering 25 daily departures on each of the corridors. User-generated revenue was estimated at more than $2.2 billion a year.

The proposed 220-mph system would produce $13.8 billion in new business sales a year and 104,000 permanent new jobs when it is in full operation, the study estimated.

[lawfin]

Ok, so what does that translate to in total density of population plus jobs? And how does the density number compare to the same for the other cities being mentioned?

???

Not sure what you are asking?

The article just got me thinking about why Chicago's L system has such a low ridership per route mile in comparison to other cities....despite it being the second most extensive network in the nation.

Even the red line only gets about 10,500 riders per route mile and that is the most heavilys used line.

What is it about Chicago or Chicagoans that make them use their rail system comparatively so sparingly?

My guess is that it has to do with two primary drivers 1. The Loop centric nature of the hub-spoke model vs the more efficient dense network say of NYC and 2. Chicago's rather extensive bus network.

Interestingly I have read article that indicate that the elasticity of demand for rail ridership is quite a bit larger than for bus ridership ie in response to a change in price of a substitute good say auto use via increased gas prices....rail demand increases at a quite a bit faster pace than demand for bus.....if I recall the differences in elasticity were approximately an order of magnitude.


I think this was the article that referenced the elasticities: http://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/APTA_Effect_of_Gas_Price_Increase_2011.pdf

[CTA Gray Line]

Interesting Maps showing scaled distances to Chicago rail transit stations; could the distance to the rail station have an effect on ridership:

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/April-2011/How-Close-Do-You-Live-and-Work-to-the-Chicago-El/

[lawfin]

^^^Cool maps!

IF Chicago could do my dream and add an Ahland and a Western Subway then the the north side at least would largely look somewhat similiar to that Paris map at least with over lap circles. That makes sense I guess I did a spread sheet a few years back that showed that Chicago's north side writ large is ~ 20,000K /sq mile the north lake front roughly defined as the northside neighborhoods abutting the lake / lincoln park and the next adjacent to the west if I recall come in at close to 30,000/ sq mile.....

still not paris dense by exceptionally dense for NA and for the good 'ole USA in particuliar

[Beta_Magellan]

One of the big differences between Chicago and Paris, though, is that Paris doesn’t have a huge, centralized employment center at its core like the Loop, so it can support a complex network of underground lines through its core (it also helps that it doesn’t have a giant lake on one side). The last serious proposal for a new line on the north side—the Lakefront Subway from the 1980 plan. From chicago-l.org (http://www.chicago-l.org/plans/2000plan.html):

Construct a North Lakefront Line, north from Michigan Avenue along the lake to Belmont or Diversey, then west to a connection with the Howard/Ravenswood right-of-way. In the future, the line could be extended north to replace the aging Ravenswood Line or as a new line north along the lakefront. A second suggested alignment was east from Kimball along the Ravenswood, continuing east along Lawrence, then south in a subway along Broadway and Clark Street to the CBD.

It’s still CBD-centric (the line would be through-routed with a South Lakefront Line), but it definitely shows that the definitely has the density to support a lot of heavy rail on the north side, putting everyone there within walking distance.

[emathias]

One of the big differences between Chicago and Paris, though, is that Paris doesn’t have a huge, centralized employment center at its core like the Loop,
...

This is true, and particularly important because it's not only residential density that matters, but also the evenness of destinations spread across the service area.

Ridership on lines that only pick up people over the first half of the stops and only drop off people on the second half of the stops will never be able to match ridership on lines where people both arrive and depart throughout the line. The CTA mostly has lines where people get one in the first half and get off on the second half. Rare is the rider who gets on at Belmont on the Blue Line and gets off at Jefferson Park, or other similar examples. You do so more of that during non-peak times, but at peak times nearly everyone is getting one in the neighborhoods and getting off downtown. That constrains the maximum run load of a car to about the maximum number of people who could be on the car at any one time. However, if employment destinations were more evenly spread along the line, you'd get people getting on and getting off, and the run capacity could be far higher, which is more efficient.

