As a citizen of Chicago who drives, bikes, walks, and takes transit, I say increase the city sticker costs to $100/month instead of $120/year or whatever it is and slap incoming commuters with a commuter tax or toll upon entering the city in the morning and leaving at night of no less than $2.50 each way. Also, there shouldn't be a single street in the city that is 4 lanes for more than 8 blocks. How do you like that?

People would be a lot more interested in taking transit if their car was costing them the same price per month as a 30 day pass just to own it, let alone the costs of operating it.

^^^most definitely agree with all of that

I don't agree, unless the revenue could only be spent on expanding transit and in Chicago I am sure the revenue would find its way into the pockets of the politically connected instead. Being a newly minted Northsider myself, I understand how people who's lives revolve around the North Side can advocate ditching the automobile all together but the truth of the matter is transit in Chicagoland as a whole is not adequate enough for it to be a viable alternative to the automobile like it is in NYC. I purchase a 30 day pass through Wage Works each month and I also own a car and spend about $100-150 in gas per month. I frequently have to travel to the South Side and South Suburbs and there is no way I would be supportive of being tolled and there is no way transit would be a viable option.

Uber just released this map of uber activity, it's kinda pretty. Here's a cropped version:

http://i.imgur.com/6OONlLG.png

Full-size here.

A few observations:

* People take Uber to the airports a lot. High speed light rail, please.
* Check out that massive black hole in the south loop, between (what I'm guessing is) Roosevelt and Cermak.
* What were uber drivers doing out on Navy Pier?

Answer to your last question. People are picked up at the conferencing/events and theater in the sheltered valet and taxi area in the middle of the pier. Taxi area out front is not in use, so they have to drive out onto the pier to pick up passengers

It's a total mess over there right now. Or shall I say ...messier than usual

Not surprised about michigan ave being bright colored. Cabs are the only way to get around downtown since transit does not effectively serve downtown north of the river (locally) due to overcrowding and slow transit vehicle movement.

Transit would be so much easier, especially for tourists, if there were just a "Michigan Avenue" bus that did a continuous route between the top of mag mile and the bottom of grant park. Almost every question I hear from confused tourists at bus stops downtown can be answered with "take the number 3". They either want to get to the bean or to their hotel on mag mile, and the route signs at bus stops can be a bit impenetrable to an out of towner who's never tried to use a bus system before. Oh to be able to tell people "take the Michigan Ave bus to the Hancock Center stop."

That's a great idea. I used to take the 151 from Union Station up to Lakeview on the weekends, and the bus was full with METRA suburbanites like me once it hit State Street, then it was packed once it hit Millennium Park, then it was over-capacity from the River up to inner LSD, all with tourists doing (exactly as you say) the Bean - Oak Street stretch on Michigan Avenue.

Or maybe a dedicated touristy trolley/double decker bus would work, kind of like Navy Pier used to run (or do they still) from the Loop over to the Pier. Just start at Michigan/Roosevelt and go up to Michigan/Oak and turn around and have tons of signage on it to attract the tourists.

Then it would get the tourists off the 151; oftentimes it would take up to 55+ minutes from Union Station to Lakeview on the 151 due to all the tourist stop/go motions on Michigan Ave. I would oftentimes run the 4 miles back to Union Station with my backpack as it was quicker than the bus.

I hear what you are saying, but there are so many busses going up and down Michigan Ave. (or close-by) that it would be overkill IMO.

You've got the:
3, 146, 147, 151, 157 (and those don't include rush hour busses like the 143, etc.)

And nearby ones like the 29, 36, 22, etc.

True, but on the weekends, the bus services seem more limited and thus more crowded (i.e. the 151 being the only/best option from Union Station up to Lakeview), so that's why I thought the tourist trolley/bus might be a good idea, like wierdaaron mentioned.

CTA finally divulged the full list of buildings for the Clark Flyover...

It looks like they will not only build the flyover but also straighten the S-curve between Clark and Newport, which is nice but doesn't seem like it's worth the hassle of so much demolition.

Does anyone know if the CTA ever considered going under? Could the Brownline run at grade level directly under the tracks, then come up again at Belmont? I'm sure they thought of it, but how come it doesn't work?

You would have to close School Street, but that wouldn't be a major as knocking down all these buildings.

that list would turn that area into a deadzone for sure

Holy F*CK that's a lot of buildings. As someone who would benefit mightily by the flyover, I am a little concerned about this. I want to know what the CTA is planning to do to get buildings back on these streets after construction...not just renderings of what "could" be done. I hope they aggressive market the properties for post el construction development.

Interesting... looks like the new Division bridge will be a bascule! That's weird, since the Chicago bridge is locked shut and large boats cannot go further north. Even if they "unlocked" that bridge, the new one at Halsted is a fixed bridge by design.

Especially since Addison is less than 1000 ft. from the kink. Not sure when the trains have to start to slow for their approach to the platform, but it can't be much shorter than that.

I was wondering what in gods name was going on north of roscoe with all those buildings set to be demolished. I certainly hope they pass on the straightening. It's such a small kink, and it would really ruin clark street.

Honestly other than the Johnny Ohagan's building and the 3334 building I don't really care much for the others. Bolat and the building on N. Sheffield are nothing special, just one or two stories. They're not taking all of Jimmy Johns and nothing really to the south. The buildings on Wilton are a different story, but I don't know much about them.

The kink is actually about dead center between Belmont and Addison, so presumably that's the sweet spot for max speed.

Rebuilding the Red Line is a once in a century project, and the buildings to be demolished probably don't have very long lifespans anyway, given the way commercial re-development of Wrigleyville is going, so it seems over the long term the straightening of the kink is not a bad decision.

Nerd question: Does wear and tear, and therefore maintenance costs, on the wheels/axles -- and rails and ties -- get noticeably reduced if you eliminate kinks like this one?

And that's why the system is broken. The buses bunch and don't move. If anyone has done a comparison commute walking down michigan vs boarding a bus, you can usually match the speed of the buses. Goes to show they either need a dedicated lane or bus tunnel or else replace the express lines with rail that has less stops downtown.

Yeah, if I'm not N. Michigan and I'm hopping a bus out of the area I always just go to end and get on there - I hate the 20 minute of CRAWLING up michigan.

OR...just go take the red line.