Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago3rd
So how would you propose we have "smoothly-flowing expressways"? I know this doesn't happen much in the freeways/tollways around Chicago.
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First of all, I never said we needed perfectly smoothly-flowing expressways. Expressways are mostly anti-pedestrian and diminish local quality of life in favor of a general increase in regional quality of life. It's a balance - you need some, but usually the number it would take to build your way out of congestion would happen partly because of more capacity, but also partly because people would move out of areas with too many expressways, de-densifying and reducing demand. That's not something I'd want to see.
My point is that building transit next to existing expressways, though usually cheaper than building through neighborhoods, is counter-productive. First, bringing cars and pedestrians together is not a great idea, second, expressways are wide and reduce effective density near the stations nearly always, making them less convenient, and during off-peak times, transit users will be treated to watching cars zip by at 70mph while waiting for a train that probably won't get above 50mpg and will stop frequently. Expressway-aligned transit could work for commuting, but that's really about it. Designing systems only for commuters is a little wasteful - when possible, systems should be designed for all-around use whenever possible. That means putting transit where people live and walk, not where people drive.
I'm glad we have a train to O'Hare, but would it be better-used in general if it were aligned through neighborhoods? I'm glad that 95th on the Red LIne is the highest-used station in the system, but wouldn't the Red Line do better if it were aligned over the rail tracks to the west of the Dan Ryan, an easier walk to most of Bridgeport, instead of the middle of an expressway? It would be less duplicative of the Green Line, and closer to residences and pedestrians. That's my point, not that expressways are the answer, but that putting transit next to expressways is silly for anything except commuter transit.