some relevant thoughts on transit

 I'm sure that I have lots of company in feeling frustrated with our state legislators' inaction on passing transit funding to ensure that we don't fall into a death spiral of shrinking transit service and growing traffic congestion, road rage, crashes, and increasing costs for getting around our metro area.

Give this a read and let me know what you think.  

We can't afford to lose the transit service we have. In spite of some people's belief that the burden should not fall on the suburbs, we have to be mindful of the fact that Metra was created and expanded to serve a mostly suburban ridership. The burden of paying for their service needs to be shared by city AND suburbs.  

So many transit trips include both city and suburbs. For the economic wellbeing of our city and state, we need to ensure that reliable transit service continues and improves. Having a large percentage of current transit riders switch to driving cars isn't physically or financially viable.  

95th St. detour this weekend

From 11:30 pm tonight to 11:30 pm Sunday night, 95th St. will be closed to traffic over the Dan Ryan. All types of traffic (pedestrian, car, bus, etc.) will be detoured. This is for a major step in the construction of the new 95th St. red line station.  Bus stops will be temporarily reconfigured.

At some point on Sunday, 2 large cranes will be used to lift the new skybridge into place to connect the north and south halves of the new station.

If you need to get to the Dan Ryan or points east, I'd recommend going another way unless you want to watch the construction. Traffic is likely to be a bit hairy in that area.

For more info, click here to read the Streetsblog article about the project.

CTA red line changes starting this week

If you depend on the red line, check out this article about service changes to accommodate construction at 95th St. station. This will affect red line service between 63rd and 95th.

lack of transparency on 95th Street

I was concerned and disturbed to learn about the nature of a proposed zoning change and redevelopment proposal for the parcel immediately west of 95th St. Metra station. Another 19th ward resident wrote an insightful piece about why such a proposal makes no sense for a transit-adjacent parcel, where we should be prioritizing pedestrian-oriented usage.

1800 W 95th St.

The lack of public notice for this proposal is equally disturbing. Sticking a sign in a window at a location that few people walk past is NOT sufficient public notice. There's nothing at that location now to give people a reason to walk there and see that notice.

This is a significant change for a location that has the potential to attract a good volume of business from Metra riders - if it's the right business. A well-publicized venue for public input should be mandatory for such a major change. Why haven't the ward office and community organizations publicized this so that 19th ward residents and Metra passengers could have a voice in the decision? Hiding this until it's only one approval short of having a green light smells worse than last week's garbage.

95th St. is already choked with traffic for much of an average day. There are many existing auto parts stores within a few miles of this proposed location, including Auto Zone stores at 89th andAshland and 95th and Richmond and O'Reilly at Western and 92nd Place (less than 1 mile away). As much as I want to see more businesses on 95th St., this one is NOT a winner for the community as a whole.

Comments on this topic on EveryBlock have certainly been relevant:

* Yes, let's tear down a beautiful old building and put up an ugly box that will sit there empty after the store goes out of business like the auto parts store at 115th and Pulaski. How about using our brains and encourage a business that would cater to train "traffic". Put the box in the huge parking lot at the former location of Borders. Or do what some communities do...require that the new business conform to the architecture of the existing building and find businesses to create a boutique mall in the borders building. Jeez, is it that hard?

* When is the public hearing for this zoning change? There wasn't any proper meeting for those of us who will be affected.

* I just called the zoning department - looks like they approved this zone change already. I hope there will be some sort of opportunity for the community to review the design and voice opinions. Does anyone know what the next step for this proposal will be? Have they already purchased the existing building?

* Because of their design, most Borders are being repurposed into medical practices. Not in Beverly. The old library was supposed to become a Wishbone restaurant, more pizza place opened but not Wishbone? Now an Autozone to compete with O'reilly a few blocks away. We seem to have great people in place for urban planning and development! What about all the money spent in updating 95th street? Was it just to give contracts to some friends or was it actually to improve the business area? If so, Autozone doesn't need beautiful landscaping, never mind the traffic issues. somebody is not thinking very far here, while using our tax money. How about the mechanic shop down the street on 95th, are they trying to put them out of business? People walk to go to Metra, how about shops that cater to these people? When I get off the train, I'm not usually trying to bring home a couple of new tires and a new battery for my car in my purse. I love small squares and park, Beverly has those, in places that nobody wants to go to, and nothing around it. Anyone fancy reading a good book by busy 95th street, on the other side of the library parking lot? While I applaud green spaces, we can do better than that. More tax payer money spent in vain. How about the pedestrian crossing by 99th street Metra? On the wrong side of the street?!!!

