Flickr user CTA (cc).
Ventra card rolls out in Chicago
By Yonah Freemark and MPC Research Assistant Sam Svoboda - October 2, 2013
In the Loop is your round-up of what’s going on in the transportation world, posted in conjunction with Talking Transit.
@metroplanners
September was full of bus rapid transit (BRT) for the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC). We held a Roundtable with experts from Enterprise Community Partners and the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, who discussed the ways that development occurs around BRT. We also released our BRT mapping tool, an interactive map that will allow both developers and community members to visualize ways in which the proposed Ashland BRT route could impact their neighborhoods.
MPC has also shed some light on why the privatization of Midway airport fell through and wrapped up a successful placemaking competition at Union Station. We were also joined by others in our opposition to the proposed Illiana Tollway, including the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) staff and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle
elsewhere
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which is charged with the construction of the Ashland BRT line, has been busy, too. The agency unveiled updated designs for the new Washington and Wabash elevated rail station. Meanwhile, in association with Pace, the suburban bus operator, CTA rolled out its new Ventra card. Though implementation has required some adaptation from users, Ventra offers customers a transit card and debit card all rolled up in one, saving time and offering a card option for people who don’t have bank accounts. Ventra also allows people with contactless credit cards to use them as transit farecards.
In San Diego, the regional planning board SANDAG approved $200 million to expand the area’s bike network and make it easier to get around without a car. San Diego is currently investigating how best to use bikes to solve the city’s “last mile problem”—getting from a transit stop to home or work.
Washington, D.C., at least, seems to have partially addressed those concerns. The Census Bureau announced that 4 percent of commuters in the nation’s capital use bikes to get to work, the third-highest rate in the country. That’s a more than 100 percent increase since 2007. One big explanation: Washington’s popular Capital Bikeshare system.
Finally, light rail projects around the country continue to advance. A tunneled extension of a line in Seattle to the University of Washington is expected to launch earlier than expected. The State of Massachusetts poured $393 million into the first phase of an extension of the Boston Green Line into Somerville. And a new line planned for Minneapolis will include a tunneled section in order to avoid a freight line and a walking trail.