CHICAGO: Transit Developments

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

("Where is the McDonalds CTA station??!", "Oh, just take the Starbucks bus to the Cubs line, then take it north" "What?!?!")

The 'Starbucks bus'! That made me laugh.

[Via Chicago]

double post

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

The 'Starbucks bus'! That made me laugh.

Well, thats pretty much exactly what they're proposing. When you consider those ramifications, its not so humorous.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Via Chicago

5) With all of the advertising space already available in this city, the CTA will not get top dollar for it's property."

This is my #1 concern. How much are naming rights really worth? If they were super-valuable, then some other city would have already implemented a program like this. And, unless the CTA is absolutely retarded, they'll make the advertiser pick up the costs of any signage changes, which would then lower the amount of money that CTA receives by a corresponding amount.

All in all, this is going to be a major disruption and distration in exchange for very little return.

[schwerve]

calm down, nobody here knows what "naming rights" actually means or what revenue it could generate. The Bears essentially sold their team name to Chase (Bank One then) and nothing effectively changed other than a couple million dollars in revenue to the positive. I'd hold out opinion until we know what we're actually talking about here.

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by schwerve

calm down, nobody here knows what "naming rights" actually means or what revenue it could generate. The Bears essentially sold their team name to Chase (Bank One then) and nothing effectively changed other than a couple million dollars in revenue to the positive. I'd hold out opinion until we know what we're actually talking about here.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...0,262071.story

Even the venerable CTA logo will be on the auction block, Rodriguez said.

Think that about covers everything.

[Busy Bee]

[lawfin]

I have been trying to find the daily ridership record for the L. Does anyone know what the single day all time highest ridership on L is.....source?

[Mr Downtown]

I'm not sure we can definitively say, but a good candidate is approximately one million boardings on 26 March 1930. A huge snowstorm put the streetcars and buses out of commission and the L carried many folks who usually rode the other systems. The Tribune report the next day noted that the day broke “all previous records” and that the L system usually had about 600,000 daily riders.

I think the peak year for L ridership was probably 1926, with 228 million (in 2009 it was 202 million). So in 1926 (when people worked six days a week) an average weekday would have been about 700,000. That was the year of the Eucharistic Congress, so it’s quite likely that some days in June might have seen 80-100,000 pilgrims in addition to regular riders, but the streetcar system carried the bulk of attendees to Soldier Field.

Ridership increased during WWII, but not to the peak of the 20s. The 1943 total was 175 million.

I’ve been trying to think of other special situations that might have dramatically increased ridership. I don’t think there were any streetcar strikes after 1915, and ridership was down quite a bit by the time of the 1979 blizzard. July 3rd fireworks have generally been the highest ridership days for Metra lines in recent years. The number of extra L riders looks dramatic right afterwards, but is probably more than offset by the number of regular L riders who didn't work that day because of vacation or weren't in school because of summer.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

I think the peak year for L ridership was probably 1926, with 228 million (in 2009 it was 202 million

I'm surprised the 2009 total is so close to the all-time high. Of course, the system is much more expansive now, so we don't see the Japanese overcrowding of the 1920s era.

[Mr Downtown]

^Surprised me, too. I'm still not sure the numbers are counted in the same way. CRT probably counted simple boardings (paid or unpaid entry into the system), while CTA may be quoting a calculated number for rides, using a multiplier of 1.2 to account for transfers between trains and round trips.

Oversimplifying quite a bit, in 1926 there were only four lines out of downtown. Today there are eight.

[M II A II R II K]

What about the prospect of upgrading all the subway stations to be fully accessible and with elevators, including the elevated stations.

[M II A II R II K]

Give a Minute for Chicago


http://www.ceosforcities.org/blog/en...te-for-chicago

“Hey Chicago, what would encourage you to walk, bike or take CTA more often?” CEOs for Cities launched the Give a Minute for Chicago campaign this week to help answer that question. Give a Minute is a new model for citizen participation. It’s an easy way to share ideas about how to make Chicago an easier place to get around without owning a car, connect those ideas with change-making community leaders, and make things happen. And citizens only need one minute of their time for this interaction.

Citizens can text their ideas to 312.380.0436 or post them to the Give a Minute website at www.giveaminute.info. These ideas will guide recommendations during the Connectivity Challenge in Chicago December 8-10. The Give a Minute for Chicago campaign was made possible through the generous support of the Chicago Transit Authority.

• Video Link

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

What about the prospect of upgrading all the subway stations to be fully accessible and with elevators, including the elevated stations.

The various rebuilding projects have gone quite a ways with improving accessibility. The Brown, Pink, Orange, and Green Lines are now fully accessible, with the exception of the Loop stations and the stations in Oak Park on the UP viaduct.

Oddly enough, most of the pre-war system is now accessible, and most of the post-war system is not.

Hopefully the CTA will soon add elevators to the Garfield and 87th stations to make the Dan Ryan line fully accessible (Cermak-Chinatown is almost finished).

[the urban politician]

^ Why the Grand Ave station on the Red Line doesn't have an elevator beats the hell out of me.

[denizen467]

^ To the street? It does now.

[Mr Downtown]

It turns out that CTA has posted some recent stats here, indicating that the highest ridership since 1998 was 752,277 on 3 July 2008.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

...
Oversimplifying quite a bit, in 1926 there were only four lines out of downtown. Today there are eight.

On the other hand, in 1926 there were about 217 stations in the "L" system, vs. 144 today.

[lawfin]

Originally Posted by emathias

On the other hand, in 1926 there were about 217 stations in the "L" system, vs. 144 today.

I think adding stations would be one of the easier and cheaper methods to increase riderhsip. Specifically I am thinking of then Green line. There used to be stops at Halsted Morgan and Racine between Clinton and Ashland...thye should put at least two of those back probably Halsted and Racine. Especially given the development that has occurred within a few blocks of Lake going out to at least Ashland....I mean you have expensive condos I think the area would be ripe for added stations.

Also some between Ashalnd and California....that is a ridiculosu stretch without a station....and it used to have 4 stations. There should at least be stops at / near Damen , western if not even a third one.

Same holds for South Side branch.....so many ababndoned stations......why can't we use these statoins as nodes to focus development and density...starting with stations closer to core and moving out....I really think the green line could be leveraged so much better to help spur development in some of the areas of the city that most desperately needs it.

Also the areas near woodlawn and south of UC could use this connection.


A rebuild of the Halsted stop on the Brown line may make sense perhaps with a pedway undeground to connect to the the New redline apple station

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by lawfin

Same holds for South Side branch.....so many ababndoned stations......why can't we use these statoins as nodes to focus development and density...starting with stations closer to core and moving out....I really think the green line could be leveraged so much better to help spur development in some of the areas of the city that most desperately needs it.

^ Sounds nice in theory, but on the south side transit nodes seem to only generate big box stores with massive, worthless strip centers sorrounding them. It's not like you need to build a multimillion dollar rapid transit station for that.

Btw, a green line stop at Morgan is already under way.