Excuse my ranting, but I could go on as well as many of you. The problem is that you can't leave urban development to developers, they are just going to build stuff, make a buck and move on. ... If there is a petition going around against Autozone, count me in, I'll sign it.

* All good points. Why is everything decided in stealth mode? We need to remind our representatives that the represent us. They do not rule us.

Now we have a detailed EveryBlock post with research. Click here. And this is what it takes to appeal a zoning change.

Why didn't Alderman O'Shea give a reasonable opportunity for public input? Will there be curb cuts added to make 95th St. an even worse place for pedestrians? We don't want Beverly to look or feel like Evergreen Park. This kind of inappropriate change gives us a hard shove in that direction and makes Beverly less attractive as a place to live.

would you like better, more reliable transit service?

For most of us, that's a silly question.  How to pay for it is the more serious flipside.

Please take a minute to give this idea a read, and sign on if you agree.  This bill proposes adding a fraction of a penny to gas taxes in the Chicago area only.  This would provide a dedicated funding source for transit in the Chicago area, which could help solve the reliability problems caused by years of deferred maintenance.  It could greatly reduce the number of delays due to mechanical breakdowns or slow zones due to track conditions.  This doesn't just affect our ward.  It has a big effect on the whole metro area.  It could also help restore service lost in previous budget cutbacks.

I know that the idea of paying more for gas is no thrill, but it's estimated that this measure would cost the average driver only $3-4 per year.  Continuing to lose ground on transit service would hurt a lot more.

Red line oversight committee meeting on 4/8

Are you interested in the proposed CTA red line extension to 130th St.? DCP (Developing Communities Project) encourages residents and community leaders to get involved in their CTA Red Line Campaign to focus on Local, State and Federal 2011-12 Budget Plans and Policies.

DCP will be holding a meeting on Friday 4/8 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit, 1259 W. 115th St. (corner site).

If you plan to attend, please contact John Paul Jones, DCP’s Community Organizer,
at 773-928-2500 ext. 15 or via email. Check out the DCP website.

do your kids want to ride the CTA holiday train?

Or are you a big kid who enjoys it yourself? Santa has already started riding the rails. Here's the holiday train schedule for all CTA train lines from now thru December 22.

good news from CTA

Finally, finally, they've added the 95th St., 103rd St., and 111th St. bus routes to the CTA bus tracker system along with a few others. Yeah!!!

slight change of pace

and now...a small change in our regularly scheduled programming....

stay on your feet

Unless the CTA adds a lot of places to hold all that work for people of all heights, I don't think this idea will work too well. Your $0.02?

added bike parking at some CTA stations

If you'd like to ride your bike to one of these CTA stations and park it there, soon you'll be in luck.

good transit news

It's nice to get good news for a change.

a different transit world

I was reading a DC-area blog and clicked on a transit-related link in the story. Ended up looking around the web site for the DC transit system. I was amazed to find this.

When incidents happen on CTA, even when they cause significant service interruptions, how often can we get any information from CTA about them? And wouldn't it be nice to be able to get real-time delay information from Metra? One day recently I was waiting at LaSalle Street station for the 5:50 Rock Island train. It was 5:55. There had been no announcements. The train had not appeared. It's usually in the station before 5:40. A barely intelligible announcement came over the crackly speakers. "Attention Rock Island commuters....train number 619 will be delayed." Many groans were heard. "Tell us something we don't know." The train appeared 10 minutes later.

Wouldn't it be nice if those big new LED displays could actually be used for useful information, like current time, service delays, etc.? Nah, that would make too much sense.

an unnecessary accident

This is an update on a previous post (below). Rob Sadowsky of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation has written an excellent letter to the CTA concerning this incident.
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At approximately 2:15 p.m. on 12/31/07, Ludwika Szynalik put her bike on the rack in front of a 152 Addison bus and boarded. Video shows her sitting on the bus for about 15 minutes before her stop. Szynalik then got off the bus at Addison and Neenah and was struck and killed by the bus when she was removing her bike from the rack.

Szynalik's family is asking witnesses to the incident to come forward. Attorney Timothy Cavanagh said 59-year-old Ludwika Szynalik was removing her bike from the rack on the front of the bus when the driver suddenly accelerated and the bus dragged her more than 80 feet. Cavanagh said that if the driver had been paying attention, he would have seen her.