That's something that is mostly outside the purvey of the CTA, but something that perhaps the City could try to encourage. More small employment centers at various points along "L" lines - perhaps a few more office buildings within walking distance of the Jefferson Park station, a few more near Wilson, more west of McCormick Place (assuming the addition of a Green Line station near Cermak), continued encouragement of development near the junction of the Pink and Blue lines, more near Howard, maybe some near 63rd between Michigan and Stewart, near Cumberland, and near the Yellow Line's two stations, just to name a few. There are certainly places along the Orange Line that could benefit from dense commercial development, too.

[Nowhereman1280]

This is true, and particularly important because it's not only residential density that matters, but also the evenness of destinations spread across the service area.

Ridership on lines that only pick up people over the first half of the stops and only drop off people on the second half of the stops will never be able to match ridership on lines where people both arrive and depart throughout the line. The CTA mostly has lines where people get one in the first half and get off on the second half. Rare is the rider who gets on at Belmont on the Blue Line and gets off at Jefferson Park, or other similar examples.

I understand your point, but would like to point out that your example is a poor one. The Northwest Blue Line is perhaps the most evenly used line in the system. Not only are both ends of the line anchored by major destinations (O'Hare and the Loop), but the entirety of the line contains a variety of destination points. Mainly I am thinking of Jefferson Park, which is a huge transfer node and has some retail, Cumberland/Rosemont which both have a huge number of reverse commuters getting on and off, and Damen which is a huge shopping and nightlife destination. Overall probably half of the stops on the NW Blue are destination stops while only about half of them are pure residential collectors.

I would even suggest that the CTA needs to run more frequent reverse service during rush hours as I reverse commute to Cumberland from Belmont or Logan Square every day and the train is invariably crowded. It's rare that I ever am able to find a seat.

[sammyg]

I think the hub-and-spoke system is preventing a lot of ridership, even though Chicago has a much more concentrated core than Paris. I live less than 1/8 of a mile from the Brown Line in Lincoln Square, but unless I'm going somewhere directly on the Brown line, I just hop a bus, bike, or yes, drive because the traffic out in the neighborhoods isn't bad enough to justify going all the way into the loop and back out.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Which is why Chicago has the largest bus system in the world... To be honest we don't really need neighborhood to neighborhood rail connections. We just need connections to major destinations that are fed by collector buses. As much as I would like a Diversey subway from Logan Square to Lincoln Park, it just doesn't make sense when the Diversey bus takes all of 15 minutes to travel that route and has much more frequent service than a train would.

[ardecila]

Yeah, but I do think there needs to be at least one east-west connection across the North Side. During rush hours, every east-west street from Madison all the way up to Lake-Cook Road is jammed solid.

This is why the Yellow Line is such a valuable transit asset if it is extended, since it allows people to quickly exit the Edens and take a train to virtually anywhere on the North Lakefront. (I've always thought a few Red Line trains should extend to Skokie)

It's also why the Brown Line extension to Jeff Park is such a good idea... I also mentioned my idea for an Irving Park LRT a few pages back, modeled after Eglinton in Toronto or Gold Line Eastside in LA.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ I agree that the Brown Line to Jeff Park makes sense simply because it offers service between two major destination areas, the O'Hare airport and office market and Lakeview/Lincoln Park/Gold Coast/ North Downtown. The construction of such a line would be justified solely by the massive number of people taking it to the airport.

[sammyg]

Yeah, but I do think there needs to be at least one east-west connection across the North Side. During rush hours, every east-west street from Madison all the way up to Lake-Cook Road is jammed solid.


This is really true, and a big reason I wish we could get a few of the express busses back - losing the X80 Irving Park was awful for a lot of people I know.

[ardecila]

Well, the express buses weren't really "express" enough to make much of a dent in travel times. The buses moved faster, but they came less frequently, so the total time was often the same as the local. I took the 80/X80 every day a few summers ago; without Bus Tracker, you're gonna get on the first bus that comes.

If they bring them back, I hope they do it right, with stops every half-mile like an L line, frequent service, and prepaid boarding.

On a side note, I really hope the redistricting puts the area around the Irving Park Blue Line station into a single ward. It should be a great spot for TOD but it's split between Laurino's 39th and Reboyras' 30th. Actually, a lot of L stations are split between wards, which is really pretty bad from a development perspective.

