Daniel Hertz
Recent Posts
O’Hare Express Train: Bad, But New Damen Green Line Station: Good.
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An O'Hare express train won't save anybody any time, but the replacement of a CTA station at Damen is great news for people living on the Near West Side.
Explore National Transportation Change Trends by Age Group
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Cross-posted from City Observatory In some ways, the urban renaissance of the last decade or two has been quite dramatic. Downtown or downtown-adjacent neighborhoods in cities around the country have seen rapid investments, demographic change, and growth in amenities and jobs. Even mayors in places with a reputation for car dependence, like Nashville and Indianapolis, are […]
Metra Ridership Rising Unevenly; Development Could Maximize Its Potential
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Start with the good news: Ridership on Metra, Chicagoland’s main commuter rail service, has grown almost 14 percent over the last ten years. It remains near the all-time high it reached in 2008, just before the Great Recession. On any given weekday, Metra provides nearly 300,000 rides across its 11 lines, or roughly as many […]
Lack of Planning Along Orange Line Resulted in Missed Opportunities
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Ever since it opened in 1993, the CTA’s Orange Line has become the public transit backbone of the Southwest Side, with over 60,000 rides on an average weekday. But unlike the patrons of many other ‘L’ lines, who step out of their neighborhood stations onto commercial streets lined with restaurants, shops, and other businesses, Orange […]
Coalition Urges Higher State Gas Tax to Fund Transportation
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On July 1, 2014, Illinois’ pool of transportation money will dry up. That’s the day that the state’s last five-year capital program—the law that funds maintenance and construction of roads, highways, and public transit across the state—expires. Without a replacement, roughly a billion dollars of annual support to the state’s transportation infrastructure will disappear. The Transportation […]