CTA ridership down, Better Streets for Buses plan, and public input for improving CTA service
Hi, I’m Audrey and I’ll be live-tweeting the @ChicagoDOT @cta Better Streets for Buses public meeting today for #CHIdocumenters
@CHIdocumenters
05:57 PM May 4, 2022 CDT
@ChicagoDOT @cta @CHIdocumenters This is a public input meeting for the @cta‘s Better Streets for Buses initiative which you can find out more about here: https://betterstreetsforbuses.com/about-the-project
You can still register for the zoom! You have one minute until it starts: https://betterstreetsforbuses.com/virtual-public-meetings
The meeting is recorded and interpreted in Spanish and ASL, as well as being captioned in both Spanish and English. In addition, all attendees got changed to ‘panelists’ in the zoom so that they can participate more directly in the meeting.
The chat will be saved, but if people have questions that don’t get answered or if people were unable to attend the zoom they encourage people to send an email or give them a phone call.
They begin by presenting a poll about attendee’s bus usage, screen shotted here: https://t.co/U4IHcAnn3V
Jennifer Henry from the @cta goes through the reasons why buses are important, which are pretty self evident for the 97% of Chicagoans who live in walking distance of buses
Henry then continues to talking about the disadvantages of bus service, such as the unreliability, slow speed, crowdedness, and inaccessibility/unpleasantness/lack of safety of some bus stops, etc. which again are pretty self evident to most Chicagoans
Another poll is being presented: What would most improve your bus riding experience? (we are to pick one or two) https://t.co/9oxG5kcjTp
*note for these polls: there are 61 people present in the zoom including presenters and CTA/CDOT folks
The two main components are a street network of bus priority streets and a “toolbox of street treatments” that will be used to improve bus stops based on neighborhood based information. The proposed network and proposed toolbox are being presented today.
The proposed toolbox is a collection of 21 street treatments that can improve the bus experience, and in the interest of time they’re not going to go through all of them
Category 1: Bus Stop Treatments include level or near level boarding (to make bus entry and exit more accessible), bus shelters and benches, lighting, real time travel info signs
Category 2: Bus-Friendly Streets include bus lanes, boarding islands, bus stop pads, bus stop lengthening, separated bus-bike lanes, etc.
Category 3: Bus-Friendly Intersections include queue jump (early go for buses), transit signal priority (allows the bus to extend lights so they can make it through greens and not have to wait)
Now they are running through a few examples of CTA bus priority projects currently in place around the city, like in the loop and at the Milwaukee/Ogden intersection
Another poll, this time about our favorite infrastructure updates for buses that we would like in our neighborhood. https://t.co/C8kuUZddEr
Moving on to the network, here is the proposed network of CTA bus priority streets. They emphasize that this is very much open for comment and this current proposed network has over half of CTA streets https://t.co/In4aubDfDF
Red lines on the map on the left is where the majority of people in motorized vehicles are on buses (as of 2019) https://t.co/Ms8ZRiS14Q
To address the question of when this will be implemented, they say that this is intended as an “aspirational framework plan” and therefore will be an ongoing and long-term project
Some bus priority projects were already underway when this started, such as the effort to enhance the South Halsted Corridor in collaboration with pace, there’s a meeting you can go to for more info about this on May 10 at 5pm (info on CTA or Pace websites)
Call/text 312 772 5496, email betterstreetsforbuses@transitchicago.com, fill out a public comment card at a library or Alderman’s office, or head to http://www.betterstreetsforbuses.com to make a comment before May 31, 2022 if you have thoughts or feedback on any aspect of this plan
There is an interactive map on the website where you can comment on sections of the proposed network by dropping color-coded pins.
Project was launched in April, then a 6-week public comment period which includes these meetings as well as meetings with community groups and ends May 31, then all of the feedback will be synthesized and followed up by outreach before finalizing the plan around fall(ish).
Project was launched in April, then a 6-week public comment period which includes these meetings as well as meetings with community groups and ends May 31, then all of the feedback will be synthesized and followed up by outreach before finalizing the plan around fall(ish).
Now they are starting the open comment period: The first comment is from someone named Fabio who says that the number one thing that is stopping him from riding the bus is that the buses are super inconsistent and the schedules are inaccurate.
He says he understands they’re short staffed but the schedules need to be updated accordingly
Next is a person named Chris who agrees with Fabio and is asking about the criteria for mode share and talking about connecting high density areas with big commercial areas that have lots of jobs, he’s wondering also about if anything will be done regarding bus lane enforcement
Apparently stopped cars but not moving cars can be ticketed in bus lanes, but she said that its something they need to improve but is tricky
Regarding the mode share aspect of the question, she says they’ve considered some but not all of his suggestions and they’re interested in hearing more about Chicagoan’s ideas on this (and all) fronts
Another participant is talking about making these stops more accessible for differently abled people, also is asking about how we can get different and more groups of people involved in these conversations.
There’s no committee structure at this point, she said that if there’s lots of interest in that it will be considered but they have a limited budget and timeline.
His wife who is visually impaired chimes in to say that bus shelters are a big deal for both her and her guide dog as a definitive marker of where the stop is.
Jason Biernat goes through some of the constraints when it comes to bus shelters
From Nate in the chat: It’s already been said in the comments before but would very much like to see BRTs with incorporated bike lanes supplement existing rail service where the L doesn’t run- western, Ashland, DLSD, south along the lakeshore, Cicero, connecting the blue (next)
and red lines on the northwest side, etc. my main mode of transport in the city is the bus and biking and from and environmental and equity perspective would much prefer those modes be prioritized over individuals in cars or peoples parking spots. If it’s between 100 (next)
parking spots and a few thousand people having faster and more reliable ways to get to work via a dedicated lane I’m always choosing the bus lane
Someone named Hunter asks about what kind of data from different modes of transit they looked at when creating their network
Jennifer Henry says a combo of bus frequency, low bus speeds, and high ridership is what went into making the network but they didn’t want to spend to long trying to make it perfect before they went and got public feedback.
Lucas from an organization called Better Streets Chicago (?) reemphasizes Fabio’s point about how the CTA left its riders in the dark over the last two years over COVID and the dramatic inconsistencies in the schedule and ‘Ghost Buses’
Also touched back on mode shift and asks why it wasn’t something that was explicitly presented on in depth
Jennifer Henry gives an apology on behalf of CTA, then talks about making bus service as appealing as possible so people switch out of cars being a main objective of this project, but acknowledges that it might not be the most complete answer to his question
Some of the questions in the chat are about managing winter weather, making east/west bus lines, whether to or not to widen streets in the name of bus lanes, etc.
An attendee named Chris says that he’s shocked about how much Chicago is pro-car relative to other big cities and how much this slows down buses downtown and he thinks that Michigan Ave needs a bus priority lane stat
it seems that the rest of this thread got cut off, here it is: https://twitter.com/hapahaole__/status/1522008242125086720