A Tale of Two Exurbs

Interesting article in The American Prospect about new urbanism and the right (and wrong) way to build suburbia.

A Tale of Two Exurbs
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_exurbs

This article fits nicely with Christopher Leinberger's Atlantic Monthly article I cited last year (and actually quotes Leinberger.)

All Hail the SUPERTRAIN!!!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2009/0901.longman.html

Fantastic article in the Washington Monthly arguing for government investment in our national rail network (including electrification.) This single article discusses many of my disparate interests (trains, environment, Chicago, and the economy.) Pretty much the only thing it leaves out is Apple and Chipotle.

More Train Blogging

Amidst all the economic gloom and doom, there's some good news for us transit fans. Especially for those of us in Chicago. Congress just passed legislation increasing funding for Amtrak and supporting a midwest high-speed rail network centered in Chicago. Granted, its really just seed money at this point, but at least the trend is in the right direction, which is more than can be said for the past few decades. Within a few years, it may be possible to get from Chicago to Minneapolis in 5 and a half hours by train and under 4 hours to St. Louis.

Links:
Midwest High Speed Rail

More Transit Woes

Ridership on public transit in Chicago is up 10% this year thanks to high gas prices. Great news for the CTA right? Unfortunately, the increase in ridershp is only exacerbating the financial problems at the chronically underfunded agency. You'd think that now would be precisely the time for this city, state, and country to be investing in better public transit. You'd be wrong.

Our inept and corrupt political culture at the state and local level seems to know no limits. Our current governor, a Democrat, is largely ineffective, as well as likely a criminal. Our prior governor, a Republican, is a convicted criminal. Mayor Daley, much as there is to admire about him, presides over a system of graft and cronyism. Then add in the perpetual city versus suburb tug-of-war on top of everything else. Its a wonder that anything gets done.

Dreaming...

So, whenever I have some spare time, my mind naturally drifts towards fantasies...of Chicago transit system expansions. If we lived in a country that valued public transit, a lot of these expansions would have already been built. But since we live in America, transit falls into disrepair while brand new freeways are built in greenfields.

Chicago is blessed with an extensive network of railroad right-of-ways, many of which are abandoned and not in use. These ROWs could be utilized to built rail transit lines without requiring expensive property acquisition or destruction of existing neighborhoods.

Here's a couple other dreamers and their plans for CTA rail expansion.

http://www.gapersblock.com/detour/a_cta_map_for_2055/
This is a quite extensive proposal adding six new lines or extensions. Never going to happen, but its nice to think big. One can always hope.

http://community.livejournal.com/chicago_el/492948.html
This proposal is basically the Mid-City Transitway which is a real proposal currently undergoing analysis. It forms a circle/circumferential line which links up with the existing radial lines. It follows an existing ROW so construction costs would be relatively cheap.

http://www.Grayline.20m.com
This proposal involves conversion of an existing commuter rail line to a CTA-style rapid transit rail line. All the infrastructure is essentially already in place. It simply requires cooperation between the CTA and Metra. (Easier said than done.)

Perhaps if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Olympics and/or Obama wins the presidency, additional funds will be found to expand CTA service.

End of White Flight?

There's an interesting article in the latest New Republic that uses Chicago as a central example. It's more data that shows the revitalization of centralv cities and their increasing desirability to affluent (predominantly) white families. The American model of poor in the center and wealthy on the periphery is gradually reorienting itself towards the European model which is the opposite. I've personally noticed the changing demographics of Chicago in my time living here since 1992. Taking this trend to the extreme, you have the possibility of slums migrating to the exurbs.

Now, its doubtful that, even over the long run, all the suburbs will go into terminal decline. For one thing, Chicago is blessed with a good radial transit system that allows people to live far from the central city and still commute into the central business district relatively easily. It also allows people like me to do the reverse commute from the city (and inner burbs) out to the outer suburbs. Still, the revitalization of Chicago is a trend I'm happy to see, and it'll be very interesting to watch the progress over the next few decades.

