Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
I just don't think this is sustainable politically. We need voters across Chicagoland to understand and support transit, which means all of Chicagoland needs to benefit. Chicago spends so little on transit per capita compared to its peer cities precisely because suburbanites see so little benefit to transit spending - the benefits all accrue to the city.
Like it or not, the suburbs contain the vast majority of Chicagoland's population. That won't change anytime soon and Chicago will ultimately lose out to those peer cities unless it has a unified push with its suburbs.
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Chicago will lose to its peer cities if the CITY can't provide EXCELLENT transit service. If it wastes money providing mediocre service to people who don't even use it and choose to live in places where it's inefficient to provide it, then the city will not be able to provide workable transit and people who care about that will choose other cities.
Myself included.
If Chicago wants to become Phoenix, fine. But I won't stay if it chooses that route, and I'm guessing it won't attract nearly as many people who know what good transit and good quality of life really is. For most people globally, being auto-dependent is not their idea of good quality of life. They may choose to own a car, but they don't want it to be their only option and most are smart enough to know that if they choose a single family home with a huge yard and low taxes, they will only be able to choose a car.
There's a reason that software companies in the Bay Area are choosing more and more to be in the city of San Francisco and even ones that aren't are choosing to provide free private busing options for employees who choose to live in San Francisco. It's because a lot of knowledge workers prefer real urban life but even in high-tax Bay Area, you can't provide fast, efficient transit into low-density suburbs.
Having transit-friendly suburban nodes is one thing, but trying to provide walk-to-transit service for the vast majority of suburbanites in the current Chicagoland built environment is ridiculously implausible.
The region needs to recognize that and focus transit-oriented development near existing transit, and double-down on providing better, more comprehensive transit in areas where transit-friendly users are already locating. And, yes, that means more subways in/near the Central Area, and no more extensions further and further into low-density suburbs.