Streetsblog Chicago

Waiting for the Brown Line at the Belmont stop. Photo by John Greenfield.

[This article also ran in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield's weekly transportation column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets in print on Wednesday evenings.]

Two Saturdays ago on National Train Day, my transit-racing brother-in-arms Danny Resner and I tried to write a new chapter in the saga of competitive CTA riding, AKA the ‘L’ Challenge. The rules are simple: you must stop at and/or depart from every CTA station by train, although it’s not necessary to ride every inch of track, and you can only travel by ‘L’, bus or shoe leather.

Adham Fisher, right, a Leicester, England, native and 'L' Challenge record holder for 143 stations, with CTA President Forrest Claypool at the 100th anniversary party for the Linden stop, shortly before Fisher beat Danny Resner and John Greenfield in a head-to-head transit race. Photo by Greenfield.

Several people, including Danny and me, have worn the CTA racing crown at various times. In October, ad men Chris Aubin and Garrett Sorrels set the current record for 145 stations: 9:12:39. We hoped to snag the title before the five-month shutdown of the south Red Line for a $425 million track rehab and station enhancement project, which started on Sunday. Here’s how our day went down:

10am We begin our journey in Wilmette at the Purple Line’s Linden station, a stone’s throw from the Bahá’í temple. Last week a seven-month, $2 million slow-zone-elimination project started on the line north of Howard and we see yellow construction vehicles parked along the track as we roll south. Just before we reach Howard to transfer to the Yellow Line there’s an excruciating twenty-minute delay.

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A South Shore Line car with high and low level boarding doors. Photo: David Wilson.

Two weeks ago, at a friend’s suggestion, I started a petition to lobby the South Shore Line to allow bicycles on trains, which currently has 125 signers. Our motivation was mostly selfish: We want to be able to travel to the Dunes National Lakeshore and other places in northwest Indiana with our bikes. So I reached out to Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, the agency that operates the South Shore Line. Yesterday afternoon, when I called John Parsons, NICTD’s planning and marketing director, he said he was expecting me since he had already received many emails about bikes on trains (the petition website automatically sends them).

Note: Passengers may bring bikes if inside luggage and can fit in the luggage rack. 

Parsons said he appreciated the petition emails because they told him why people want to take their bicycles on the South Shore Line. Many people, like me, want to visit the Dunes, while others want to be able to visit family in South Bend without having to be driven to and from the station. People left comments about how bicycles can fill the “last mile” gap to your final destination – that leg of the trip where there’s often no transit service – and that allowing bicycles on trains could increase ridership.

The signatures weren’t all from Chicagoans. Bruce Spitzer from South Bend wrote, “This is South Bend’s ‘direct connection’ to Chicago! Yet we bicyclists cannot enjoy easily taking our bikes to Chicago. We’d love to bike in Chicago via the South Shore!” Russ Perdiu from Tippecanoe, IN, said, “With gas pricing sky high and traffic a total disaster no matter what city you are in it is important to allow access to alternative travel options.”

So why can’t bikes go on South Shore Line trains? Parsons said the limitations are pretty straightforward. A lot of the route’s 19 stations have low-level boarding that requires people to enter trains via narrow stairs and doorways at the end of the cars. “You literally cannot bring a bike up these stairwells,” he explained. The agency is converting more stations to high-level boarding in order to use the cars’ middle doors, which would improve access for people with disabilities.

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A Rock Island train crosses the Dan Ryan Expressway, near where the incline over freight tracks will begin. Photo: Jeff Zoline

The Englewood Flyover is a bridge construction project near 63rd and State Streets that will eventually elevate the tracks for 78 weekday Metra Rock Island trains, so they don’t cross tracks for 60 daily freight and Amtrak trains at the same grade. Work began last September, and construction this weekend will close the Dan Ryan Expressway express lanes. By eliminating the conflict, not only will “a significant source of train delays” be gone, according to Metra, but neighborhood air quality will also improve and noise from idling trains will be reduced.

The construction work is not expected to create its own delays for the Rock Island line, Metra spokesperson Michael Gillis told Streetsblog. The project is part of CREATE, a multi-agency program to reduce freight rail, passenger rail, and transit delays around the region, comprising over 60 distinct projects. Since 2005, 25 percent of the projects have been completed, with full funding committed to 11 more.