[emathias]

...
I would even suggest that the CTA needs to run more frequent reverse service during rush hours as I reverse commute to Cumberland from Belmont or Logan Square every day and the train is invariably crowded. It's rare that I ever am able to find a seat.

As long as you can get on the train during rush hour, I don't think more trains are warranted. Most people should be standing at rush hour, as it's when the CTA is most compelling to use and operating at peak efficiency means they probably (hopefully) turn a profit on rush hour runs that helps offset costs for the non-rush runs.

Just be glad that "crowded" on the CTA is still rarely as bad as New York and never, ever, as bad as most Asian subway or bus systems (ever ridden a bus in Beijing at rush hour?)

[Beta_Magellan]

In defense of Nowhereman’s call for higher reverse-commute frequencies on the Blue Line, it’s worth noting that a lot of downtown trains go all the way to Forest Park and are held there—although the number of passengers going to the Medical District might offset this, to me it seems like reversing trains at UIC-Halsted (or, in the longer-run, building a similar facility at the Medical District, as ardecila suggested a couple of pages ago) would be more effective than running trains every 3-4 minutes to Forest Park, which isn’t nearly as popular with reverse commuters as Cumberland, Rosemont and O’Hare.

Finally, as someone who has rode buses and trains during rush hour in Beijing, I have to say that the evening rush on the Hyde Park and South Shore-bound buses are almost there—sometimes it’s futile trying to board anywhere past Van Buren. I think in large part it’s a scheduling/reliability issues—buses getting delayed, leading to huge crunches but not so closely bunched that there’s another one behind, but I think capacity’s also getting pressed—even when they are bunched often both buses fill up. Off-peak can be standing-room only too (especially on a nice day like yesterday). Although you’re right about having all seats filled and a lot of standing passengers indicates good resource utilization, buses don’t always have the speed and reliability to offset the lack of comfort (if I didn’t have to transfer to the subway downtown I would have switched to Metra long ago).

Back on the topic of trains, though, I think most of the problems with only having standing room on the El are made worse by commuter’s habits. People tend to bunch up by the doors, so even if passengers do spread through the whole car you have to fight especially hard to get out. Even though I was packed like a Sardine on Beijing’s Line 1, I never really came close to missing a stop due to the way people were packed—tight, but not clumpy.

Maybe it’s just because my native heavy rail system is Boston’s T, but I for one look forward to longitudinal seating.

[denizen467]

Lake Shore Drive, or at least the northern half, is now at more than half L.E.D.-illuminated, and the switchover seems to be progressing fast. There are some stretches with sodium vapor on one side and LED on the other side, which might make for an interesting night photograph. If anyone wants to record a rare sight before it disappears into the history books, one of these nights might not be a bad idea; we even have respite from the rain.

I wonder how this all looks from the Hancock observatory?

[denizen467]

Finally!


http://theexpiredmeter.com/2011/04/city-shows-off-bold-new-reconfiguration-plan-for-damen-elston-fullerton-intersection/

April 28th, 2011
City Unveils Bold New Reconfiguration Plan For Damen-Elston-Fullerton Intersection
Work For Proposed Elston Bypass Could Start In 2013

...

This plan to streamline a chaotic six-corner intersection into three distinct four corner intersections was chosen over competing plans to build an overpass or an underpass on Fullerton.

While the other plans would require two to three years of construction and not necessarily solve all the problems with the status quo, this proposal would only require a year of road work.

But, the proposed reroute would require the city to acquire and demolish select buildings and displace several businesses in the path of the proposed Elston bypass. This includes cutting into a building owned by Midtown Tennis Club at Damen & Elston, land owned by Vienna Beef at 2501 N. Damen, and completely demolishing the buildings currently housing Whirly Ball at 1880 W. Fullerton and Dunkin’ Donuts located at 1927 W. Fullerton.

"Of course the businesses affected were disappointed,” said Chriss Wuellner of CDOT. “However, we will be able to provide relocation assistance."

Waguespack plans to work with displaced businesses to try to relocate them within the ward or nearby.

...

http://theexpiredmeter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/DEF_intersection_graphic-crop.jpg

[WillPostPix]

Finally!


http://theexpiredmeter.com/2011/04/city-shows-off-bold-new-reconfiguration-plan-for-damen-elston-fullerton-intersection/

April 28th, 2011
City Unveils Bold New Reconfiguration Plan For Damen-Elston-Fullerton Intersection
Work For Proposed Elston Bypass Could Start In 2013

...

