The CTA, Bringing People Together

Standing at the L platform the other day, I heard the familiar voice of the operator whose train I've been riding regularly for the past couple years. Unlike most operators who prefer to let the official canned voice of the CTA make the announcements, this operator went to extremes to make sure his passengers knew who was in charge of his train.

The train I usually take in the morning runs express for part of its run, and it was during this ten minute gap between stations where he usually took the opportunity to speak to his captive audience. "Good morning riders..." he'd say after pulling out of the station where I board the train, "...welcome to run number (such and such). I am CTA senior operator number (such and such), and welcome aboard CTA's love connection." Then he'd go on to describe details of that day's run, including possible delays or anything else out of the ordinary we could expect to encounter on the run. If there was nothing out of the ordinary, the exception, not the rule, he'd just shoot the breeze for about half the time between Howard and Wilson.

But the other day when I heard the voice over his train's external speakers, it was not my train. As he reminded us every day for the past month, the CTA in its infinite wisdom, was changing his runs. In one of his laments about about how sad he was to leave this particular group of riders and how it has been his pleasure over the years to serve us, he told a story. It turns out that one day, a couple came up and told him that they got together because of him. Day after day it turns out, this couple who were strangers, noticed each other but as is often the case on public transportation, respected each other's personal space too much to do anything about it. Eventually the ice between them was broken during one of the operator's trademark banters. when one of the two, (not sure which one), made a comment about him. Now the operator didn't mention whether the couple's first conversation ever was about how funny, or how aggravating he was, (he could indeed be both), but without question it was he who brought the couple together. Presumably this was the inspiration for calling his run the "love connection."

This week the morning train ride has been remarkably silent and ho hum. The general good feeling and even camaraderie that once existed between the riders is broken. Couples who are attracted to one another on the train are going to have to find some other way to break the ice. Or like me they can start riding the local, where operator number (such and such) can still be found, no doubt engaging, enraging, and bringing people together.

In the climate of division this country is currently experiencing, that can only be a good thing.

Courtesy Campaign

The Chicago Transit Authority is instituting a new publicity campaign focusing on certain behaviors that many riders find objectionable. Ads featuring humorous photographs like this one will be coming soon to a bus or train near you:

The most effective of the CTA's new signs encouraging more decorous behavior on the part of its riders.

This campaign is a departure from the no-nonsense signs posted on busses and L cars of my youth admonishing riders not to smoke or expectorate.

It seems those signs did their job, I can't for the life of me remember the last time I saw someone light up or hock a loogie on public transit. In the subsequent years, new annoyances came along and the CTA designed up to date signs to address them:

Notice there is no mention of spitting.

As you can see, loud radio playing, gambling, eating and littering have been raised to the level of smoking, that is to say violations so egregious, they can land you in the slammer. However truth be told, the last time somebody got busted for littering in Chicago, the Cubs were hoisting the National League pennant over Wrigley Field.

In case you don't follow baseball, that was a very long time ago.

After reading some of their mail, the CTA felt it was time to address a plethora of other issues that contributed to rider discontent. While there is some overlap, the issues the new campaign is directed at, are mostly kinder and gentler faux pas than the ones that made the verboten list.

As a long time rider of the CTA, I consider myself something of an expert on the subject. There is quite a range of offenses on the current no no list, from honest mistakes to outright violations of common decency. Folks on public transit may be excused for example, for failing to stand on the right side of an escalator, for not moving to the middle of the car, or not moving down the platform and using all the doors. These are learned behaviors, you're not born knowing this stuff. I have to remind myself of that whenever I'm tempted to yell at someone who enters the train before I have a chance to get off, giving them the benefit of the doubt that their mothers never taught them that piece of basic etiquette. Eating on the train, while to many may seem uncouth, is perfectly legal on Chicago's commuter railways, as is drinking alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the CTA's restrictions on eating and drinking must be clearly spelled out.

The truly boorish behavior on the list can be divided between sins of omission and sins of commission. Not surrendering your seat to a pregnant woman may seem to be as lame an act as possible, but as illustrated in the photo above, especially in our age of the electronic device, sometimes we become so engrossed in our own little worlds, we tune out the big one. I think all of us are guilty of that at times. Then there's that awkward moment of not being quite sure if a woman is pregnant. Do you try to do the right thing by offering her your seat and face the possible humiliation for the two of you if she is indeed not with child? Who knew riding the L could be fraught with such perplexing ethical dilemmas?

