[oshkeoto]

"1. People say the southland (Roseland, West Pullman, etc.) is underserved by transit. But if transit is so important to the residents, its worth pointing out that no one is forcing them to live there. What I mean by that is, there are vast amounts of underutilized areas in Chicago with excellent transit access (think south and west sides), where the cost of living is comparable or in some cases, less than the southland. Why invest in more transit infrastructure farther out from the core while what we have is going underutilized?"

Ah. So the onus isn't on the city to provide decent transportation to all Chicagoans, it's on Chicagoans to move to the right parts of the city. How stupid they are to complain about an extension that was supposed to happen 30 years ago when all this time, they could've just picked up their entire family, left their community, and bought something in Englewood next to the Green Line.

"If the current demographic trends continue, i.e. the formerly-working class residents of the south side are increasingly middle class and more affluent, car ownership and usage will also continue to increase. Since the southland is essentially totally built out, both residentially by bungalows and commercially, this suggests that there is little long term ridership growth potential with a red line extension"

Viva--first off, we all know that Dan Ryan/95th is one of the most heavily-used stations in the system, which suggests there would be a good number of people who would use stations further south. (And if that isn't enough, there's the fact that people in those neighborhoods have been organizing and demanding the extension--something that hasn't happened at all in the areas that would be affected by the Circle Line.) Secondly, there's this thing called densification--something we frequently attribute to the growth of public transport. Of course there's potential for growth.

"3. the beauty of the circle line, as opposed to line extensions, is that it increases the viability and effectiveness of all the lines it connects to. Similarly, if done in conjunction with Chicago Planning and Development, it would significantly contribute to the expansion of a dense, walkable, transit-able Urban core, something these far out line extensions don’t, and can’t, do. This means that the Circle Line has (relatively) unlimited ridership growth potential, both on the circle line itself and on the lines it connects to through enhanced interconnectivity."

Do you honestly think that the Circle Line is going to be some magic bullet that suddenly makes it sensible to travel from the far North Side to the far Northwest Side, or an equivalent trip on the South Side, on the El? Am I really going to take the time and effort to switch to a *third* train to save four or five stops? If I live in the West Loop, am I really going to be *that* excited about this, unless one of the three new stations is located right outside my doorstep? I really don't understand this; if the Circle Line were some massive project that would significantly change the nature of the system, I'd say we have to do it before anything else. But it won't. It'll make a few kinds of trips a little bit more convenient. The Red Line extension will provide trains to whole neighborhoods that previously lacked access.