This plan to streamline a chaotic six-corner intersection into three distinct four corner intersections was chosen over competing plans to build an overpass or an underpass on Fullerton.

While the other plans would require two to three years of construction and not necessarily solve all the problems with the status quo, this proposal would only require a year of road work.

But, the proposed reroute would require the city to acquire and demolish select buildings and displace several businesses in the path of the proposed Elston bypass. This includes cutting into a building owned by Midtown Tennis Club at Damen & Elston, land owned by Vienna Beef at 2501 N. Damen, and completely demolishing the buildings currently housing Whirly Ball at 1880 W. Fullerton and Dunkin’ Donuts located at 1927 W. Fullerton.

"Of course the businesses affected were disappointed,” said Chriss Wuellner of CDOT. “However, we will be able to provide relocation assistance."

Waguespack plans to work with displaced businesses to try to relocate them within the ward or nearby.

...

http://theexpiredmeter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/DEF_intersection_graphic-crop.jpg

too bad about the whirly ball because it IS kind of fun but I knew this kid who got a concussion one time

[the pope]

^at least the church's chicken is safe

[ardecila]

Well, as steve vance pointed out, it's troubling that CDOT isn't really looking to fill in the gap on the Damen bike lane. To my mind, filling in obvious gaps like this is even more important than expanding the network. If Rahm wants to add mileage to the bike network, he can get a half-mile first start by telling CDOT to put in the bike lane.

It would also be cool to preserve the remaining odd pieces of the former Elston right-of-way as landscaped green space, a nod to the intersection's former configuration. Right now, it looks like they plan to sell it off to adjacent landowners.

[Beta_Magellan]

Does the Damen bike lane predate or postdate the parking meter sale? That might have something to do with the lack of lane.

Also, everyone can read Vance’s post here. (http://www.stevevance.net/planning/improvements-in-store-for-the-damen-elston-fullerton-intersection/)

[stevevance]

Does the Damen bike lane predate or postdate the parking meter sale? That might have something to do with the lack of lane.

The lack of a bike lane on Damen in the .25 mile segment where it's missing has to do with the "required" lane capacity. The traffic engineers present explained that to "make the intersection work the way it's supposed to" there needs to be two lanes in each direction through the Damen intersections (with Fullerton and Elston respectively).

But, a meeting attendee asked the Benesch staff member standing near the traffic simulation animation if there was analysis done on 1 fewer lane (which would allow a bike lane to be added).

Bus riders who board/alight here will probably appreciate the more spacious sidewalks.

(I'll be uploading pictures of the public meeting documents (http://www.stevevance.net/planning/improvements-in-store-for-the-damen-elston-fullerton-intersection/) later tonight.)

[ardecila]

Welcome to the forum! ;)

The plan doesn't show any metered spaces through the intersection zone. I don't know why that would interfere with attempts to put in a bike lane. If Street Views are to be believed, all street parking in the bike-lane gap is unmetered, and more than half of it is either yellow-curb or standing zone. (There's also an awesome shot of a cyclist flipping off the Street View camera)

[Thundertubs]

Will the new rerouted Elston and the old bypassed segment south of Fullerton both be called N. Elston Ave? I inquire because of addressing. Maybe the bypassed section becomes Elston Pl or something? Having two separate sections of N. Elston Ave in the same addressing range could tear a hole in Chicago's space-time continuum.

[ardecila]

Standard practice in most jurisdictions would be to rename the stump as "Old Elston Avenue". Chicago's only done the "Old" thing twice... Once at Lake Shore Drive/Michigan, where the highrise-lined local street is technically called "Old Lake Shore Drive East", and once out at O'Hare, where airport construction forced Higgins Road onto a new path... but the city was not responsible for this renaming, it just entered city limits via annexation.

Chicago is more likely to do Elston Place, as you suggest. That address actually sounds kinda distinguished...

[denizen467]

^ In a similar vein, wasn't Wacker Place called South Water until just a decade or so ago? This was not a reroute or new construction; it was just a renaming. A confusing one, I would say. Anyone know the story?

