While CTA buses bunching up bumper-to-bumper in heavy traffic are among the top complaints about public transportation, a big piece of Chicago’s proposed solution — bus-only lanes — faces a challenging test drive.
The key to success starts by abandoning the preoccupation with how many vehicles can be crammed onto major roads and downtown streets each day, transportation experts said. It’s simply a battle that cannot be won.
Instead, shift the focus to transporting more people safely, reliably and comfortably on mass transit.
Yet homegrown skeptics have had a field day denouncing as unworkable the recently announced plan for the CTA bus-only lanes during rush hours to fight gridlock on key arterial streets leading into downtown.
The federal government is awarding more than $153 million to Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority to test the bus lanes and a congestion-pricing strategy to tame traffic.
The latter element involves increasing downtown parking-meter rates during peak periods, charging loading-zone fees for trucks making on-street deliveries, leasing the management of city parking meters to a private company and raising the city tax that drivers pay at parking garages and surface lots downtown.
It amounts to a declaration of war on automobiles, the critics say. They imply it’s some sort of conspiracy to make today’s very bad traffic even worse, so the only option for motorists would be to flee to public transportation or drive to work at 3 a.m. in their pajamas.
As reported in weekend editions of the Tribune, CTA bus-only lanes will be built on two North Side streets and two South Side streets for routes serving downtown under the ambitious plan to test the bus version of rapid transit in Chicago.
The strategy centers on slashing travel times on buses by 50 percent and luring drivers out of their cars.
The bus lanes will be built on Chicago Avenue from California Avenue to Fairbanks Court; on Halsted Street from Lake Street to North Avenue; on 79th Street from State Street to Ashland Avenue; and on Jeffery Boulevard from 87th to 67th Streets.
The lanes would be restricted during peak travel periods to buses only and be used in the inbound direction in the morning and outbound during the evening rush. The lanes would be open to all vehicles during non-rush periods.
Providing a transit service faster than car travel is imperative. It need not be an impossible dream here in a region on the brink of gridlock, where it takes longer to travel by car than almost anywhere in the nation, transportation experts said.
“If you give people a choice, a lot of them will take it,” said Alasdair Cain, a senior research associate at the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute in Tampa, adding an important proviso: “Avoid implementing the stick before the carrot is there. Otherwise, people will feel it is a tax.”
So while designing the bus lanes, which if done correctly will also benefit people who continue to drive because buses won’t weave from lane to lane to make stops, don’t forget about fixing other traffic headaches, the experts said.
Those perennial problems include poorly timed traffic signals, inefficient left- and- right-turn movements and conditions that create conflict between vehicles and pedestrians.
Attention to operational details and technology are vital to making the bus rapid transit plan work. Bus stops will be staggered at roughly one-half mile intervals and traffic signals will extend green lights for buses.
Street parking might be limited in some of the rapid-transit lanes when the lanes are reserved for buses, but rush-hour parking restrictions already exist on many arterial streets, CTA officials said.
“We have had no conversation with the city to remove parking on any of the bus rapid-transit routes,” said Jeff Ahmadian, CTA deputy general counsel.
That assurance may provide some comfort to business owners whose customers demand nearby parking. But some civic leaders say street parking should not be treated as a sacred cow.
“On-street parking is priced too low. It’s ridiculous,” said Frank Beal, executive director of Chicago Metropolis 2020. “It’s an incredibly valuable piece of real estate that constrains the use of the public right of way.”
Meanwhile, the CTA plans to construct bus rapid-transit stations with turnstile fare-collection equipment at key points along the bus lines to promote faster boarding of passengers. The stations will include waiting areas with heaters and electronic message boards reporting the arrival time of the next bus.
In the longer term, the bus stations would be augmented with “public bicycles” that commuters could use for free or a small fee, as well as the option to rent cars on an hourly basis.
The CTA must begin operating the express buses by 2010, under the funding agreement. The project would start with about 10 miles of bus-only lanes and later expand to more than 100 miles. The CTA will use about $37 million of the $153 million federal grant to buy double-long, hybrid buses that emit less pollution than traditional diesel-powered buses.
Expected benefits of the bus-only lanes include lower emissions of carbon dioxide gases because of the express buses stopping less often.
One articulated bus taking the place of two smaller buses, as well as fewer cars on roads feeding into downtown would also reduce wear and tear on streets, officials said.
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