Quote:
Originally Posted by VivaLFuego
The lack of decent park-n-ride options on the far south side (especially the Dan Ryan branch) is a problem. Going back decades, the original plans were some combination of large park-n-ride lots over the expressway at 87th and/or the large terminal at 103rd/Stony Island - neither ever built.
If you're coming home after about 6 or 7pm, the Metra express schedules become non-existent and even the (slow) locals are infrequent. There's no attractive, safe, time-efficient way to park-n-ride and use the south red line right now other than the lots at Chinatown, which may not be cost-efficient compared to just driving the rest of the way to your destination.
That isn't to say that RLE exactly as proposed is the best solution to this particular problem, but I can attest that the lack of secure park-n- ride coming from the south is a major impediment to more widespread Red Line use. The Green Line lots at Garfield and 63rd are not time efficient after you've already ground through traffic on the Dan Ryan or local arterials, and there aren't reliable options near the stations further south.
Most of the park n rides had decent utilization before the pandemic - not sure about currently, though.
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I'm not categorically opposed to park-and-rides but why provide them at every station? That just creates a moat that discourages walk-up ridership. If they have to do park-and-rides, I'd rather see them focus on a single large garage at 130th, where the land is all held by governmental entities anyway (MWRD, CHA, CPS/Carver) and TOD is unlikely.
The Orange Line is a good preview of what these Red Line park-and-rides will look like. It's especially disappointing because the Orange Line actually did lead to a lot of infill development, but some of the best sites are taken up by parking lots that are half-full at best.