Category: Transit

Getting people out of cars

November 17, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Gas prices are only one of the costs associated with car ownership. It comprises a large part of yearly expenses for one’s automobile, but it only accounts for 20% of the “true cost of ownership.”

Edmunds.com has figured that with a new 2007 Toyota Camry LE with automatic transmission, fuel will cost an average of $1676 per year in Chicago for the next five years. That’s 21.5% of the total amount of money the car’s owner will spend and lose for the next five years.

So why do people continue to let their cars ruin their personal financial stability, regardless of how well they can argue its necessity?

One reason is that people haven’t considered the alternatives or, if considered, believe taking the train or bus, walking, biking, carsharing, or vanpooling won’t work for them. But it obviously works for millions of people everyday. Do they know something we don’t? Do they live a block from the commuter train station at home and work one block away from the end station? Are their legs in better shape than others’?

I think that governmental and non-profit agencies that have the mandate and authority to reduce vehicular traffic, congestion, and ownership, can use better marketing tools that will assist car owners to find ways that make their vehicles less relied upon and less used, period. By having car owners drive less, they will become more financially secure, probably experience reduced emotional and physical stress, and reduce their impact on the earth and the atmosphere.

In return, infrastructure would improve because money for highways and roads would be spent on projects and systems that have a better return on investment; transit agencies are able to serve more people (riders) than can highways serve singular drivers and their vehicles. Simply put, driving is a very selfish act which, combined with millions of other selfish drivers, creates a dysfunctional and inequitable transportation arrangement.

I have one tool in mind that can sway people out of their cars. My idea goes beyond slinging simple to understand quotes and statistics that all fail to motivate (for example, and this is not totally accurate, “80% of all car trips are less than 2 miles from the point of origin.”). What we need are individuals who are passionate about the alternatives to car ownership, those who, themselves have chosen a car-free or reduced-car lifestyle. These people would be used to listen to drivers who express some interest in jettisoning their driving habits or reducing their dependence on cars and determine some personalized options to accomplish this.

It would all start with a website. This website would have two purposes: to inform and to connect. The information on car ownership costs and how to reduce one’s car dependence is already out there – that would just be copied. The connect section of the website would invite visitors to submit their name, and either an email address, IM name, or phone number. One of the passionate individuals I asked for above would contact this person and become familiar with their car routines and suggest small ways to meet the driver’s goals.

Obviously, connections would need to be made on a local scale so helpers can be more effective and knowledgeable about the advice they give.

Getting people out of cars and using alternative modes of transportation almost always starts with one-on-one dialogue. It’s a goal that requires a lot of knowledge and some planning. I’m sure there are many readers who have been able to design a plan for at least a few people they know; sometimes it’s just a personal example that is needed to show how easy the change can be and how beneficial it is for more than themselves.

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Five favorite places in Chicago

November 12, 2007 / / 0 Comments

jackson park 1. This is Jackson Park, the Columbia Basin, and the East and West Lagoons. This is a beautifully landscaped park, originally built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Museum of Science and Industry was built for this show and was called the Palace of Fine Arts. Unfortunately, it is the only surviving building from that festival, but my god, it is gorgeous as is the entire park – designed by one of the world’s premier landscape designers, Frederick Law Olmsted, who left a legacy in Chicago as well in New York City.

The park, ideally, should be biked or walked to. One must visit the Japanese Gardens in the park on the Wooded Island in the lagoon.

2. Lower Wacker, Michigan and Columbus. The lower levels of these three streets (plus many intersection others) are very intriguing and unknown to most, if not all, visitors to the city. They can only be explored by walking or biking (except for Wacker which is too narrow and high-speed vehicle traffic makes it dangerous). It is home to loading docks for so many downtown buildings, and also to many homeless Chicagoans. For a short length, there is even a lower lower Wacker Drive. There are a handful of other things that can be accessed on these lower levels: the Randolph Street Metra station, an independent stage theater, and the city’s towing pound. Looking at the bigger streets above from below puts one in the scene of one of many futuristic movies. The support beams for the streets and skyscrapers show the importance of these lower levels of Chicago.

3. Not Millennium Park. The amusement park on the lake is quite a fantastic place. The Pritzker Pavilion could not have been better designed or featured in the city. However, Millennium Park is not a place in or of Chicago that makes the city what it is. It’s only been around for four year, but it’s also not something that city residents themselves are quick to brag about. The artistic playground is just one itty bitty parcel of the interestingness of the city.

4. Roosevelt Rd. bridge over the South Branch of the Chicago River. This bridge is the largest viewing platform for trains in and out of the city. Come rush hour on a summer weekday, you will spot Metra after Metra after Metra, all leaving Union and LaSalle St. Stations. It is a fantastic opportunity to fill up a camera’s memory card with train after train after train. There won’t be much variety of compositions or subject matter, but you will have enough practice time to get the perfect shot.

5. Madison St. after the workday is done. Madison St. just happens to be one way east of Des Plaines. It’s a major exodus route for buses, taxis and private vehicles. Its sidewalks are also teeming with commuters walking or rushing to the train stations. Ogilvie Transportation Center sits on Madison St., but Union Station also has a Madison St. annex, and the main platforms for the busier station are only two blocks south of Ogilvie. In a two-hour window, more than 100,000 people will make their way to either train station and take Metra home. It’s a fantastic sight to see so many people walking in the same direction to the same place. And it only happens once a day.