If you witnessed the incident, please contact the family's attorney at 312.425.1900.

the first step

Averting the January 20 transit funding doomsday was only the first step in an uphill climb. Our transit system desperately needs to be brought into the 21st century. Here are a few thoughts on where we stand and where we need to be: 1, 2, 3

safe for now

The state legislature has averted the latest transit funding doomsday. Phew!

I'm relieved that they finally passed this bill. However, I have to wonder how much Blago's free rides will contribute to future doomsday scenarios. In the short term, how soon will the rest of us have a fare increase to pay for those free rides? I'll bet that it will happen within the year. And how many non-seniors will borrow grandma's card to get free rides. Probably more than a few.

Some seniors are truly deserving of a free ride, but many of them have the money to pay. Many say that the existing reduced fare program is just fine. As a demographic category, the percentage of single mothers who are desperately poor is probably a lot higher than the percentage of seniors who are very poor.

The State Constitution should be amended to allow a simple majority to override a Governor's veto, particularly when the veto is used to bludgeon the legislature into passing a half-baked measure as Blago has done today.

Blago's reckless, irresponsible spending of money the state does not have may do lasting economic damage. It does not help that he has a childish, petty tendency to pick unnecessary arguments with people he should have a working relationship with. The prospect of how much damage he could do in the remainder of his term is truly scary. He lives in a bubble, out of touch with regular people, too much like Shrub. The Feds can't indict his sorry a$$ soon enough.

Julie Hamos deserves our everlasting gratitude for her persistence in getting this bill passed. I hope she's having a fine celebration tonight.

transit funding vote TODAY

Have you called or send an e-mail to urge your legislators to vote for
HB 656 in today's session? It is critical that they pass the bill
TODAY in order to avoid the CTA/RTA doomsday this Sunday 1/20.

Even if you don't use public transit on a regular basis, the proposed
service cuts WILL affect you - in the form of greatly increased car
traffic and air pollution.

Click here to send an e-mail or fax today.

new year's wishes

I keep wishing that I'd wake up and find that we actually have adequate transit funding, that we will be able to maintain and improve service and infrastructure and won't see another CTA/RTA doomsday anytime soon.

Have you figured out why it is that our idiotic Gov. Blobhead is so determined to cripple the RTA and flush Chicago down the economic toilet? How can he spout pure bullshit like this, then turn around and pull another last minute delaying tactic like this out of his twisted hat?

King Richie hasn't spoken up nearly enough. We need a bit more of this, but it's probably too little too late.

If I got my wishes, we would have:

1. A long-term transit funding plan in place;

2. A legal mechanism to give our chief imbecile, Gov. Blobhead, the boot and replace him with someone competent.

If I only got the first one, I'd be happy enough. Seeing the idiot kicked out would be icing on the cake.

And what are you wishing for at the start of this new year?

1/20 is coming

The latest CTA doomsday is fast approaching now that the holiday are past. If you haven't checked out the service cut list on the CTA web site, it has changed since the previous round. The northwest side and north side along the lake are the biggest losers. Many NW side routes will be cut, and all the Lake Shore Drive express buses (which have very heavy ridership) will be gone. 81 of 154 bus routes will be gone (52.5%). Looks like all the proposed changes are now on the bus side of the equation, as they do not show any trains on the service cut list.

For the fare side of the picture, click here. It continues the trend towards incentives to switch to the Chicago Card or Chicago Card Plus.

For more info from CTA, click here.

Meanwhile, Pace has their own list of proposed cuts, mostly evening (after 7 p.m.) and weekend service and not a lot of route eliminations. What does that mean around here? ALL evening service on the 349 Western and 352 Halsted buses would be cut.

Metra is proposing either a 5 percent or 10 percent fare increase, plus the elimination of the $5 weekend pass (to be replaced by a $7 all-day fare good for travel on either weekend day. They have already been making some cuts which are invisible to anyone but regular riders, reducing the number of open cars and conductors on some off-peak trains. If the system doesn't get additional funding, off-peak service cuts would be proposed in 2009. For more detail, click here (large PDF).

To put in your $0.02 worth yet again, click here. Bug the governor. Bug your legislators, mayor, and aldermen. Geez, I really hate that we're in this position yet again, after our train wreck of a state government has failed us for the umpteenth time in this critical issue.

no fix for transit this year

Today's news that the stooges in Springfield have failed yet again to agree on a transit funding plan was no great surprise, unfortunately. Rod Blagojevich and Mike Madigan deserve big lumps of coal in their stockings. Julie Hamos deserves the reward of a long-overdue agreement. Stay tuned for the next round after the first of the year....