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Originally Posted by untitledreality
I dont know if its been covered earlier (I dont think it has), but would anyone care to have a discussion on the merits of the Streetcar line proposed for Clark Street by the Chicago Streetcar Renaissance? It has been getting a little bit of coverage recently, both in New City and then subsequently linked on Curbed
Having been to several European cities that have Streetcars which run in pedestrian only corridors similar to what CSR is proposing for Clark street, I would say that if done correctly I believe if could be very successful given the scale of Clark and the density of uses and residents. However, this is not Europe and people already scream bloody murder about protected bike lanes, so how on earth would something like this go over? But to counter that, the 36 and 22 are downright terrible and maybe with enough assurances residents could accept the trade off of losing a roadway for gaining a quick, reliable, timely transit system to replace the bus lines.
Regarding the routing, I would imagine a Broadway routing North of Diversey would be more successful... but either way you will run into issues of a appropriate Northern terminus and future Northern extension pathways which I dont think has easy answers.
I know this is more of the hypothetical transit nerd dream scenario talk, but does anyone have thoughts regrading CSR's work?
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I wasn't familiar with the plan, but if I were making it, I might push to follow Broadway to Belmont, then run west on Belmont to Southport and take Southport to Clark. I know that doesn't get you to Wrigley, but Wrigley is already well-served by transit, whereas the north stretch of Southport is not.
I do like the idea of running some of the commuter lines on a no-car Clark instead of on Cannon Drive. I do think that north of Belmont or Addison or at least Irving, it may be necessary to mix the streetcars with cars on the road. One way you can do that is to alternate directions for cars every few blocks, which eliminates through-traffic but allows some local traffic. It also means you could make half of the streetway no-car, which would either be the best of both worlds, or the worst. Places like Andersonville will probably not be able to densify fast enough to make eliminating car travel on Clark realistic in the short-to-mid term.
Finally, I think it would be best served to tie it into at least two other lines - one on Chicago Ave and one on 18th Street (yes, that would mean running Clark streetcars at least as far as 18th, it might make sense to run them to McCormick via Cermak to MLK, then possibly also one down Martin Luther King, Jr. to 35th, to Cottage Grove to either 55th or 57th to the Museum of Science and Industry because then you tie in Hyde Park and U of C and the museum.
Ultimately, a system would be better than a single line.
That said, I know there's at least one other "master plan" for the central area and south lakefront being worked on by a highly experienced but independent group (I'm not at liberty to discuss details, but I will say I think any of you Chicago transit fans would find it inspirational and I know many of you are already fans of some of the key players). Done right, the streetcar proposal could probably tie into that pretty well.