When the Englewood Flyover is complete in fall 2014, two other projects to improve Metra and Amtrak service can begin: the 75th Street Corridor Improvement Project – a batch of improvements speeding SouthWest Service Metra trains and opening up room at Union Station for Amtrak and proposed high-speed rail service; and the Grand Crossing Project, which will cut 10-15 minutes from six Amtrak runs by eliminating the need to turn around the trains before they enter Union Station.

The blue line represents Metra Rock Island trains, and the orange line represents freight and Amtrak trains. The red marker indicates the conflict crossing that will be eliminated with a flyover.

Construction photo from Saturday; click for more. Photo: Anne Alt.

Demond Drummer by the 63rd/Halsted Green Line station in Englewood. Photo by John Greenfield.

[This article also appears in Checkerboard City, John Greenfield's weekly column in Newcity magazine, which hits the streets on Wednesday evenings.]

Most Chicagoans associate Englewood with poverty and crime, but local advocates and activists see it as a neighborhood with untapped potential, with excellent access to public transportation being one of the keys to its future success. “From the beginning, Englewood was designed to be a transportation and retail hub, and that does not come up often enough in the conversation,” says Demond Drummer, a resident who works for the Teamwork Englewood community development organization.

Greater Englewood is a predominantly African-American area, roughly bounded by Garfield, Western, 79th and State. It includes two Green Line stations, three Red Line Stops, Metra’s Rock Island Main Line (although trains no longer stop here), and multiple bus routes. The New Era Trail proposal would turn a nearly two-mile, dormant rail corridor into an elevated greenway along 59th between Hoyne and Lowe. The city is also considering building bus rapid transit on Ashland, which would create yet another travel option.

“The proximity to transportation is one of Englewood’s huge assets,” says Asiaha Butler, who works in the real estate industry and president of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (RAGE). “It can help revive the neighborhood by providing individuals with access to jobs in other parts of the city, and it can encourage new retail here. But we need businesses to be smart and strategic by locating near hubs like 63rd and Ashland, and the 63rd Street Red Line Stop.”

Greater Englewood. Image taken from Chicago Bike Map - orange lines are recommended bike routes.

Drummer agreed to meet me in the neighborhood to discuss the role sustainable transportation can play in bringing Englewood back to its former glory. “In its prime, it was the number-one, non-central-city retail location in the entire country,” he says as we stand under the Green Line tracks by the Halsted/63rd station, another one of the community’s crucial transit nodes. Just north is Kennedy-King College, which relocated here in the mid-2000s; on the northwest corner is a twelve-acre vacant lot where the Englewood Shopping Center once stood before it was demolished in 2001.

Transit hubs like 63rd and Halsted should be a no-brainer for new business investment, but why did local enterprises like the shopping mall close in the first place? “It was an inward-facing shopping center where a parking lot was all you saw walking up to it, so that didn’t help,” Drummer responds. “But you also had retail consolidation, historic racism, redlining and divestment from the neighborhood, and the shutting down of the Green Line. [The line was closed from January 1994 to May 1996 for rehab work, and six South Side stations, several in Englewood, never reopened.] These things kind of created a vicious cycle of exodus.”

Still, Drummer is optimistic that Englewood can leverage its current and future transportation options, and even use its many vacant lots to its advantage, to make an economic comeback. Teamwork Englewood recently finished an eighteen-month land-use planning process with the city and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. “It asked the question, what do we do in the neighborhood with all these vacant lots,” Drummer says. “With the city’s new Green and Healthy Neighborhoods initiative they want to centralize retail around our transportation hubs.”

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Bike storage on Metra.

Anne Alt is president of the Chicago Cycling Club and works in the Law Offices of James Freeman, a sponsor of Streetsblog Chicago. 

When legislation encouraged by then-Lt. Governor Pat Quinn allowed non-folding bikes on Metra trains for the first time in 2005, it was a long-sought victory for Chicago area cyclists. Gaining a new way to transport bikes has allowed thousands to take car-free trips throughout the metro area for transportation and recreation.