Listening to the radio the other night I heard a CTA official discuss the new program and its goals. He said the signs were intended to educate the public on the matter of bus and train etiquette, and in extreme cases, encourage appropriate behavior through humiliation. The thought is this, instead of directly confronting some jerk who insists upon leaving his bag on the seat next to him while other people are standing. a commuter could simply point to the sign above that says: "Did your bag pay a fare too?"

Rude behavior knows no bounds regarding
age, gender, race or country of origin.
Fortunately, the same holds true for exceedingly
polite behavior.

Well I'm sure the educational part of the campaign will have some impact but let's face it, jerks will be jerks and I'm afraid that all the humiliation in the world isn't going to change that. Some people simply wear their jerkdom on their sleeve like a badge of honor.

The truth is, in my decades of riding public transportation in Chicago and in other cities around the world, I've discovered there is a fairly constant, bell-shaped distribution of the behavior of public transit riders ranging from those who go above and beyond the call of duty, to total jerks. I'd say those two groups are represented in fairly equal numbers at either end of the curve, while the rest of us who are perfectly happy to do the right thing, albeit with a little bit of nudging at times, comprise the vast majority of riders.

Case in point, yesterday a woman in an enormous motorized wheel chair was about to enter the bus I was riding. At least ten people sitting in the front of the bus, got out of their seats without any prompting from the driver to make room for the lady. Two people who did not move on their own, made no fuss when the driver asked them to surrender their seats as well.

Then there's this guy in the photo above who despite the fact there were people standing on the train, (in this case, me), he continues to take up the seat next to him with his bag. Was his sin of omission inadvertent or was he an unrepentant jerk? Only he and his maker know for sure.

In case you're wondering, here's the complete list of transgressions the CTA plans to address in its new campaign:

• Move to the Middle of the Car
• Let Others Off Before You Board
• Don't Block the Doors
• Stand Right, Walk Left on Escalators
• Move Down the Platform and Use All Doors
• No Eating on the Train or Bus
• Offer Seats to Expectant Mothers
• Yield Priority Seats
• Don't Litter
• Don't Play Loud Music
• Don't Put Bags on Seats
• Refrain from Loud Cell Phone Talking
• Don't Hold the Doors

Quite an impressive list isn't it? I applaud the CTA for their efforts to introduce new civility into its system.

Right now as I'm writing this on the L, blasting over the loud speaker comes the motherly admonitions of the operator of our train, instructing passengers on the platform to let others off before they get on, others to move to different cars if they can't get on the car in front of them, and still others on the train to move to the middle of the car so as not to block the doors. People at this moment are listening to her, and obeying.

It just occurred to me that the authoritative reproach coming from this strong-willed woman, is far more effective at whipping us all into shape, than any advertising campaign which no doubt costs the cash-strapped agency plenty. I bet even the unrepentant jerks would fall into line at the sound of her shrill voice.

Short of having everybody's mother ride with them, maybe cloning this operator to drive all CTA busses and trains would be the real solution to making sure everybody on board behaves themselves. After all, a little maternal slap on the wrist every now and then never hurt anybody.

An elegy for soon to be Lost Chicago

Ask me to name my favorite street in Chicago's Loop and I'd have to go with Wabash Avenue. The buildings that line the street aren't necessarily the best this city's architects had to offer, but they all reflect the attention to quality and detail that late nineteenth and early twentieth century architects put into their work. While not one single building is what you might call a masterpiece of design, when you put them all together, they create a breathtaking streetscape, speaking to each other in a distinctly turn of the twentieth century language. The loudest voice in that conversation, both visually and audibly, is the elevated structure that has dominated Wasbash Avenue since 1894. The L is to Chicago what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the Brooklyn Bridge is to New York, and the cable cars are to San Francisco, that is to say, a magnificent work of late nineteenth century engineering that continues to stir hearts, and symbolize its city.

Of the four, Chicago's L is probably the least universally loved. It's noisy and it casts a perpetual shadow on the street below. It can be terrifying as well, as anyone who has ever traveled on or stood below trains as they make the tight, precarious curves twenty feet above ground can testify. Fears of trains falling from the sky came true in 1977, when an Oak Park bound train bumped into another train standing just east of the State and Lake station. The forward momentum of the trailing cars on the 90 degree curve at Lake and Wabash caused them to jump the tracks and topple to the street below.

