Tag Archives: Metra

No More Highways: Illinois Route 53 Extension is Wasteful

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It takes a little perspective to actually understand how much we waste on needless highway infrastructure, whether it’s a $4,700,000,000, 52-mile highway bypass in Birmingham or a $118,000,000, 11-mile bypass near my hometown (if Google is to be trusted, it saves drivers a whopping 2 minutes to bypass the town’s 10,000 residents; if my observations are to be trusted, the bypass sees about 1 car every few minutes). Remember, that’s in a state whose governor rejected building a currently non-existent high-speed rail link between the state’s two largest cities on the grounds that taxpayers would have to pay something like $8 million per year to subsidize it. I could spend days researching the most expensive transportation boondoggles in the country, but its really just depressing considering we can’t even maintain what we already have, and other people are already doing it. We have enough – we’ve gone way past the point of diminishing returns because these new roads are making driving more attractive (in theory), therefore making traffic worse, and ensuring that we have to pay more for them in the future when they stop being all shiny and smooth.

So why exactly is the Illinois Tollway trying to extend IL route 53 12.5 miles north into Lake County? The proposed extension (map below) would take the existing freeway portion, which runs from Lake Cook Road at the Lake/Cook County border south to Schaumburg at Interstate 290, and extend it north through Lake County to route 120 in Grayslake.

Credit: Chicago Tribune.

To the Tollway’s credit, the plan does call for the road to be paid for through user fees, specifically congestion charging, something around 20 cents. However, this wouldn’t pay for the $2,500,000,000 price tag (yes, that’s $200,000,000 per mile, or about $3,500 per resident of Lake County, but who’s really counting, right?). Continue reading →

Observations on Metra

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Last weekend I took the Metra to and from my hometown to visit family and friends for the Thanksgiving holiday. I don’t use Metra as often as I used to when I was younger and lived far from Chicago, but I still use it occasionally and find a few problems with Metra as it currently is:

Fare Collections

Metra uses an antiquated fare system I wrote about when CTA Ventra was announced. Conductors still come around to sell and check paper tickets, which can be paid with cash only. Passengers who want to pay with a credit/debit card must pay in a staffed station. Not all stations are staffed, and some that are are not staffed at all times (especially weekends – when fewer passengers are using monthly fares and more are buying one-ride or weekend tickets). If a passenger arrives just moments before the train departs, does not have time to buy a ticket in a staffed station, and boards the train, they will be subject to a $3 surcharge per ticket for purchasing the ticket on the train.

It’s really kind of a mess for the nation’s single largest commuter rail network.

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Small-Town Transportation

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Spending the first 19 years of my life in a small town has given me a wide perspective of the continuum of American human settlement patterns, ranging from my family home in a rural setting to the dense, urban environment I live in now. I was 17 the first time I ever wrote up a proposal that I thought would someday solve a urban planning issue in my hometown.

I grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, a town of about 8,000 which is just 64 miles (as the crow flies), or about 80 miles if you drive, from Chicago. If you’re like me and take the Metra to Fox Lake and get picked up for the rest of the journey, it takes around 2 hours (it takes about 90-120 minutes driving). If you’re from Chicago or the suburbs, you’ve most likely heard of it – it’s a popular weekend destination in the summer (and the locals have a very affectionate term for visitors from Illinois – FIBs – and you can figure out what it means yourself). I don’t know exactly how to classify Lake Geneva. It isn’t a suburb, since it doesn’t border any other municipalities and it doesn’t really belong to the Milwaukee metropolitan area, nor Chicago’s. It also isn’t an exurb or “commuter town” or “bedroom community,” since many of the residents do work nearby. It is probably best classified as a “resort town,” since the local economy is very focused on hospitality and visitors.

For the Thanksgiving holiday I was in Lake Geneva to see some family and friends, but never wanting to miss an opportunity to compare how cities are formed and the transportation options they offer their residents, I made sure to take a few photos of some interesting features. I remember when I was in high school and some bike paths were being built. Here is an outdated map from the City’s website:

Credit: City of Lake Geneva, WI.

You can’t tell from the map, but the paths do hit some key community areas: the high/middle schools (large buildings at the bottom), the CBD (end of the blue lines at the left), and the big-box stores that serve local residents (near the highway interchange).

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CTA to charge more without providing more

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If you live in Chicago, you’ve probably heard about the CTA’s fare increases by now, or as the CTA calls them, “modest reductions in discounts” (an Orwellian way of saying “fare increase”).

What affects Chicagoans the most is probably the $14 increase in a 30-day pass from $86 to $100 (a 16% increase). That doesn’t seem like much, but over a twelve-month period, that is $168 more out of our pockets – or just about two months’ worth of $86 monthly passes. Tourists will pay more, too – the $5.75 1-day pass will now be $10.00. I don’t have (and never want to have) a car, and I know I’m not the only person in Chicago that feels that way. So, when friends and family members visit from elsewhere in the Chicagoland/southeastern Wisconsin region, it will be (a lot) more expensive for them to get around as well. Base fares – $2.00 for bus ($2.25 if paying cash) and $2.25 for rail, with a $0.25 transfer – are staying the same.

The budget is a reflection of deals between the CTA and the Amalgamated Transit Union Locals #241 and #308, which represent CTA bus and rail operators (see the press release). The CTA says it was able to maintain current levels of bus and rail service while paying rail and bus operators more. You can download an Excel file of every CTA employee’s salary – the average bus operator working 40 hours a week makes roughly $56,000 before taxes (a benefit is a free CTA pass – so add that on as well). You can decide if that’s too much or too little.

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Ravenswood neighbors recognize that parking is not a right

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A recent post on EveryBlock Chicago has gained some traction: it seems that an area commuter who uses the Ravenswood Metra station is upset that the new development that will be adjacent to the Ravenswood Metra station is removing 100 spaces of commuter parking and is petitioning “Metra and Mariano’s to provide no less than 100 spaces that will be eliminated”. He adds:

The 47th Ward alderman made it clear during the public meeting on Thursday night that he doesn’t care one bit about how people commute to work each day. It was all about the money the city is going to make. Typical Chicago politician. They are reducing the traffic capacity on Lawrence by 50% and eliminating all parking. Nice plan!

While I was not at the meeting, I’m fairly certain this is not the case; Ameya Pawar (47th Ward Alderman) appears to be very in touch with his ward and certainly with transportation issues. The City also does not make any money from the commuter parking that currently exists. And indeed, reducing traffic capacity on Lawrence is the plan, and it is a nice one – see below for a photo of Lawrence Ave as it is currently. It is an informal high-speed automobile corridor with little regard for pedestrian/bike safety.

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