The user experience and degree of access has varied and evolved since then. The number of blackout dates when bikes are not allowed has steadily shrunk, with some assistance from our friends at the Active Transportation Alliance. Seeing bikes on Metra trains has become a daily occurrence. This inspired one rider to write a user’s guide and another to create a “Can I bring my bike on Metra right now?“ app.

In the early years, conductors or station security staff, unfamiliar with the new bike policy, often prevented cyclists from bringing their bikes on board, even when the schedules available in print and online stated that bikes would be allowed on that train. Unannounced blackout dates were not unusual. Metra policy required a bungee cord to secure the bike so it couldn’t roll while the train was in motion. Cyclists who were infrequent passengers, or new to taking bikes on Metra, weren’t all aware of this and were sometimes denied boarding if they didn’t have a bungee cord. If there were conflicts with other passengers over use of the designated bike space, conductor assistance was uncommon. Over the last several years, conductors have become familiar with the bike policy and their treatment of cyclists has improved.

Some conductors have even used Metra to bring their own bikes downtown to use when they’re not working. Now they’re more likely to allow some improvisation for securing a bike on the train (such as a belt, cable lock, or U-lock) if a rider does not have a bungee cord. A small change made to the policy helps with those situations. “Bicycles must be secured to the lower rail of folding seats in the priority seating area with long bungee cords (approximately 36 inches recommended) or other devices supplied by the cyclist which adequately secure the bicycle.”

Some of us who ride Metra regularly have noticed the impact of an unadvertised budget measure on bike access: a reduction in the number of open ADA accessible cars on off-peak trains. ADA accessible cars are the only ones where non-folding bikes are allowed. Due to variations in operating procedures and differences in ridership between Metra lines, this change affects some lines more than others. The bike capacity advertised on Metra’s bike policy page and in schedules is based on having 2-4 open ADA cars per train (varying by line and run) and space for up to five bikes per ADA car on diesel trains (increased from three in 2010), and a two-bikes-per-car limit on Metra Electric.

All Metra Electric cars are accessible, with platform-level entry vestibules. On other lines, the number of accessible cars per diesel trainset varies, but is usually less than half the total number of cars. There are many older, non-accessible cars still in use in the Metra system with stairs, but no lifts. The limited number of ADA cars isn’t just an issue for cyclists. We are competing for space with disabled passengers, families with children in strollers, and travelers with suitcases, so the space limitation affects all these Metra riders. A cyclist can lose out by getting bumped if space becomes too tight. When the number of open cars (particularly ADA cars) is too low for the number of boarding passengers (a frequent issue on weekends and holidays), train delays result and everyone loses.

I asked local cyclists to share their Metra experiences through a survey. About half of survey respondents (48 out of 98) are reverse commuters. Some are daily, year-round bike-train commuters, while others use this as an occasional option. Several respondents regularly use a folding bike to avoid space conflicts and eliminate the possibility that they could be denied boarding. (Metra policy allows folding bikes, folded and bagged, on all trains at any time.)

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People get to Wrigley Field by all modes. Photo: Wally Gobetz.

The Cubs are expected to announce a deal with Alderman Tom Tunney of the 44th Ward later today that would add a large parking garage and a hotel to the area near Wrigley Field, as well as modifications to the stadium itself. The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that “the Cubs have agreed to create extra parking in Wrigleyville” with up to 500 spaces on what is currently a gravel lot at Clark and Grace Streets.

Building a parking garage in this transit-accessible, walkable neighborhood is the wrong move. Instead of alleviating frustrations, it will only bring more car traffic to the area and make matters worse. Existing parking problems – a common complaint, for instance, is that residents cannot park in front of their homes because visiting drivers have violated the parking permit rules – are solvable without building an unsightly, anti-pedestrian, traffic-generating structure.

In fact, a garage will cause more problems than it solves, said civil engineer Ryan Wallace, who’s also a Lakeview resident and Cubs fan. A 500-car parking garage won’t just hold 500 cars that fans are already driving to Wrigleyville, he said. It will induce more car trips, since fans will know there’s more parking available. “You’re going to cause a greater amount of car trips than there are spaces to hold them,” Wallace said.

