Many thanks—although a lot of that knowledge comes from being a long-time lurker. ;)

I think Pace has been trying to improve their image lately—I’ve seen their new paint scheme on the Edens and it looks pretty slick, although I also saw that the bus was stuck in traffic with me, which is not so slick. If metro Chicago upgraded their shoulders for buses and emergency vehicles it would certainly help with this problem, but the research I’ve seen about shoulder-riding buses is that they’re better at retaining passengers than attracting new ones.

Pace is looking into signal priority and improved stops (at wider spacing) along Milwaukee and Cermak between Berwyn and Oak Brook. The latter makes a lot of sense—you go through a couple of denser, highly walkable suburbs to a major employment center only a couple of miles away—but I can’t think of any other corridors are as lucky geographically. Niles wants to couple bus improvements with pedestrian improvement and redevelopment along Milwaukee, but though you have to give them credit for leveraging a pretty small investment in transit for all they can, in the end it will still probably lead to a marginal improvement in transit ridership.

Still, I wonder if the lines in inner-ring suburbs could be marketed as a “frequent network” with minimum frequencies of fifteen minutes, limited stops (quarter-to-half-mile spacing in most cases), and on some corridors signal priority. Since the grid’s pretty strong in the older suburbs, it would be fairly legible and could serve as an improved feeder to Metra and the outlying CTA stations. And even though its riderhsip would be weak by Chicago standards, it might be on-par with systems in mid-sized cities. I wonder…

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...7521354.column

Change of direction for Wacker project
North-south rehab will be more focused than east-west reconstruction

Jon Hilkevitch
Getting Around
9:42 p.m. CST, December 26, 2010

[QUOTE]People who drive, walk, ride a bus or pedal a bicycle in downtown Chicago might want to mark December 2012 on their calendar as the completion date for the next Wacker Drive reconstruction project.

But before you do that, make a big red circle around Monday, Jan. 3, and maybe add a few exclamation points or scribble an unhappy face.

Picking up where the last Wacker project left off eight years ago, demolition will begin in one week, weather permitting, to rebuild the 55-year-old section of Upper and Lower Wacker from Randolph to Monroe streets, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation./QUOTE]

Chicago Proposal
 

Jumping in for the first time here, but hopefully not the last.

Here is my proposal:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yxxaxxHmgH.../s1600/cta.jpg

(Apologies for the quality: I'm having issues with adobe right now).

Key points:
1) I split off the Circle line from a new line on Western, that turns east on Howard and runs to Howard and Sheridan. I think trying to combine them creates the worst of both worlds.
2) A new subway aunder Cicero, from Old Orchard to Blue Island.
3) A much smaller Circle line (North Ave, Michigan, Cermak, and Halsted), that serves the high density core.
4) East-west shuttles from Halsted to the Lake on Chicago, Grand, Monroe, Cermak, and Roosevelt. The goal is that most (if not all) of the core is within 1/4 mile walk of a subway station.
5) Extension of the Green line east and west, and the Brown line west to Jefferson Park.
6) New east-west subways on Fullerton, 47th (east from Western), and 86th Street.
7) COnstruction of a high-speed rail express between the Loop (Block 37 station), O'Hare, and Midway (with a possible transfer station at Jefferson Park).
8) transfer stations at all connection points between CTA and Metra, starting with the Davis Street Station in Evanston.


This is not a cheap proposal(!), but it has the benefit of flexibility; lines can be easily(!!) added as money and interest permit. Even if just(!) the two main north-south lines and the circle line were built a significant portion of the City would be significantly better served by rail transit.

There are some other improvements that could be made, if money is no object :jester: :

--Put the existing elevated lines underground
--Put a roof and walls around the highway stations, with sliding doors to the trains. those stations could be heated/cooled as weather permits
--A superstation at Monroe and the River, combining the Monroe Shuttle, Amtrak, and Metra. It would be a 1 block walk in either direction from the shuttle to the other trains, but it would be underground and heated, and would be the one link between the three downtown.
--I suppose a north south line could be built on Austin from the Blue line station to the north city limits.

Ok; my two cents worth. critique away! :whip:

Chicago's transportation infrastructure weakening

Next mayor faces challenges for funds for CTA, O'Hare, roads

By Jon Hilkevitch, TRIBUNE REPORTER
5:23 p.m. CST, December 23, 2010

CTA to test train tracker in January

By: Lorene Yue December 30, 2010

(Crain's) — The Chicago Transit Authority is launching a test of its train tracking system next month.