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The Olympics in Chicago, 2016

November 11, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I’m excited that Chicago is a prospected city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. I think that it will be an interesting time to live here while hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country and the world will descend upon this amazing city. I think that we will easily be able to accommodate them all, both with our infrastructure (I must surely sound like a nut now) and with our good attitudes.

Chicago is a pretty well-known city to the world, especially in the landscape, planning, and architecture cultures. Chicago leads the world in architecture in so many ways.

Atlanta is the American city which most recently held a Summer Olympic Games – that was in 1996. Atlanta received many great benefits from hosting the games: the stadium was converted to become the home of the Braves; the Olympic Village became student housing for Georgia State University; and the city got a major park with Centennial Olympic Park.

However, Downtown Atlanta missed the opportunity to piggyback the Olympics and be revitalized and MARTA, the transit system, was not improved – it hardly can handle the city’s own population.

Transit improvements is one thing that Chicago and Atlanta have in common: we both need more funding to improve quality and speed of service. Fortunately, Chicago has a very broad and deep service system – trains and buses go where we need them, and both of our international airports are directly serviced by trains that leave often. However, yearly funding issues put the CTA’s service in jeopardy and only a few legislatures have stepped up to fix the problem with public funding of the Chicagoland transit agencies.

Chicago is already ahead of many other cities that want the Olympics, including Atlanta. We already have a large, beautiful park to serve as a central meeting location for athletes and spectators. We already have practically all the sports venues we need; facilities at our universities will play a key role, including UIC. Chicago will follow in Atlanta’s footsteps by using as little public money as possible and getting private investors and corporations to pay for the games. We also have a well-established hospitality industry that can temporarily grow to meet the needs of the influx of visitors. And since Chicago is so diverse, travelers will be able to feel welcome in neighborhoods reflecting their home cultures.

Most Chicagoans agree that the CTA will need some help before we can host the Olympics, and I think many people are relying on this prospect to turn the transit agency into something wonderful: always fast and always on time.

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Can Illinois and Louisiana be compared?

November 10, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Governing magazine’s 2005 report, Grading the States, evaluates all 50 states on Money, People, Infrastructure, and Information. In class we looked up and talked about Illinois and Louisiana. Without any references, I guessed that Illinois would get a higher grade than Louisiana, mainly because I believe it has a more positive perception and we have more people, jobs, capital, and I guessed, a healthier economy.

The report didn’t necessarily take these things into account. It is “Governing” magazine. The researchers looked at more governmentally-based levels of analysis.

Bottom line: Louisiana scored above Illinois, but you wouldn’t get that by reading the summary. The one for Louisiana starts off by mentioning their huge budget shortfall ($596 million) and talking about they hold $3 billion in “backup” trust funds. And they haven’t spent a dime (well, just a paltry $90 million per year) on maintaining state-owned buildings and assets. What Louisiana excels is at performance budgeting: agencies get more when they get more results, are more efficient.

Compared to Illinois in that respect, Louisiana is a decade ahead. Illinois doesn’t require performance data recording but agencies are still required to report quarterly performance data to the Office of Management and Budget. I’m going out on a limb by suggesting that these data aren’t based on universal collection and recording methods, and are subject to some fudging. Another problem for the state of Illinois is funding its employee pension fund.

What is Illinois doing well with? Well, it’s consolidating agency functions like auditing, legal counsel, IT planning, and procurement. Because of this the state is saving tons of money. How much? I don’t know. But the summary did stress again that Illinois has made some strides in eliminating redundant IT systems. Go us.

All states and the entire project can be accessed through a well designed website.

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Chicagoland transit needs better funding

October 4, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The RTA is Chicago and the suburbs’ authority to distribute funding (and also to coordinate service and expansion efforts) for the CTA, Pace, and Metra. The RTA is funded by sales tax in the six-county metro area. The sales tax formula was created in 1983.

Now, 24 years later, the funding formula has proven itself multiple times to be insufficient. For the past several years, all RTA agencies have been involved in major cost cutting and the CTA has had to transfer funds from a the capital budget to the operations budget, not something it looks forward to doing…ever. When the state legislature devised the funding formulate, they themselves admitted it would not last for more than two years and expected the future legislators to make a new law to fund the RTA.

Recently, to avoid a major service cut on September 16th, 2007, the CTA accepted a band-aid in the form of a cash advance from the state, taken from next year’s state funding. This has only served to delay the CTA’s service cuts to mid-November – but accepted under the guise that it would give the state assembly more time to vote on a new funding plan.

What I just explained is a very commonly misunderstood, and often ignored, element of transit doomsday scenarios. People become vocal about how the CTA is discriminating against a certain group of customers, or that it’s run by morons, or that it might as well be dismantled.

A state audit proved that the CTA is in fact well run, and not corrupt. There are many things that were overlooked, but the new president, Ron Huberman is already showing that he’s committed to making the CTA deservedly respectable.

Any blame for the “doomsday” service cuts should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Illinois’ state senators and representatives. They are the ones who are not agreeing on solutions or taking too long to vote, or not ready to override the governor’s promised veto if sales taxes are to be increased.

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