[denizen467]

Can I suggest that the left turn lane on southbound Damen, for vehicles waiting to enter the Fullerton intersection, be eliminated. (In fact, prohibit left turns there.) No one would ever use it (I'm assuming no businesses would be built that have driveways out onto that tiny segment of Damen), and the space could be used as an extra lane by eastbound Fullerton vehicles (especially semi trucks) seeking to make an essentially 315 degree left turn onto northwestbound Elston.

[ardecila]

^ In a similar vein, wasn't Wacker Place called South Water until just a decade or so ago? This was not a reroute or new construction; it was just a renaming. A confusing one, I would say. Anyone know the story?

It still is South Water Street east of Michigan. If you ask me, it should be unified as South Water, instead of the confusing name change halfway. Having Wacker Drive AND Wacker Place is more confusing than having a South Water that doesn't run next to the river.

Does anybody in this day and age actually expect a "Water Street" to run near a body of water? It might be confusing for foreign visitors, but who cares?

Can I suggest that the left turn lane on southbound Damen, for vehicles waiting to enter the Fullerton intersection, be eliminated. No one would ever use it (I'm assuming no businesses would be built that have driveways out onto that tiny segment of Damen), and the space could be used as an extra lane by eastbound Fullerton vehicles (especially semi trucks) seeking to make a 225 degree left turn onto northwestbound Elston.

Agreed, although any truck heading for one of the handful of industrial properties or big-boxes on Elston between Fullerton and Diversey should be getting off at the Diversey exit.

On a related note, I've always wondered why there aren't frontage roads connecting the disconnected offramps on the Kennedy into full diamond interchanges? Connecting the Diversey/California exits would seem to make a lot of sense, and it would relieve a lot of surface congestion.

[denizen467]

It still is South Water Street east of Michigan. If you ask me, it should be unified as South Water, instead of the confusing name change halfway. Having Wacker Drive AND Wacker Place is more confusing than having a South Water that doesn't run next to the river.

Does anybody in this day and age actually expect a "Water Street" to run near a body of water? It might be confusing for foreign visitors, but who cares?
I agree about unifying it. I think it used to be unified, and then the little segment's name was changed to Wacker Place, IIRC. Mr Downtown or Viva or someone might know the history of it.

I think "South Water" would be no more confusing than other street names in very old cities, especially on the east coast, where major geographic changes (including landfill) have shifted water boundaries by 10s or 100s of yards, etc. So that, by itself, doesn't bother me.

But more broadly, I think both "North Water" and "South Water" are lousy street names, because they are generic and boring and because one could actually mistake them for northern and southern segments of a street called "Water". (Although I think the address of the Sheraton -- 301 Upper East North Water -- is pretty cool with all those coordinate adjectives.)

So really it's my preference that North Water and South Water both get renamed. I actually have a bunch of streets whose names I dislike and want renamed. Chicago Avenue is one of them -- unless there's some historical reason for it, it's too generic and the resulting subway station names are confusing to tourists. Maybe it'll get renamed Obama Boulevard one day. Or Oprah Boulevard, since she used to live on it.

[ardecila]

An easy way to resolve the conflict without destroying the history would be to eliminate the space, i.e. "Northwater" and "Southwater" Streets.

Then it would reside in the murky gray area like Desplaines Street, which is written as either one word or two (Des Plaines) depending on who you ask.

I think the short stretch of street between Wabash and Michigan has been Wacker Place since the 1920s when Wacker Drive was built. The first stage of Wacker went from Lake to Wabash IIRC, so the short stretch of South Water was renamed at that time in order to help route traffic from Michigan Avenue to the Wacker stub one block away. The section of Wacker from Wabash to Michigan was more complex, since it had to rise to the grade of the new Link Bridge on Michigan (2 levels above the water) so its construction took longer.

It's funny how the stages of the Wacker reconstruction project mirrored those of Wacker's initial construction.