The technology was well in place in the 1890s and a subway system as intricate as New York City's was considered. Because the Chicago rapid transit companies were privately owned by different entities, overwhelming difficulties and costs prevented it. The Union Loop as it was originally called, would enable the L lines to arrive downtown, traverse the overhead tracks, then return to their original destination without having separate terminals in the central business district of the city. This greatly facilitated transferring from one line to another as there were no routes that ran through downtown. As a private entity, city statutes mandated that the construction of the elevated structure above city streets would require 100 percent approval from the property owners along those streets. This being Chicago, you can imagine the shenanigans that went on to get the approval to build the Union Loop. But build it they did, and despite all the commotion and racket over the years, the 120 year old structure is still serving us well as it thrills and terrifies us at the same time.

The real beauty of our L, is the structure itself. As one of the consolations to property owners along the proposed route who feared the structure would cast the entire street in shadow, the builders agreed to build the structure supporting the tracks using an open, lattice-work system of trusses,  rather the solid beams. Consequently the Loop L, as opposed to the rest of Chicago s elevated structures, has a light, open feel to it, which perhaps enhances the death-defying quality of the experience of  trains rumbling above your head.

Madison St. station house

The elegant, functional design of the L structure, contrasts with the design of the stations which were built in a more traditional, historic-revival style, such as the neo-rennaisance of the station house on the left, reflecting the popular architectural fashion of the time. Most of the Loop stations have been significantly altered over the years, with the exception of the Quincy and Wells station, which has been restored virtually to its original appearance, and the Madison and Wabash station, which at this writing, has just been closed for good and is awaiting demolition.

The purpose of the demolition is to replace two Wasbash stations, the one at Madison, and eventually the one at Randolph two blocks to the north, with one modern station spanning from Madison to Washington Street. This would serve two very practical purposes. Reduction of the number of stops in the Loop, as they did a decade ago on Wells Street will, theoretically anyway, reduce congestion and improve travel times. Perhaps more significantly, the new station will be built to current ADA standards, making it possible for people with disabilities to better access public transportation, a very good thing by any standard.

On the other hand it's likely that another reason for the new construction to cut costs in the long run by reducing the staff needed to operate one extra station. Of course politicians love to get their names all over shiny new things and you can bet you'll see the mayor's name (whatever name that may be) plastered all over the new station.

The old Madison and Wabash station was built in 1894 along with the Wabash Avenue leg of the Loop structure, the first section of the Union Loop to be built. As you can see from the photographs, the station has seen better days, no doubt a result of receiving only the most basic maintenance as its days have been numbered for a good time now. Yet even through the rust, the pigeon proofing screens, and the grime, you can still appreciate the fine detail work of the ornamentation of the station. The new station as you can see in the photograph of the "Coming Soon" poster below, will sport undulating rib-like beams (a recent article compared the station's design to the work of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava), which will support a transparent canopy to protect passengers from the elements, while giving them an unobstructed view of the architecture that surrounds them. From the renderings, the new station appears attractive, exceptionally functional, and respectful of its surroundings.

Still I'm going to miss the old station which I must say was one of my very favorite places in Chicago if for nothing else, the spectacular views of Wabash Avenue, provided by the bridge that spanned the tracks.

That bridge has long been redundant as passengers can now walk beneath the station to transfer to the opposite tracks, and there are no plans to replace it with another one in the new station.

Attractive as it may be, the new station will definitely change the character of the street, which is not entirely a bad thing. Still, destroying a structure that's been around for 120 years shouldn't be something to be taken lightly. Then there's the view...

Take a good look, once the bridge is demolished along with the old station, no one will ever have this view of  Chicago again.

My iPhone and I during the evening commute...

So I've had my iPhone for about two months and haven't quite gotten to the point where I feel lost without it, but I'm getting there. There are still a few things I'm fumbling around with, I still haven't mastered the art of typing on the device, especially on a moving train, as being able to write this blog during my daily commute was one of the justifications for getting this thing in the first place.

Another justification was being able to have a camera with me at all times without having to carry around my rather cumbersome gear. Again, taking pictures with my phone at a moment's notice, isn't second nature to me just yet.

But the other night on the way home during a spectacular "sky event" as a good friend would call it, I got inspired...

