CTA moves up Blue Line rehab
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...2203386.column

Jon Hilkevitch
Getting Around
February 24, 2014

The four-year overhaul of the CTA Blue Line O'Hare branch will be getting underway a few months early, the transit agency will announce Monday, with sections closing over 10 weekends between late March and August........

Interesting proposal for protected intersections for cyclists. http://www.protectedintersection.com/

The video explains it pretty well. This would probably be very welcome here, and we've got wide enough streets that we could probably pull it off, but I don't see us being too innovative in the field considering how long it took to get any kind of bike lanes.

It's already the recommended way to do turns for cyclists, however it also means cyclists will often have to wait through two light changes for a left turn, which is obnoxious. I don't really support this sort of system

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7253433.story

Improving portion of high-speed rail corridor could cost $1.5 billion


By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune reporter
3:58 p.m. CST, February 24, 2014

The two projects that you mentioned, are they they work that will be done between Porter, Indiana and the Englewood flyover? Are those the official names? Do you have any information on the status of the Porter Junction work and the additional siding between Porter and Illinois? I believe that once that work is done Amtrak will see a large increase on all three lines from Michigan as reliability is increased and total trip time is reduced.

Maybe I missed it before, but I am excited to hear of the turn-back tracks being built at Jefferson Park and UIC-Halsted. More service where it is currently needed, better ability to manage rush loads, and the ability to manage future ridership spikes.

Uh, there are already holding tracks at these locations... that's why you occasionally see UIC or Jefferson Park as the destination of a Blue Line train. I think the UIC one needs to be moved west of Western to increase service to the busier part of the Forest Park branch.

Public input sought on transportation priorities
 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,7616396.story

By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune reporter
5:19 p.m. CST, February 25, 2014

Cook County residents and business owners are being asked to weigh in on setting transportation priorities for future projects – from roads to bicycle paths and pedestrian walkways.......

Just did this! I really tried to focus on reinvesting in what we have and improving inter-neighborhood travel (i.e. Ashland BRT).

Count me as somebody with planning fatigue. We don't need more wish lists and magical thinking; we need political will, cooperation, and resources.

It's pretty well-known where the needs are. We've got failing railcars and buses, crumbling viaducts, and ramshackle stations. We've got agencies that won't even talk to each other, let alone cooperate and share ideas. We've got prominent Metra executives accused of rampant corruption and incompentence. How is one more planning exercise gonna solve any of it?

Do you know the Tale of Admiral Hyman Rickover Ardecila? Look him up.......

Chicago's Big Bet on the Bus
 

This article was posted in the Chicago subreddit and it's interesting to see the opinions of people who are less urban/transit nut balls (like we are). Seems like a lot of people are in favor of this, which is good. I'd give it a 70/30 split.

Thought some of you may be interested in seeing the discussion over there!

There's definitely some SSP/Reddit overlap... but yeah, the masses are not as uninformed as it appears sometimes.

The most vocal people at community meetings are often those with the most to lose and the most time on their hands (semi-retired Boomer property owners). In real life, though, these people are a minority. For obvious reasons, not a lot of these people use Reddit.

I guess you could look at it one of two ways:

"More money for the busses? Why would they do that? The bus system is terrible."

Or.

"More money for the busses? Finally! The bus system is terrible."

Which camp you fall into probably depends a lot on whether you use the bus system to go places.

The article is accurate in that Chicago has a split-personality regarding transportation. I know a lot of people without cars and a lot of people that couldn't imagine living here without a car.

People here think they have a right to drive and park anywhere. With our transit, car ownership rates should be much lower. We're behind Baltimore, Philly, Boston, and D.C. in car free households.

And the number of people that drive to work drives me mad. Maybe the parking meter sale was a bad deal, but I'm all for the price increase. I can't believe people drive to work downtown.

Every single development meeting seems to be like 85% about cars and traffic.

The BRT fight is a real defining moment for the City. Are we really going to block mass transit because people want to drive to Costco? That fact that that is even a legitimate consideration in the city is insane.

Fucking Costco!

I've had planning fatigue for years. I don't visit this thread very often for that reason. While other cities are building, here in Chicago we're just performing a perpetual mental masturbation about "the possibilities". For example, we've had enough meetings about the BRT plan. What's the surprise that a certain faction is against it? Just move the proposal forward and get started. Fuck everybody.

Re Chicago's split personality:

Exhibit A: if you have a kid in the car you can do anything.
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140...chools-support

I lived near a school, a private one, with a ton of drop offs and pick ups. They caused more problems than any delivery trucks.

A magnet school with families that don't live in the neighborhood could veto a grocery store because parents want to drop their kids off without hassle.

Insane.

^ Should be pretty easy to coordinate delivery times outside of the usual drop off/pickup times for the school.

But yeah... it's kind of annoying. I actually realize now that I could never be an Alderman for the simple fact that I couldn't stand the obnoxious complaints day in/day out from community members about every little issue.

By the way, shouldn't this be in the 'General Developments' thread?

You seem like an unusual kind of politician. The kind usually known as an unelected dictator.

^ In your position as a community leader, I hope you realize that not all opinions within a neighborhood are reflected by its most vocal representatives.

The people with the time to attend community meetings and protest things are not the people who are slogging to work on the bus day in and day out, or struggling to afford housing amid rising prices and stagnant supply.