Wallace said the real capacity problem that needs to be solved is on the sidewalk. There’s not enough room for all the pedestrians trying to get to the stadium, who crowd the sidewalks alongside residents just trying to get home from the train stations. “People routinely spill over into the street,” he said.

It’s possible that the Cubs might add more than 500 parking spaces. Tunney’s website says “a strong majority of residents support requiring Wrigley Field to use neighboring land owned by the Cubs to provide parking for at least twenty percent of their capacity.” That would mean a structure that could hold thousands of cars.

The lot at Clark and Grace is zoned as a planned development, giving Zoning Administrator Patricia Scudiero – in addition to Tunney – some control over how many spaces would be here and what the structure would look like.

Wallace disagrees that a strong majority of residents support the parking structure. “I think he’s getting a lot of influence from the leaders from neighborhood groups, Lake View Citizens Council, the chamber of commerce – they are the vocal minority,” he said.

Eric Hanss, who lives near the stadium in the 46th Ward, has started a petition to ask Tunney and the Cubs not to “turn Lakeview into a parking lot.” It states:

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Editor’s note: Streetsblog accepts guest posts with viewpoints different than our own. Lynn Stevens is an urban planner, blogger at Peopling Places, and long-time neighborhood booster for Logan Square where she’s been an active participant in Bike/Walk Logan Square, the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, the Logan Square Corridor Development Initiative, and the (now defunct) Zoning Advisory Committee.

Different ways to pay on CTA and Pace.

Man walks into a coffee shop, orders a cup of coffee, reaches in his pocket for cash.

Barista: “That’ll be $3.00.”

Man: “I thought coffee was $2.25.”

Barista: “It is, but we charge you 25¢ for the cream.”

Man: “But I don’t want cream.”

Barista: “We charge you for it whether you want it or not. And 50¢ for the limited use cup.”

Man: “That’s outrageous! That’s false advertising.”

Barista: “There is a way around it.”

Man: “Oh, okay. How?”

Barista: “You can buy our coffee card.”

Man: “Ok, let me do that.”

Barista: “That’ll be $5.00.”

Man: “What?! Now you’re going to charge me $5.00 for a cup of coffee?!”

Barista: “Well, after you buy your card, you can go online or call the 800 number and give them your name, address, phone number, date of birth, Social Security number… Ha ha. Just kidding about that last one! But you register the card and then you can immediately use the $5.00 value. It’s designed to save patrons time and money, and provides a unique opportunity to combine your coffee account with a debit card for other retail purchases.”

Man: “But I still only want a $2.25 cup of coffee.”

Barista: “You can use the balance on your card next time you come in.”

Man: “But it’ll be two years before I’m back in Chicago.”

Barista: “Oh,” said quietly and with disappointment.

Man: “What?”

Barista: “If you haven’t used the card in 18 months, we charge you $5.00 a month to make sure you don’t lose the $3.75 balance on your card.”

Man sighs with exasperation.

Barista: “Unless,” said with some hope.

Man: “What?”

Barista: “You could use a debit or credit card.”

Man: “Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place? I just want a $2.25 cup of coffee…black…today.

After man swipes his credit card (without an RFID chip), the machine prompts him to verify the amount of $3.00.

Man: “What?!!!!!”

After reading his recent article on Ventra, I joked with Steven Vance that even he must acknowledge that he covered many points in order to make it “clear” that the Ventra card was “simple,” and that he updated the post to make it even more “clear.” Clear and simple it is not.

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Poster for participatory budgeting project expos in the 46th Ward.

Chicago’s participatory budgeting movement has exciting potential to democratize the way city money is spent, which could lead to innovative walking, biking and transit improvements. First pioneered in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, participatory budgeting allows citizens to recommend projects for public funding and then vote on how the cash is spent.

In 2010, 49^th Ward Alderman Joe Moore allowed his constituents to determine how to spend the district’s $1.3 million in discretionary “menu money,” the first recorded example of participatory budgeting in the United States. Since then, instead of just funding the usual street repaving, sidewalk repair and streetlight replacement, Moore’s constituents have also voted to spend money on new walk signals, transit shelters, bike lanes and racks, and other nontraditional projects.

