Bus Rapid Transit in Chicago
An interesting article about Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) being studied in Chicago; benefits, requirements (streets being considered must have (or create) a bike lane).
Views: 1626
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on
-
Interesting post, Michael. I hope this happens, particularly the Western Avenue BRT. Here are some additions from the Trib:
-
Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on
-
I hadn't seen the Trib map before, thanks.
As someone who is 20+ years carfree, living near Western & Fullerton; those BRT buses could be helpful.
-
-
I wonder if they're planning to allow bikes onboard BRT. Front racks, as on the standard buses, would likely slow down the schedule too much if folks were loading and unloading at several stops.
-
Permalink Reply by Adam "Cezar" Jenkins on
-
One day I would love to abolish transit on a city scale. The planning should be regional. I seen a diagram today of the planned routes. Everything inside the city limits. On the south side the limits extend pretty far. West, not so much.
It should be about people and not political lines.
Don't get me wrong, I think Chicago is doing a wonderful thing here. I'm just complaining.
-
Permalink Reply by Charlie Short 2.9 on
-
I think a lot of people would agree with you.
But...the regional planning that would have to happen to bring this to other place in the region would be overwhelming. A lot of municipalities think that they don't have to take part in a local economy or transportation network. In a culture where it's one person per car, you're never going to see a regional transportation network. Most regional networks exist because they were established before the 1960's (Philadelphia/New York as an example).
Adam "Cezar" Jenkins said:
One day I would love to abolish transit on a city scale. The planning should be regional. I seen a diagram today of the planned routes. Everything inside the city limits. On the south side the limits extend pretty far. West, not so much.
It should be about people and not political lines.
Don't get me wrong, I think Chicago is doing a wonderful thing here. I'm just complaining.
-
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on
-
Looking at the proposed BRT map, I was very happy to see 95th St. from Western to Cottage Grove (or slightly beyond) as one route (as opposed to the current 95W and 95E). I was also happy to see Western all the way down to 95th as one route. The idea of faster bus routes connecting more destinations is a good one. In its current configuration, I rarely ride the Western bus because it ends at 79th, leaving anyone further south to connect with a Pace bus at most hours of the day. Having a full-time route all the way to 95th would mean fewer car trips if I want to visit friends who live near Western several miles north of me. It would also give me a viable transit connection to Midway Airport without going through downtown.
On the other hand, I wonder how they're going to handle lane configurations to accommodate dedicated bus lanes. Both of these streets handle a LOT of truck traffic and have two through traffic lanes in each direction in most areas. Are they going to remove the median or remove parking? If they try to reduce either of these streets to one through lane in each direction, it will be 24/7 gridlock.
-
-
My grand vision is more than that. I would like to see just a regional government. A Chicagoland government. Not a city government that takes up most of cook county which has it's own government, let alone all the suburbs.
It should be a metro government. The suburbs drain money from the city in their own way. We live out here, paying taxes to our little towns. Then we work in the city, using it's transportation system.
Charlie Short said:I think a lot of people would agree with you.
But...the regional planning that would have to happen to bring this to other place in the region would be overwhelming. A lot of municipalities think that they don't have to take part in a local economy or transportation network. In a culture where it's one person per car, you're never going to see a regional transportation network. Most regional networks exist because they were established before the 1960's (Philadelphia/New York as an example).
Adam "Cezar" Jenkins said:
One day I would love to abolish transit on a city scale. The planning should be regional. I seen a diagram today of the planned routes. Everything inside the city limits. On the south side the limits extend pretty far. West, not so much.
It should be about people and not political lines.
Don't get me wrong, I think Chicago is doing a wonderful thing here. I'm just complaining.
-
Permalink Reply by Elihu Blanks on
-
I agree that transit lines should transend political boundaries. But how would we pay for them. I think the transit system is partially funded with our tax monies kinda like our school systems are.
This system realy isn't fair, in my opinion, since tax dollars should be spread accross the state like peanut butter is over bread so every body can live and learn to live. But that change hasn't come yet and our greed probably won't let it come.
I know the fed grants cover all places that meet the grant requirements but they still need local taxbacking and fairs to cover system cost. So if real estate taxes could go to the state instead of the region maybe we could spread the wealth and grow instead of certain regions doing better and being afraid to travle through other regions.
But I'll Bike Anywhere,
Adam "Cezar" Jenkins said:One day I would love to abolish transit on a city scale. The planning should be regional. I seen a diagram today of the planned routes. Everything inside the city limits. On the south side the limits extend pretty far. West, not so much.
It should be about people and not political lines.
Don't get me wrong, I think Chicago is doing a wonderful thing here. I'm just complaining.