[Mr Downtown]

East South Water was renamed Wacker Place in 1987, at the request of tenants of 65 E. South Water (and—cue the flashback music—the potential developer of the vacant lot next to the Chicago Motor Club Building). They were tired of people confusing them with South Water Market, whose name and even addresses had been moved to the area of West 14th Place near Racine when the produce market was relocated in 1925. Now that area is condos, and the street is again W. 14th Place.

at Lake Shore Drive/Michigan, where the highrise-lined local street is technically called "Old Lake Shore Drive East"
I don't believe that's correct. Neither the city's street signs, paper atlas, nor GIS database show it that way. There's a reason old-timers referred to the "Outer Drive," but technically both roadways are named "Lake Shore Drive." It works the same way as a freeway frontage road.

[ardecila]

I don't believe that's correct. Neither the city's street signs, paper atlas, nor GIS database show it that way. There's a reason old-timers referred to the "Outer Drive," but technically both roadways are named "Lake Shore Drive." It works the same way as a freeway frontage road.

I was using the city's GIS zoning map as a master list of street names.

[stevevance]

I uploaded photos of the posters from the meeting to my Flickr.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5149/5681697519_1a1e57512b_t.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesbondsv/5681697519/)
Crash history at Damen-Elston-Fullerton (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesbondsv/5681697519/) by Steven Vance (http://www.flickr.com/people/jamesbondsv/), on Flickr

RE: Parking meters
There's enough parking in off-street parking that the city would not need to provide on-street parking. As a non-traffic engineer, I don't believe two through lanes on Damen are necessary as Damen is not a two-lane street north and south of the project area, but the engineers at the meeting said it was necessary for queuing capacity and to "make it work like it's supposed to."

RE: Elston's name
The staff, including CDOT workers, said that the tinny, old stretch of Elston Avenue would remain Elston Avenue and the new part of Elston Avenue would get a new name. This was to retain the addresses for the businesses and homes that are not being removed from Elston Avenue.

RE: Removing southbound Damen left turn lane at Fullerton
I don't see a purpose to removing this. What would it be replaced with? A concrete median? The northbound turn lane it's shared with (for left turns onto NW-bound Elston) is still needed. And the signal cycle would still include a phase for the northbound turn lane onto Fullerton.

RE: Street names
There's another list for street names, and that's the City Clerk of Chicago's Street Guide.

Lake Shore Drive (E) 1000 N, 140 N to 299 N [this doesn't make any sense]
Lake Shore Drive (N&S) 0, 5699 N to 6245 S

There are no streets called Inner or Outer Drive in the guide. I also checked the City's GIS centerline shapefile and found no indication of an Inner or Outer Drive.

Thank you for reading my blog (http://www.stevevance.net/planning/improvements-in-store-for-the-damen-elston-fullerton-intersection/).

[ardecila]

RE: Removing southbound Damen left turn lane at Fullerton
I don't see a purpose to removing this. What would it be replaced with? A concrete median? The northbound turn lane it's shared with (for left turns onto NW-bound Elston) is still needed. And the signal cycle would still include a phase for the northbound turn lane onto Fullerton.

The SB turn lane would be replaced with a longer NB turn lane. Left turns from SB Damen to EB Fullerton would be prohibited; traffic would take the new Elston instead.

[nomarandlee]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/traffic/ct-met-getting-around-0502-20110501,0,4375617.column

City seeks proposals for system to rival those in Europe, Asia
Jon Hilkevitch

Getting Around

6:40 p.m. CDT, May 2, 2011

Still itching to build something big for Chicago even in his final days in office, Mayor Richard Daley has invited technology experts from around the world to submit concepts for an express rail service to O'Hare International Airport.

Whisking travelers from downtown Chicago to O'Hare in 10 to 20 minutes, it would be the first rapid passenger rail line connecting a downtown and an airport in the U.S., rivaling express trains in Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris and Shanghai, officials said.

"Rich has an idea a minute, and his recent trip to China brought this to the forefront for him again," said Lester Crown, chairman of a 17-member committee that Daley appointed to explore O'Hare express rail service after an earlier plan to use the CTA Blue Line fizzled.

Responses to the city's "request for information and interest," due by July 26, will land on Rahm Emanuel's desk at City Hall. Mayor-elect Emanuel has expressed interest in the project. As White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, Emanuel helped craft the administration's plan to build high-speed rail corridors across the U.S.