49th Ward residents voted to spend menu money to install this contraflow bike lane on Albion Avenue in Rogers Park. Photo courtesy of CDOT.

Last year Moore invited the other 49 aldermen to a briefing to try to persuade them to try participatory budgeting. A handful of them expressed interest, and last fall the process launched in Leslie Hairston’s 5th Ward, John Arena’s 45th Ward and James Cappleman’s 46th Ward. Residents showed up for multiple community meetings, brainstorming ideas for ways to improve their neighborhood’s infrastructure. This winter, locals formed committees to evaluate hundreds of proposals to determine which ones should be included on ballots.

Next month community members in the 49^th, 5^th, 45^th and 46^th wards can come to ten different project expos to check out info tables and talk to their neighbors about the proposals that will appear on the ballot; voting begins in May. If you live in one of these wards (look up your ward here) be sure to attend one of the upcoming expos, listed below, and show your support for biking, walking and transit projects on Election Day. Visit PB Chicago or contact your alderman for more info.

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Check your wallet. Do you have the "wave" logo on your credit or debit card? If so, you're ready to use Ventra, and all you have to do to add multi-day passes or receive transit tax benefits is register your card with Ventra.

Ventra, you may have heard, is the new fare payment system for Chicago Transit Authority and Pace. (Metra will not be joining the Ventra system, and is currently testing other fare payment methods.) CTA is switching to Ventra to save $5 million per year on maintaining outdated fare collection technology, according to spokesperson Lambrini Lukidis.

“We also print 35 million transit cards and passes each year,” she said. That’s a lot of waste! Lambrini also mentioned that the credit card industry is moving in the same direction and will be phasing out magnetic stripe cards in the next few years, saying, “We’re ahead of the curve on this, but our main motivation is to make paying more efficient and to mirror the retail experience.”

As with any transition, there will probably be an adjustment period, but the CTA doesn’t deserve the scolding about its communications that Jon Hilkevitch dished out in his Tribune column today. The transition is not as complicated as Hilkevitch makes it out to be. Here’s what you need to know.

The basics

The most important aspect of Ventra is that users will be able to pay fares with their own bank-issued credit or debit card. So you might be able to use the system without acquiring any new cards. This should make paying fares faster and convenient without adding any cost.

If you won’t be using your own bank card, you can get a Ventra Card at 145 train stations or more than 2,000 retail locations, over the phone, or via the Ventra website.

You can buy transit fares with cash or credit at the Ventra vending machines, but if you choose to receive a disposable paper ticket instead of buying a new Ventra Card or reloading an existing one (with cash or credit/debit), you will have to pay an extra 75 cents (for a single transfer and the cost of the paper ticket). CTA and Pace buses will still accept cash, and the fare will not change from $2 and $1.75, respectively.

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Will a new rail authorization find a way to help states make needed repairs to keep the whole Northeast Corridor running smoothly? Photo: NJ Transit via Second Avenue Sagas

Now that the surface transportation bill fight is over — at least for the moment — transportation reformers are eying the expiration date of another key piece of legislation later this year. The reauthorization of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) could be a chance to make some needed changes to jump-start progress in the passenger rail system. Or it could be the next partisan battleground, making it a process as unnavigable as the lead-up to the passage of MAP-21.

PRIIA shouldn’t be as contentious as the surface transportation bill for three reasons. First of all, no one’s expecting a seismic shift in rail policy to come with this bill. Second, reauthorizing the passenger rail title doesn’t necessarily require a big conversation about funding (though there are certainly those on both sides of the issue who would like to have one). And third, Rep. John Mica isn’t wielding the gavel anymore.

The new chair, Bill Shuster, headed the Rail Subcommittee before taking over the top job, so he’s likely to take a special interest in shepherding the legislation through. And he’s already proven to be a much more bipartisan — and bicameral — collaborator, so many Democrats are hoping for a less rancorous, more inclusive, process.

Even though PRIIA likely won’t bring a sea change in rail policy, insiders say there are a few areas to watch:

State of Good Repair. The Northeast Corridor Commission released a report in January on infrastructure maintenance backlogs on Amtrak’s most popular line. Speeds can’t increase on the corridor without addressing some choke points and repair needs.

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