Quote:
Originally Posted by 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,
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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.