-
Permalink Reply by John Wirtz on
-
We don't manage the parking, so we can't remove that. The median will be used for stations. Probably remove the through lanes, but that seems difficult given the large traffic volumes. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Anne Alt said:
Looking at the proposed BRT map, I was very happy to see 95th St. from Western to Cottage Grove (or slightly beyond) as one route (as opposed to the current 95W and 95E). I was also happy to see Western all the way down to 95th as one route. The idea of faster bus routes connecting more destinations is a good one. In its current configuration, I rarely ride the Western bus because it ends at 79th, leaving anyone further south to connect with a Pace bus at most hours of the day. Having a full-time route all the way to 95th would mean fewer car trips if I want to visit friends who live near Western several miles north of me. It would also give me a viable transit connection to Midway Airport without going through downtown.
On the other hand, I wonder how they're going to handle lane configurations to accommodate dedicated bus lanes. Both of these streets handle a LOT of truck traffic and have two through traffic lanes in each direction in most areas. Are they going to remove the median or remove parking? If they try to reduce either of these streets to one through lane in each direction, it will be 24/7 gridlock.
-
Permalink Reply by Liz on
-
Even if they simply return the the express bus model for now it would be an improvement. Eliminating 4 stops at small streets and only stopping at major cross streets makes traveling by express bus as quick a automobile traffic. If stretches of parking or lanes through heavily congested could become, even if its only 3 or 4 segments of a street it could reduce travel times to be faster than driving.
John Wirtz said:
We don't manage the parking, so we can't remove that. The median will be used for stations. Probably remove the through lanes, but that seems difficult given the large traffic volumes. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Anne Alt said:
Looking at the proposed BRT map, I was very happy to see 95th St. from Western to Cottage Grove (or slightly beyond) as one route (as opposed to the current 95W and 95E). I was also happy to see Western all the way down to 95th as one route. The idea of faster bus routes connecting more destinations is a good one. In its current configuration, I rarely ride the Western bus because it ends at 79th, leaving anyone further south to connect with a Pace bus at most hours of the day. Having a full-time route all the way to 95th would mean fewer car trips if I want to visit friends who live near Western several miles north of me. It would also give me a viable transit connection to Midway Airport without going through downtown.
On the other hand, I wonder how they're going to handle lane configurations to accommodate dedicated bus lanes. Both of these streets handle a LOT of truck traffic and have two through traffic lanes in each direction in most areas. Are they going to remove the median or remove parking? If they try to reduce either of these streets to one through lane in each direction, it will be 24/7 gridlock.
-
-
I agree. I liked the "X" routes. I would have preferred that they cut the regular routes and reassigned some of the buses to the "X" routes. Imagine a system where every bus is fast. I suggested similar bus stop consolidation on the Chicago Budget idea site. You can vote for my idea here:
http://citybudget2012.ideascale.com/a/dtd/CTA-Bus-Stop-Consolidatio...
Liz said:Even if they simply return the the express bus model for now it would be an improvement. Eliminating 4 stops at small streets and only stopping at major cross streets makes traveling by express bus as quick a automobile traffic. If stretches of parking or lanes through heavily congested could become, even if its only 3 or 4 segments of a street it could reduce travel times to be faster than driving.
John Wirtz said:We don't manage the parking, so we can't remove that. The median will be used for stations. Probably remove the through lanes, but that seems difficult given the large traffic volumes. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Anne Alt said:Looking at the proposed BRT map, I was very happy to see 95th St. from Western to Cottage Grove (or slightly beyond) as one route (as opposed to the current 95W and 95E). I was also happy to see Western all the way down to 95th as one route. The idea of faster bus routes connecting more destinations is a good one. In its current configuration, I rarely ride the Western bus because it ends at 79th, leaving anyone further south to connect with a Pace bus at most hours of the day. Having a full-time route all the way to 95th would mean fewer car trips if I want to visit friends who live near Western several miles north of me. It would also give me a viable transit connection to Midway Airport without going through downtown.
On the other hand, I wonder how they're going to handle lane configurations to accommodate dedicated bus lanes. Both of these streets handle a LOT of truck traffic and have two through traffic lanes in each direction in most areas. Are they going to remove the median or remove parking? If they try to reduce either of these streets to one through lane in each direction, it will be 24/7 gridlock.
Groups
-
Chicagoland Beer Explora…
203 members
-
Wednesday Night for Mort…
1 member
-
Great Lakes Ultra Cycling
270 members
-
Major Taylor Internation…
1 member
-
Critical Mass discussion
261 members
© 2008-2016 The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.
Powered by