More Transit Stuff

I'm sitting on a train as I compose this. I'm also a little annoyed that I didn't get my preferred seat like I usually do because the train is crowded. This is happening more and more frequently, and likewise, on the rare days I drive to work, it does seem like traffic is a bit lighter (but still super aggravating).

I'm thankful that the Chicago area has such good (by American standards) public transit. It allows us to live relatively far from my work and still avoid the frustrations of a long drive. Of course the transit situation isn't ideal, and there's plenty of room for improvement, just not plenty of money or political will. My train line shares track with the busiest freight line in the region, so we're constantly delayed by slow moving or disabled freight trains.

There are grand plans to improve freight traffic through Chicago (CREATE), but progress has been slow. One obstacle to rerouting traffic is NIMBYs who object to increasing train frequency through their downtown areas. If I were king I'd lay additional (triple and quadruple) track along my route to allow segregating of freight and commuter trains. The existing right of ways are plenty wide enough and historically had more than the existing double and triple tracks. (I'd also have a nonstop express train from Oak Park to work with a sushi bar.)

Of course nationally, we still favor the auto. Due to falling tax receipts from the gas tax, there's even talk of taking funds away from mass transit to plug the gap. I understand money is tight all over (especially since we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars blowing up/reconstructing Iraq), but this really is a misprioritization of resources.

Trains, Trains, Trains

While perusing the blogs today, I learned an interesting fact. 40% of all US freight rail traffic goes through the Chicago region.

US rail network facing congestion 'calamity' - Associated Press (5/29/08)

To summarize, freight traffic is overwhelming the US rail network resulting in huge backlogs. A single stopped train in Chicago can cause ripple effects all the way to Los Angeles. This will increasing cause problems as freight traffic increases. Commuter trains in Chicago share tracks with freight, and we're constantly being delayed due to freight train interference.

Obviously large amounts of money will need to be spent to increase rail capacity. One big problem is that many of these lines go through the downtown areas of many wealthy suburbs which will fight hard to keep out the increased train traffic. However, given the ever escalating cost of fuel, it seems inevitable that our society will shift away from automobile transportation and towards the much more fuel efficient rail network, both for transportation of people and goods. The tricky task will be balancing the interests of local communities which will see the extra trains versus the needs of the greater society.

Wide Open Spaces

So we have a friend from out of town coming to visit. He's coming from Minneapolis which is about 400 miles away.


View Larger Map

I've driven to Minneapolis from Chicago, and its a pretty boring drive with very little of interest in between (unless you consider forests and farms interesting). Contrast this to the densely populated Northeast corridor where its only 200 miles from Boston to New York City, and there are a few mid-sized cities in between. 400 miles from Boston pretty much gets you to DC, passing through NYC, Philly, and Baltimore along the way.

In the midwest, Chicago is pretty much the undisputed tourist destination when it comes to cities, so luckily we're already here. However, if we wanted to go explore we'd have a 90 mile trip to Milwaukee, 300 miles to St. Louis or Detroit, and the 400miles to the twin cities. These aren't huge distances, but they are much further apart than back east, and make planning for a weekend getaway that much more difficult (especially with a kid).

There's continuous talk about bring high-speed rail to America and Chicago would be the logical hub for the midwest network. The high price of gas should be a strong impetus if we want to plan rationally for the future. If this ever happens in my lifetime I'll be thrilled.

Traffic Analysis

CTA Eisenhower

We were down in the Oak Park Arts District (formerly Harrison Arts District) last weekend for a street festival. While Kelly was checking out some clothing shop, Julia and I walked around. She heard the sounds of the Blue line el in the background, and wanted to see the "Choo-choos."

We walked over to the embankment and Julia watched the choo-choos and brrrm-brrrms contentedly. I suspect that she shares my interest in transit policy and was imagining plans to upgrade the CTA blue line to decrease auto congestion.