I posted this image on Facebook and got about 50 likes in a day, I'm guessing it was the sunset. A friend asked if I used any digital manipulation or if I published the image straight from the camera file. I responded merely that the image corresponded more or less to the way I saw the scene at the time, which was in fact, true. Having been a serious photographer since high school, a very long time ago, I know that photographs seldom look the way you see the image in your mind's eye when you take the picture. There are lots of reasons for this but the most obvious one is that a camera and the recording medium, whether it be film or an electronic sensor, do not "see" an image the way our eyes and brain do. Photographers since the advent of the medium over 175 years ago, have understood this and have worked very hard to make their final images look just the way they think they ought to look.

Yet another surreptitious smartphone photograph of
people using smartphones on the train.

In the case of the picture above, there is a great difference between the amount of light coming from the sky and the amount of light reflected by the woman's coat or the tracks. Photographers call this the dynamic range. Photographic media can record a far more limited dynamic range than we can see. When we take a picture, if the range between brightest part of the image and the darkest is too great, compromises have to be made. If we want to preserve detail in the shadow areas, then we have to be willing to lose some detail in the highlights which will be rendered as solid white. Likewise; if we want to preserve details in the highlights, such as the vivid colors in the sky, we have to acccept that the shadow areas will be rendered solid black, unless of course we do something about it.

Back in the day when we shot black and white negatives, we could control the exposure and the development of the film to maximize its potential of producing a suitable print.  Ansel Adams took this technique to its logical extreme when he developed what he called the "Zone System." Then when we made a print in the darkroom, we had the ability to selectively control the amount of dark and light by means of what we call burning (adding more exposure) or dodging, (subtracting exposure), to specific areas of the print. Burning and dodging a print is an art form unto itself; watching the hand gestures of a skilled photographic printer dodging and burning in the darkroom is a truly sight to behold, akin to watching a potter on a wheel or a woodworker on a lathe.

Moonrise, Rogers Park

Alas, as a result of modern technology, this is becoming a lost art as most of the post-production of the photographic images we see today is done on a computer. If prints are made, they are produced on a machine. Today we can digitally control images to a degree that we could only dream about in the old days.

We like to think of photography as a medium that accurately represents reality but the fact is, photographs represent reality no more than paintings or any other kind of visual representation, as the act of framing and recording any three dimensional image onto a two dimensional surface, whether it be film, paper, canvas, or a computer monitor, is by its very nature, artificial.

Moonrise  RP2

Ever since the advent of the revolutionary digital photo editing software Photoshop in 1988. many people have viewed any kind of image manipulation as artificial, and therefore, cheating. Some folks for example, go to the extreme of claiming that the photographs they publish on the social media site Instagram, were made without the benefit of one of that app's many image-altering filters. Somehow they feel this is more pure and honest. But the truth is that every photograph made since the very beginning of the medium has in one way or other been manipulated.

Do photographs lie? Of course they do. Every one of them, to some extent.

All digital technology has done is make the process simpler and more accessible to the general public.

Today, there are apps for smartphones that make it painfully easy to do what once took a skill developed after years of practice in the darkroom to accomplish.

So there's the long winded answer to my friend's question if I used Instagram filters and other digital manipulation techniques on these photographs from the other day. Here's the sort version:

You're damn right I did.

Casa Bonita and Venus (the planet)

The morning commute

One of my transportation alternatives to work is the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line. The CTA has just released this fast motion video that documents a ride down the entire line from Howard Street on the city's far north side to 95th Street on the south side.



The elapsed five minutes and thirty one seconds of the movie between Howard and Monroe Street in the Loop in real time takes on average about forty five minutes on a good day. In posting this to my Facebook page I made the somewhat snarky comment that the ride in the film is amazingly free of delays. But having just returned from Los Angeles, I realize how good we have it. I shudder at the thought of driving to work here in Chicago where traffic is bad, but light years better than LA's.

Below is a Public Radio program documenting the fascinating story of the rise and fall of public transit in LA, specifically the old trolley system affectionately known as the Red Car, and how it shaped the city:



It turns out, if this is to believed, everything we assumed about the Red Car, and its demise in favor of freeways and the automobile is backwards. Contrary to popular belief, it was the trolley system not the freeways, that was directly responsible for the tremendous sprawl of Los Angeles.