The system will give arrival times at all 144 el stations via a website. Riders choose one of the eight rail lines and then a specific station to find trains arriving within a 15-minute window.

Read more: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...#axzz19d9X101i

^ can't wait. i absolutely adore bus tracker. i've found it to be reliably accurate and it has been extremely helpful in those "should i wait for a bus or just hop in a cab" situations. train tracker will hopefully do just the same.

http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/renov...after-2-years/

Renovated L Platforms Require Costly Repairs as Wood Planks Deteriorate After 2 Years
By PATRICK REHKAMP and ROBERT HERGUTH December 30, 2010

Wooden L platforms that were rebuilt over the past few years as part of the $530 million Brown Line renovation are already deteriorating at some stations.

Officials with the Chicago Transit Authority began noticing the decaying wood in August 2008 — two years after the first stations were completed, the C.T.A. said.

Since then, about $300,000 has been spent replacing an estimated 10,000 square feet of Southern yellow pine decking at eight Brown Line stations — Chicago, Sedgwick, Armitage, Diversey, Montrose, Rockwell, Francisco and Kedzie — according to records and interviews.

What did they not use pressure treated wood?

Why are they still using wood at all? Forget purity, who cares if the decking is a composite that will actually last?

I'm not quite sure. Wood is historically used for the platforms. It can also last a very long time.

My guess is that pine was the cheapest option - plus, it's been used successfully on many other stations. Cedar would have been great, but it's more expensive. Same goes for composites like Trex or Azek.

Wood, I think, has the best traction under ice and snow without needing the structural support required for concrete.

Chicago Sucks!!! Here's an idea why don't they not ticket my car for being in one spot for more than 7 days. No, it's not abandoned I just went on vacation for 10 days and I don't have a garage to park it in. Then they give me tickets for it being more than 12 inches from the curb which it wasn't. It was right against the curb. Then they send me a letter in the mail saying that since I abandoned my car would I like to give them my title to it as well so they can junk it. How about not giving out harassing tickets to tax paying citizens of the city. I had current registration and city stickers and was parked in a legal spot.

This was the worst welcome home I can get. I am seriously thinking about moving to Florida now to get away from all this Chicago BS.

^ Are you sure that they don't require the curb to be clear a few hours per week for street cleaning?

I would definitely contest any tickets if you think their claims are false. Yeah, I can imagine why you'd be annoyed.

Keeping a car in a big city is a hassle. That's something one has to accept. If the inconveniences of car ownership are enough to make you move to Florida, then you really should consider leaving.

the reason i moved away from Boston was the time the price vehicle registration went up annually by $3.

^^^^ It's rough parking on the street, no denying it. I've payed my fair share of tickets, including two $50 tickets within 25 minutes of each other. I was parked when they were scheduled to do street cleaning. I was lucky I moved my car before they could tow it which would have happened with ticket # three. If I ever live within the city limits again, I'll either give up having a car or pay for a permanent spot. Definitely incentive to take public transit.

Hope you can fight some of those tickets.

^I just park in the garage....

It stinks, but if it makes you feel better, basically every big city has abandoned vehicle laws, some even stricter than Chicago's (like 2-3 days) --- the difference is lackluster enforcement, and Chicago's budget situation has provided incentive the past couple years to be incredibly stringent about any and all possible parking violations. A few years ago it generally wasn't an issue to leave a car for weeks at a time on the street, but the last year it's gotten much tougher, especially if you're in a high visibility area.

I'm definitely going to fight them. I knew about the law but last year I parked in the same spot for 10 days over Christmas time and they didn't bother it then. This time though it was covered in a mountain of snow so it was much more noticeable. The same cop wrote all the tickets I got. So, I'm sure he saw it there everyday.

I didn't know they were so strict with the abandoned vehicle law. I could see if it was there for a month, but 7 days isn't that long. Perhaps a warning after 7 days. Do you think I have a chance to contest it? I wasn't abandoning it. I was just gone on vacation for a few days. I don't have a garage. My landlord doesn't want people parking cars behind our building for some reason.

I went past the Oakton station site in Skokie today. No pictures, but there were several crews out doing utility relocation and so forth.

They're also pouring the curb bumpouts for the stationhouse and auxiliary entrance at Morgan.

