Chicago’s New BRT Push Will Be Linked to “Livability”

Bogotá’s Transmilenio BRT. Could
Chicago get something like this? (Photo: the mikebot
via Flickr)

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we hear about new plans for Bus
Rapid Transit from the blog of the Metropolitan
Planning Council (the MPC is “an independent, nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization…[that] serves communities and residents by
developing, promoting and implementing solutions for sound regional
growth”).

A few years back, Chicago had a chance to develop pilot BRT routes,
but missed some key funding deadlines. The project was abandoned, but is
being taken up again now — with some interesting new angles prompted by
federal policy changes. The MPC blog reports:

Fast-forward to a few months ago, when the Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) announced a $280 million
program to fund streetcar and BRT proposals. This encouraging news has
led to the revival of the CTA’s BRT plan but with a twist: projects must
not only be shovel-ready, they also must demonstrate the relationship
to the six
livability principles outlined by the federal government.  These
livability principles ask transit agencies to consider the effects of
the service on the surrounding areas, its ability to improve access to
jobs and housing, and the potential to reduce environmental impacts in
local communities.

MPC has been working with the Chicago Dept. of Transportation (CDOT)
and CTA on a BRT Evaluation Study to analyze potential BRT routes
throughout the city, based on characteristics outlined by the livability
principles. While current ridership is an important factor being
considered, the study also analyzes potential connections to existing
CTA rail and Metra services, impacts of providing transit options in
underserved areas, and connections to employment centers and other
destinations.

More from around the network: Utility
Cycling has part one of an analysis of what’s right and wrong with
Google’s bike-there function. Cyclelicious
has the story of an 87-year-old woman who is still biking for
transportation, 74 years after she got her first bike. And Transit
Miami has some pictures of what that city’s traffic looks like when
it’s moving about 6 mph.