The initial objective of the O'Hare solicitation is to get suggestions from potential investors to finance, construct, operate and maintain the express rail project. Interested parties are required to identify potential routes and options for stations downtown and at the airport, as well as suggesting schedules and amenities to make the premium service attractive to customers.

The city wants the nonstop trains to operate about 20 hours a day. Daley's only other overarching requirements are that the new O'Hare service be developed without public funds and operate at high speeds. Daley said construction of the bullet train line could begin in five years.

The mayor frequently mentions as a potential model for O'Hare service his ride last year, aboard a magnetic levitation train in Shanghai. The Chinese maglev train briefly reaches a top speed of 267 mph on the short trip between Pudong International Airport and the outskirts of central Shanghai.

Members of the mayor's O'Hare express rail committee, however, said it's more important to focus on travel times than speed and on developing a premium-level service that handles baggage and delivers passengers directly downtown and into the airport terminals.

"Trains going 150 mph and faster don't make any sense for the distance to O'Hare," said Sam Skinner, a committee member who served as U.S. transportation secretary under President George H.W. Bush.

Skinner said identifying the best route will be key and using an existing right of way "would be a big plus." The route mentioned most prominently by rail experts is the right of way along Metra's North Central Service between Chicago Union Station and the O'Hare Transfer Station near the airport's remote parking lot F.

From a broader perspective, the project offers opportunities to connect the O'Hare service to Illinois' high-speed rail program, which is being coordinated with other Midwestern states, and other local mass-transit projects of the future.

Long-term transit projects include the proposed Metra STAR Line, which would provide expanded suburb-to-suburb connections; a proposed extension of the CTA Blue Line, possibly to DuPage County; and commuter rail service to Rockford.

"This is an exciting and really dynamic opportunity to do all the things that transit can and does do in a lot of other places in the world," said Rod Eggleston, vice president of rail in the Great Lakes region for HNTB, a leading infrastructure innovator..............

They also steered clear of offering ideas about whether to base the new service downtown at Chicago Union Station; the partially built Block 37 station, which under a former concept was to house a premium version of the CTA Blue Line to O'Hare; or a new location.

"We have some thoughts, but we want to hear what the experts have to say," Andolino said. "Our biggest thing is that we don't want to stifle anybody's creativity."

In the interim, meetings are set on Gov. Pat Quinn's recent request to Amtrak for a study on what it would take to introduce O'Hare express rail service between Union Station and the O'Hare Transfer Station. Metra's North Central Service, on the Chicago-to-Antioch route, makes 11 round trips each weekday with stops at O'Hare, but it doesn't operate on weekends. In addition, Amtrak offers the opportunity to bring train travelers from other parts of the state and the country to O'Hare, officials said.

"Hopefully we will be able to put a plan together for expanded O'Hare service in the relatively near future that does not require the kind of investment that Mayor Daley's high-speed plan calls for," said Joseph Shacter, director of public and intermodal transportation at the Illinois Department of Transportation.

"Both plans are about improving choices. Ours is to do something in the much more immediate future," he said.

Contact Getting Around at jhilkevitch@tribune.com or c/o the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Read recent columns at http://www.chicagotribune.com/gettingaround.
...l........

[denizen467]

RE: Elston's name
The staff, including CDOT workers, said that the tinny, old stretch of Elston Avenue would remain Elston Avenue and the new part of Elston Avenue would get a new name. This was to retain the addresses for the businesses and homes that are not being removed from Elston Avenue.

Isn't it confusing for motorists who know they are driving on Elston to suddenly discover they are on a different street? Or what about a motorist coming over the bridge on Fullerton, with instructions to turn on Elston, and missing the intersection and instead arriving at the SE-bound stub's intersection?

There are really comparatively few addresses on the stub street. How about calling the bypass "Elston" but assigning new address numbers there in a way that none of them duplicates a previously-existing address, so that during the transition period no piece of mail has an ambiguous address. In the last couple decades businesses and households changed area codes from 312 to 708 and survived, and then later again changed from 708 to 630/847 and survived, so a change to "Ye Olde Elston Lane" or whatever should not be a big deal.

[C.Lan]

Isn't it confusing for motorists who know they are driving on Elston to suddenly discover they are on a different street? Or what about a motorist coming over the bridge on Fullerton, with instructions to turn on Elston, and missing the intersection and instead arriving at the SE-bound stub's intersection?