Finally some news that the station construction is actually moving forward. I was looking on the CTA's website about a month or two ago in search of any updated information on the station, but I wasn't able to find anything new. Same for Village of Skokie's website. The Chinese can probably build 1000 km of high speed rail in less time than it's taken to get the Oakton station rebuilt.

^^ Having said that, I now was able to locate a PDF news release on Skokie's website dating from October 14th.

Two renderings of the station (PDF)

Speaking of station construction, anyone know anything about a Morgan St. station for the Greenline? Has anything started yet?

Can’t say I care much for the Oakton Station (though I do like the black-on-yellow signage)—I’d like something crisp and modern would work better at that site—I’m imagining something like the renovated Dan Ryan stations, but at grade level. The station also looks awfully big for something to only needs to berth two-car trains. Oh well, I can’t stand most Metra stations’ cutesy architecture either.

It’s good to hear they’re getting some work done—I would imagine utility relocation would be a big deal for any work on the Yellow Line. There’s often so much invisible work to be done in any major public work—our agencies really should do a better job of explaining to the public what’s going on and why, so the impression that nothing ever happens (which was my first reaction while passing Oakton a few months ago) can be avoided.

Yes. They have the street closed off and a rendering on Morgan.

Who else is excited about the bus only lanes through the loop? I think those are supposed to be started early this year. I know when I took the #56 out of the west loop from old job to Wicker Park it was a complete madhouse on Madison during rush hour. A dedicated bus lane should definitely help.

I've got no problem with the higher rates downtown...but this is nonsense

Man Gets Ticket While Paying $5 For One Hour Of Parking Downtown (VIDEO)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_804807.html

^ Ugh.... I'd be pissed if I was that guy

The design will be started early this year for the "Central Transitway" and the Jeffrey bus lanes. There's no word on when construction will start, though.

Train Tracker is live.

Red/Purple Modernization project has a website (and a logo). Scoping meetings to be held the last week of January in four North Lakefront locations.

Does anyone know if it is available for smartphones yet? I looked on the Droid market, but did not find.

I don't think there are any specific apps for the train tracker, but I suggest checking out the website CTA Tattler, which has a review of the tracker.
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/cta-...ta-review.html

Hope that's helpful.

CTA hasn't made the data available to developers yet. The developer for TreKing has previously promised to incorporate the rail data as soon as it's available, though.

Until then, there is a mobile website. I have a link for it from the main screen on my android phone (G2).

City exploring slimmer, trimmer roads


January 9, 2011

Jon Hilkevitch

http://www.chicagotribune.com/images/logoSmall.png

Read More: http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...,377920.column

Great news! Chicago's streets need to be rethought for the 21st century.

I'M IN LOVE WITH TRAIN TRACKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i took the train this morning instead of my bike due to the weather, and i can't tell you how nice it is to know when then next purple line train is gonna arrive because sometimes it seems like the gap between trains can stretch up to 25 minutes when the CTA is up to it's usual tricks of totally fucking up everything that it does.

well, at least they got train tracker right. kudos, CTA, on a job (rarely) well done!

Riders demanded it and they delivered. I think CTA is fairly responsive to the public on a large scale (although obviously some individual employees are not).

It can be even better if they make their CTA app for mobiles have access to the system to know what train is coming or how long a delay is without having to actually enter the system. In addition to just having pre-planned bus schedules to look up in the app.

^Huh? Train Tracker optimized for mobile devices.

^ yeah, i've had no problems using train or bus tracker with my i-phone. well, not any problems beyond AT&T's truly craptacular service network.

The CTA doesn't write mobile apps. They provide data feeds and an API for any and all developers to use. As I stated above, the CTA has explicitly said that for this early Beta version, they are not adding the train tracker data to their developer data feeds or API until they have it working smoothly.

And your comment about "just having pre-planned bus schedules" makes no sense, since bus tracker uses live GPS data and not schedules.

Are you sure you know what you're talking about?

My app only has the schedule info for busses, but then there are no bus trackers for our system, subway has them though.

Indeed! I haven't really used train tracker during the day when wait times are pretty short, but it was definitely useful last weekend at night!

From the Tribune:

Ridership with Chicago Transit Authority down less than 1 percent in 2010

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Transit Authority officials say ridership was down less than 1 percent in 2010, despite the weak economy and cuts in bus and train service.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the agency gave 516.9 million rides in 2010. That is 4.7 million more than projected for the year, but 0.8 percent less than the year before.

