{"id":130,"date":"2026-01-09T02:40:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/?page_id=130"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:33:07","slug":"chicagos-transit-potential","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/?page_id=130","title":{"rendered":"Chicago&#8217;s transit potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Here are a list of improvements the Chicago metropolitan region could make to improve transportation and economic prosperity throughout the region<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Enhance security and farebox recovery by adding tap out on the subway\/The-L\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>LA Metro, BART, and NYC are all adding new fare gates for higher security and have seen substatial decreases in crime. LA Metro is adding tap-out which BART always has had and is seeing substatial reduction in time as well. This is more cost effective than hiring more human personnel for security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Involves replacing all faregates with higher security ones and readers on both sides<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/chi.streetsblog.org\/2026\/01\/07\/the-future-of-soldier-field-is-bear-ish-without-transit-investment\">Reactivate the St Charles airline<\/a>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Allows through running through Union Station for the northbound Metra lines southward<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increased access to museum campus and Soldier Field for events by placing a station at 18th street.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>South Shore and Metra Electric could run to Union Station, allowing for south side residents to more easily access the West Loop, Amtrak, Metra, and Greyhound.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Eliminate closely-placed bus stops.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is one of my biggest gripes EVERY TIME I use the bus in Chicago. You have some bus routes that have stops placed at EVERY BLOCK. They are literally a 2 minute walk from each other! Eliminate half of these so it&#8217;s around a 5 minute walk to each bus station. Buses would run so much faster then. Yes, disabled users may have more of an inconvenience, however I think the benefits are worth it. If you&#8217;re concerned about disabled users having risks crossing the streets, that&#8217;s a sign that your streets and crossings are too dangerous and that they need to be fixed (raised curbs, shorter crossings)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use transit signal priority to speed up buses. There&#8217;s various flavors of transit signal priority, but one where we can guarentee TSP on routes with full priority and sped up schedules is what is needed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Get back our parking meters! The deal is terrible. It&#8217;s hard to exit. Ideas include:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>negotiating, moving spots, just road dieting more<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>make driving impossible in chicago, close streets to traffic, etc. so the parking deal isn&#8217;t good for the owners anymore \ud83d\ude42<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>HAVE BUSES FOLLOW SCHEDULES. I&#8217;m pretty sure buses barely follow the schedule and can get bunched. they just drive their routes. have drivers actually follow the schedule. buses in japan do this and it&#8217;s so nice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Declare to users in apps when busses are NOT RUNNING. Wow, then users aren&#8217;t surprised when a ghost bus doesn&#8217;t show up!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Put bus schedules at stops\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>wow japan does this. i can look at the schedule posted at the stop and know when the next bus comes, and it arrives. WOW.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fund capital improvements. WOW, CTA&#8217;s rolling stock, buses, and Metra&#8217;s rolling stock are all dying of old age and in desperate need of replacement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Red line extension is questionable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT. OMG. The land use along some L line stations is abysmal! And some it&#8217;s not even clear there&#8217;s a transit stop. Just older buildings. Metra has a long way to go too! They need to adopt the Japan style of using real estate to generate revenue! NITA allowed development within half mile of rail stops is a step in the right direction, however, they still need to conform to local zoning so&#8230; :\/<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are a list of improvements the Chicago metropolitan region could make to improve transportation and economic prosperity throughout the region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-130","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/130\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sethdeegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}