There are really comparatively few addresses on the stub street. How about calling the bypass "Elston" but assigning new address numbers there in a way that none of them duplicates a previously-existing address, so that during the transition period no piece of mail has an ambiguous address. In the last couple decades businesses and households changed area codes from 312 to 708 and survived, and then later again changed from 708 to 630/847 and survived, so a change to "Ye Olde Elston Lane" or whatever should not be a big deal.

I've had this problem before, usually midwest. It's different out in Cali; out here, you just get stuck in traffic for hours and want to beat your steering wheel while you're waiting for traffic to move in some conceivable direction to get where you're going. Chicago, Indy too when I've driven through it and Detroit, certain neighborhoods are pretty old-town, so it's hard to change the mail delivery system on substreets caught up by new housing, you've got "buildings that were there" and "buildings that were newly developed" and since the mail route hasn't changed (and USPS is f***in slow) unless you want to poison off the old tenants (which I don't suggest) for the neighborhood to be totally rehabbed, you have the interesting problems of lingering history vs. future forward.

Granted the old-town culture is what makes a lot of neighborhoods what they are; I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned. Does that not matter? Chicago in a lot of the outlying suburbs is old town; that's what makes its cultural integrity intact. Different from Cali. Which is, as a driver, quite difficult to navigate.

[VivaLFuego]

The SB turn lane would be replaced with a longer NB turn lane. Left turns from SB Damen to EB Fullerton would be prohibited; traffic would take the new Elston instead.

Ah... this would also explain why New Elston would be widened to two lanes each direction.

After construction, what would land ownership and development potential in the area be like? There are going to be a lot of very oddly shaped vacant parcels...

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ I would imagine they would want to replat any of the takings. I mean any lots that need to be demolished will have to be resized to make them marketable. I would imagine the reconfiguration of this intersection will really do a lot to open it up for redevelopment.

[sammyg]

Isn't it confusing for motorists who know they are driving on Elston to suddenly discover they are on a different street? Or what about a motorist coming over the bridge on Fullerton, with instructions to turn on Elston, and missing the intersection and instead arriving at the SE-bound stub's intersection?

If they make it anything like the stub of Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Square, there shouldn't be any problem at all.

[stevevance]

^^^ I would imagine they would want to replat any of the takings. I mean any lots that need to be demolished will have to be resized to make them marketable. I would imagine the reconfiguration of this intersection will really do a lot to open it up for redevelopment.

I'm concerned about the plot "created" within the project (surrounded by Damen on the west, Elston on the north and east, and Fullerton on the south).

If any buildings are allowed to be built here, they may need driveways and off-street parking, making the newly-simple roadway design slightly more complex.

I was thinking this plot could be made passive green space. Add a bunch of curb/sidewalk adjacent landscaping to serve as a visual distraction that would slow traffic.

[emathias]

I'm concerned about the plot "created" within the project (surrounded by Damen on the west, Elston on the north and east, and Fullerton on the south).

If any buildings are allowed to be built here, they may need driveways and off-street parking, making the newly-simple roadway design slightly more complex.

I was thinking this plot could be made passive green space. Add a bunch of curb/sidewalk adjacent landscaping to serve as a visual distraction that would slow traffic.

I've always thought Chicago lacked a large, dramatic victory Arch - perfect place for it!

[lawfin]

Re: the Elston / Damen / Fullerton intersection

Count me as thinking this is a terrible idea. I know that intersection is tough but I see this as being worse at least at street level for neighborhood continuity and pedestrians......not that there are a lot of pedestrian hoofing it across the damen / fullerton intersection.

This might be good for transporting cars and getting suburbanites who get off at fullerton to this part of the city but I think for most of the people who live arpound here this "solution" is worse than the problem.....


Diced up isolated land dominated by increased traffic lanes does not make for a pleasant neighborhood


We really focus too much on the car in this town.....Chicago is screwed in the transportation dept.....I've given up; it seems Chicago looks west for its transportation inspiration; not even as far west as LA....which is doing some really exciting things in the transport dept.....but but more like Dallas or Phx.....

ugh