CTA President Richard Rodriguez says the news is encouraging, especially when considering the impact of the recession.

Rodriguez says bus ridership was down 4 percent last year. The agency reduced bus service by 18 percent in 2010 because of budget cuts.

Meanwhile, train ridership was up more than 4 percent. Rail service was cut by 9 percent.

There's been a debate about this on the CTA Tattler website. CTA's identified 6 options, ranging from least to most ambitious.

Additional details were given in the comments. Alternatives 4 and 5 would entail a total reconstruction of the decaying solid-fill viaduct as a concrete aerial structure, and possible closures of South Blvd, Foster, Jarvis, Thorndale, and/or Lawrence, in conjunction with the opening of new entrances at nearby stations.

Alternative 6 would build a subway between Belmont and Loyola with a portal just north of Belmont, then running underneath Sheffield/Sheridan to Broadway, then up Broadway to Loyola where it would return to aerial structure. New stations would be built at Addison, Irving Park, Wilson, Foster, Bryn Mawr, Glenlake, and Devon.

I assume cost estimates will be given at the community meetings a week from now. If a two-track subway costs less than a new 4-track elevated, that may be a smart choice. The paring-down of stations and the smoother alignment might result in enough of a speed boost to offset the loss of express service. The life expectancy of an underground concrete subway structure is also extremely long - Chicago won't have to worry about rebuilding the damn thing in another century.

CTA might come up with new alternatives after they receive comments, too. I'd like to see them price out an option with a shorter subway between Belmont and Lawrence to eliminate the Clark Junction conflicts and the dead-man's-curves at Sheridan.

^ Exciting stuff.

Is that realistically conceivable?

Incidentally, I can't picture riding the el to Wrigley and the climbing out of a subway station ... the elevated station is such a part of the Wrigley environs. Even just the rumble as heard from the ballpark. How about a portal around 3800 North...?

Possibly. A 4-track elevated built to modern standards would be enormously wide at stations. The property takings alone could get into the hundreds of millions. What do you do in Edgewater and Rogers Park where there are high-rises or mid-rises directly abutting the tracks?

A TBM-bored subway is relatively inexpensive. The bulk of the cost usually comes from the stations, which are typically done through cut-and-cover method. The cut-and-cover is very expensive in a dense city where you must re-route traffic, move utilities, deny access to adjacent buildings, and prevent the ground from collapsing around the dig site.

Nowadays, though, there are large-bore TBMs where you can fit two tracks and platforms into the round tunnel in a stacked arrangement, avoiding the high cost of cut-and-cover. The platforms exit out to escalators and elevators in a shaft built under a lot next to the street. Conceivably, CTA could even recover some of its costs by partnering with developers to build atop the access shaft.

Here's a graphic from a Barcelona subway currently under construction. The shaft wouldn't be nearly this expansive and the tunnel wouldn't be nearly as deep, but you get the picture (even if you can't read Catalan).

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9084/barcelonapp.jpg

Perhaps I am misunderstanding...why would they close Lawrence?

IS the subway in addition to the L or is it to replace the L between Belmomt / Loyola

I love this idea...I think it would be nice great to have an extended subway all the way up to Loyola. But I do think it would be weird to be going north on the Redline and to come above ground for 3 stops and then tunnel right back under? If that is the case why not just extend the tunnel to connect with the existing one?

If we are getting into talk of building a 2 track elevated and 2 track subway, then we may as well just separate the purple line and the red line and run a subway up Clark from just north of Belmont to Howard. I mean at that point you may as well use it as an oppurtunity to expand the service area of the system. can you imagine how useful it would be to have alternating stops along the current red line ROW and along Clark Street? I mean the new stations they would build along the subway would be perfect for Clark Street:

Addison, Irving Park, Wilson, Foster, Bryn Mawr, Glenlake, and Devon... Those are all almost perfectly placed to service the Clark Street Corridor. They are so perfect it almost makes me think that might be the plan. God can you imagine how awesome Andersonville would be with Subway stops at Foster and Bryn Mawr?

Its my understanding TBMs are a significant disadvantage when dealing with ground which requires significant reinforcement, Chicago's soil being one. The bulk of the machine itself makes reinforcement extremely difficult and thus the operation is slow and unproductive. I say this generally but don't know the particulars of how deep they'd be digging or the exact characteristics of the ground therein.

No, no... the 2-track subway would replace the elevated completely. The elevated would be torn down afterward.