April 29, 2008
Chicago Will Be Home to Federally Funded Rapid Bus Routes
The City of Chicago announced today that we're getting a $153 million government grant to try traffic-busting transit plans. On the to-do list? A special "bus rapid transit" subsystem and pricier downtown parking to make public transportation more attractive and driving drastically less so. From the USDOT press release:
[U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E.] Peters explained the federal funds will be used to support Chicago’s creation of four pilot routes of a new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network. The new BRT routes will have their own dedicated lanes and the buses will be equipped with technology to help speed them through traffic with priority right of way at busy signalized intersections. In addition, the CTA will be able to purchase new and cleaner hybrid engine vehicles, she said.
Where exactly those dedicated lanes will be is still TBD, buy Mayor Daley said at a press conference this morning that his goal is to have 100 miles of bus lanes in the city. Someday. Some bus stops will be equipped with kiosks where riders could pay before getting on the bus, which would allow for front and rear boarding, and the snazzy new routes will have fewer stops to maximize efficiency. [S-T, ABC 7, Department of Transportation release, Trib, photo by efroten]
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Probably on the arterial streets and LSD.
Sounds like an excellent program.
Why don't they use that money to repair the machines that add money to "smart cards"?
Any body else "loan" the CTA money
unintentionally( for a week) trying to add money to their "smartcard"? Yesterday it was forty dollars! Then I had to add another 20 dollars when the CTA guy got the Machine finally work!
This has happend to me three times already. But I guess we should be happy that they can electronically track money that the machine steals
What about ethanol powered buses? Anyone remember GWB's historic and forward thinking state of the union speech about energy independence? What a visionary president we have!
You mean the constant running of red lights doesn't already constitute a "bus rapid transit" system?
I just like when Bush says "switch grass" over and over
You people are a little too cynical for me.
Not cynical, realistic. I mean, whose buns are they going to pull these lanes out of?
I agree with every aspect of this plan except for the plan to charge delivery vehicles for parking in loading zones. Most of these delivery people (I used to be one) are "private contractors" already operating with the slimmest of profit margins, especially with gas being $4 (out of pocket, though you can deduct mileage at tax time). Deliveries downtown are already a huge hassle and rarely profitable, and an extra 10-15 dollars a day paying for parking will make a difference...
So prices on everything downtown will go up and the bike messengers will be carrying a lot more boxes and giant rolls of paper. Sigh. Another stealth tax.
I think this is great news. Rapid buses are going to be a much more cost effective form of transportation than rebuilding the train lines. The maintenance of rail lines is significantly more difficult than roads and requires more specialized workers, buses on the other hand are stand alone units that can be easily upgraded or replaced as technology improves to offer faster or greener alternatives. If it were me I would start with replacing the 290 portion of the Blue line with a rapid bus system while taking out the rail and replacing with bus lanes you could also fit a fourth lane from austin until the 294 interchange this would virtually eliminate traffic on 290 which is mainly caused by the merge from 4 to 3 lanes at Austin and vice versa.
I would also make the buses modular where people could load at the stop and that would join up with the already moving bus as it goes by the stop without stopping.
As for Lake Shore that could suck only having 3 lanes However if they sunk the entire downtown portion of LSD so that there was no need for stop lights and a clear way for pedestrians and bicyclers to get across LSD from the park to the lakefront you probably could make up all of the time lost from only having three lanes.
Anyway at least there is some investment money going into Chicago public transit which I think is a good thing.
I read matty's first comment and thought it said "Probably on the aerial streets", which would have been one hilarious line...y'know, cuz we'll have these when we have flying Jetson cars.
Alas, he missed out on that one.
Might trolleybuses be a better plan, being more energy-efficient, gas-independent, while still having relatively little infrastructure?
While $150 million can definitely net the CTA some nice shiny new vehicles for this program, I can't imagine that it would go very far towards, say, extensive construction on Lake Shore Drive. LSD seems to be the place everyone first thinks of. I can't immediately think of anywhere in the city that both has the underlying demand to benefit from something like this and that has a corridor that could be adapted to allow a bus to run relatively unimpeded for a long stretch for 100 mil and change. Will they look at unused stretches of train track first?