Rapid Transit to Oblivion
Published May 3rd, 2008
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Chicago government’s answers to the CTA’s problems immediately remind me of ancient bloodletting techniques to cure disease. Instead of taking a comprehensive look at the state of the public transportation infrastructure, commuter behavior, demographics and future trends, then applying innovation and expertise to shape Chicago public transit in a progressive way, Mayor Daley’s approach is to apply crude, bloodletting procedures to CTA problems only when they become acute.
The latest bloodletting technique being applied is Bus-Rapid-Transit (BRT).
Somebody please stop the nation’s mayors from traveling to other cities, because every time they do, they come back with dumb ideas. I know this coming from Madison, because every time the mayor came back from a trip, all of the sudden Madison had to have a river walk, or trolley buses, or four-season elevated walkways, or roundabouts. It was always a unique feature, innovated somewhere else, that they wished to facsimile in their own city no matter how locally inapplicable, or absurd it was. What’s always so irritating is that these mayor’s act (and may truly believe) that they’ve stumbled on some ingenious solution that has eluded everyone else–they’re own “a-ha moment.” What they NEVER do is logically assess these brilliant innovations within the context of the region they’re visiting to see if they’re truly transferable to the cities they govern. Mayor Daley’s fixation with BRT apparently comes from a visit to Curitiba, Brazil where dozens of other mayors from around the world had their own, personal revelations about BRT. So let’s compare the two cities:
- CHICAGO 606 km2, population: 2.9m, with 9.5m in the greater metro area
- CURIBITA 431 km2, population: 1.6 m, with 3.2m in the greater metro area
- Both cities have comparable population densities, with Chicago’s a bit higher.
- Brazil imports a little over 40% of it’s oil, Chicago imports 100% of it’s oil
- Per capita automobile ownership in the U.S. is NINE TIMES that of Brazil
It doesn’t take an urban and regional planning expert to see that BRT might be a good fit for Curibita, but in Chicago, the glass slipper doesn’t quite fit the step sister. The central tenet of BRT is that the city takes designated streets and squishes automobile traffic into one or two fewer lanes, leaving one or two lanes completely free for bus traffic to zoom through. In Curibita, with infinitely fewer cars to deal with, this squishing is not so painful. In Chicago, having twice the city population and three times the metropolitan population of Curibita, commuting in and out of a city area only 50% larger than Curibita’s, how on Earth are they going to squish the nine-times as many cars into fewer lanes? Chicagoans are desperately incompetent at staying in their lanes as it is. Reducing this already constricted available lane area can only result in road rage replacing gunshot deaths as the number one cause of homicide in this city. The middle finger will look like a grandmother’s embrace, compared to the intense hostility BRT will cause.
BRT also includes a feature where buses will trigger traffic signals, depending on traffic conditions, to turn green as the bus approaches the intersection. It did not escape my attention that directly next to the “light control” and bus diagram in the RedEye, sat an unrelated article entitled, “2 Injured as Car Crashes Into Bus.” In Curitiba, it might be an ingrained, cultural behavior to respect and obey traffic lights, but in Chicago, this priority green-lighting for buses is going to result in traffic-gnarling mayhem at best and countless collisions with cars trying to exit Lakeshore Drive or turning right. These bus drivers practically froth at the mouth as it is. Can you imagine how maniacal they’ll be when they know upcoming lights are changing green for them as they approach? The CTA will have to buy thousand of gallons of Windex just to get the pedestrian residue off of their windshields. And how much money is the city going to spend on enforcement to keep people out of these “free” lanes?
The biggest problem I have with this whole bloodletting bus boondoggle is that it arises from a $153 million grant from the Federal government. After enduring endless pandering from the CTA, on every bus ride, telling riders over the loud speaker about the terrifying consequences that will result if the state did not acquiesce to Chicago’s shakedown for emergency funds to prevent fare hikes and route cancellations, it really galls me that $153 million dollars is being squandered on such an ineffective, inconsequential program that doesn’t even begin to address the comprehensive overhaul the entire CTA needs. This is ongoing proof that collecting money locally, through the Federal income tax, sending it to Washington and then getting it back in bite-sized chunks, for Federally-specified uses is a horribly inefficient way to run a country. Of course there isn’t much of a chance that the CTA would have used $153 million much more effectively.
Lastly, this whole notion that Daley is going to “punish” drivers and “reward” mass transit users is entirely the wrong approach to solving commuter problems, especially at this point in time. That logic would be acceptable if we had a glistening, ample, model train and bus system that ran empty of passengers throughout the day. But the CTA is NOT in stellar form, it is in a terrible state of operation–run down and crowded, with passengers having to wait for three or four buses or trains to pass by their stops, at peak hours, before one that isn’t completely full finally arrives. How are these “punished” drivers, who finally decide to comply with Daley’s unrealistic transit fantasies going to be “rewarded” once they give up their automobile commuting? Their reward will be long waits, almost unbearable crowding and even worse traffic jams on the bus routes not outfitted with these open lanes and automatic green lights.
Recognize reality and fix the ailing mass transit system you have FIRST. Clean up the buses, trains and stations. Forget about cosmetic station makeovers for now and just fix the tracks and upgrade the train cars and buses. Get the system ready to function efficiently, with an anticipated increase in ridership and THEN punish automobile commuters. Right now all of us, whether a car driver or mass transit user, are being punished by the terribly neglected state of transportation in Chicago. Any chance for true reform at CTA becomes derailed with these tactics to throw jaw-dropping amounts of money at ill-conceived solutions to misdiagnosed problems until the temporary outrage that Daley is forced to confront dies down before the next CTA mishap arises. For a transit weary public, the bloodletting endures with no end in sight.
It should also be mentioned that when surveyed, the citizens of Curitiba overwhelmingly preferred light-rail when given the hypothetical choice between bus transit and trains.
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I certainly agree that the CTA needs a lot of basic repairs and maintenance, altho I don’t think you can blame anyone but the state legislature for that. For years Illinois has inadequately funded transit, it’s been six years since it passed a capital bill, and the one Blagojevich proposed massively favors road-building over transit. Most of your complaints about the quality of CTA service can be traced to inadequate funding, as the Illinois Auditor General’s report showed, altho I think Huberman has been making some important improvements – especially in bus service – even with the budget constraints.
So now the federal government suddenly makes a large amount of money available to begin a very promising program that should speed bus commutes and eliminate many of the problems associated with buses, like bus bunching, getting stuck in traffic, bus drivers playing chicken with cars, drawn-out trips with buses stopping every block, long waits during boarding, and overcrowding. It is exactly these kind of initiatives – which will make buses more attractive and more competitive with driving – that we desperately need to improve our transit system.
We also desperately need the capital funds to improve tracks, buy new train cars and buses, and finally start expanding the system again. But put the blame where it belongs – on the Illinois legislature – and give your representatives a call.