[Roy_Batty]

If I understand correctly, the North Branch Transitway will improve all rail, pedestrian/bike and motor vehicle accessibilities:

1. From a rail perspective, there will be a refurbishment of the Metra Station that will transform this as a hub. Not sure what does that exactly mean, but I suppose having a bigger and better connected bus station, it also seems this will be connected to an extension of the 606 trail.

2. From a pedestrian/bike perspective, this is where this project seems to add more. Other than the 606 trail extension, there are some proposals of pedestrian bridges connecting both sides of the river plus what seems to be a new river walk connecting all the way from Fullerton to the existing river walk in the loop or what not. All of the new projects seem to be adding something here to be able to accomplish this. If this is correctly implemented, due to the proximity to the red and blue lines (1/2 hour walk down and 15 minutes bike drive between both) I would think this could really add a lot of connectivity to the residents and workers of the area.

3. From a motor vehicle perspective, there are some proposals to enhance some of the vehicular bridges to avoid bottlenecks in the major avenues crossing the river.

I certainly would like to see more details of the transitway project, not sure if that’s available or not, but I think it all sounds good. In any case, I can certainly tell you from my experience, Chicago is not a city with major traffic concerns at least compared to other major metro areas in the world. I also think whatever negative impact this will have in vehicular traffic will be compensated by all those achievements resulted from a high density neighborhood located closely enough (but not inside) the downtown, with mixed used developments, public spaces funded throughout private initiatives, etc. Do we want a TOD city or not?

I think from all of the projects in Chicago that are realistically possible to achieve (ie. excluding One Central and the 78), I do rank the set of north branch projects like Lincoln Yards, Halsted Point and River City (or whatever the name of the Casino project is) to be the best, specially if they are properly integrated by the North Branch Transitway. Looking forward for more details on this.