Replacing the trains in favor of freeways merely merely exacerbated the situation.

Nice place to visit but...

Way to go Governor Walker

This article in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel slams the transportation priorities of the current administration up in the Badger State, claiming Wisconsin's ever diminishing funding for public transportation in favor of highway spending is hurting the state as young, educated individuals are increasingly looking to live in places that are: "more walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly communities where lifestyles are less dependent on driving." Consequently the folks who were enticed to Wisconsin by its excellent educational institutions, are looking elsewhere to live once they graduate.

Another article from Madison's Capital Times notes that Talgo, a train manufacturing company has shuttered its plant in Milwaukee as a result of Governor Scott Walker's refusal of 810 million dollars in federal money targeted toward high speed rail construction. According to the article:

Talgo is now suing the state for $65 million for the state's reneging on its Talgo contract, and Wisconsin has to foot the bill for a multimillion-dollar maintenance facility and handicap accessibility upgrade at the Milwaukee station, all of which would have been covered by the $810 million federal grant.

Not to say I told you so, but you know what?

I told you so.

Flyover II

I just finished writing an argument against the building of a rail overpass (the Brown Line Flyover) that the CTA plans to build just north of the Belmont rapid transit station that serves the transit agency's Red, Brown and Purple Line trains. 

In a nutshell, I oppose the building of this structure as the cost in terms of federal money, displaced homes and businesses, and the destruction of part of a neighborhood, did not justify the net gain of the project, amounting to only about 30 seconds of commute time on those lines. 

Here is a 2011 article written by Ed Zotti from the Chicago's free weekly, the Reader, that describes a complete overhaul of the Red, Brown and Purple Lines. In a scheme that Zotti and his colleagues exhaustively created, the three lines are reconfigured to more adequately serve the needs of riders on both the north and the south sides of town. 

As a patchwork, temporary fix that the CTA currently proposes, the overpass makes little sense. However when integrated into a visionary plan for the future as it is presented in Zotti's article, it may be something worth considering. 

Buyer beware however, the overhaul comes at a cost measured in the billions, not the millions. 

Money worth spent in my opinion but I may be in the minority on this one.

Brown Line Flyover

After years on the drawing table, the Chicago Transit Authority has recently announced plans to build a new structure on the elevated tracks shared by the Red, Purple and Brown lines at the Clark Junction just north of Belmont Avenue. The structure would be built for north-bound Brown Line trains, elevating them above three sets of active tracks which they currently must switch across in order to continue on their journey culminating at Lawrence and Kimball Avenues in the Albany Park neighborhood on the city's north side.

The CTA puts a price tag of 320 million dollars on the project which if realized, would necessitate the demolition of at least sixteen buildings in the Lakeview neighborhood. That's too much money and sacrifice some critics suggest, to eliminate the average 84 second delay the CTA claims that riders on all three lines experience today. The CTA would no doubt counter that when you multiply those 84 seconds by the combined daily ridership of the three affected lines, (around 400,000), it turns out to be quite a few saved seconds indeed.

A friend of mine who works in the transit industry, but not for the CTA, posted a comment on Facebook stating that a handful of shortsighted people, i.e.:  neighborhood residents, preservationists and other concerned citizens, are standing in the way of a much needed project that will greatly improve the lives of everyone who rides those lines.

"I can authoritatively say..." said my friend, "...trust me, you want this." Calling opponents of the plan the "mental midgets," he claimed that the flyover not only will allow for a 15 to 30 second reduction of commute time (he apparently doesn't buy the CTA estimate, and for the record neither do I), but it will also allow the system to run more trains on those lines, further reducing wait times and delays.

Sounds promising doesn't it?

Well at the risk of sounding like a mental midget, I for one am not so sure. Now I'm far from an expert on the running of a railway, unless you count the number of hours I've spent with model trains. However I am very well versed in delays, especially those on the Red, Purple and Brown Lines, all of which I ride regularly. Please indulge me for a moment to prove my point:

As my morning commute begins at the Howard Street station, the terminus of the Red Line, I have the option of taking either the Red or the Purple Line to work in Chicago's Loop. If the transit gods are with me, which is usually not the case, a Purple Line train arrives at the station just as I get there. That train runs express (so to speak) to Belmont where if I'm lucky, a Red Line train will be waiting. There, if I'm willing to give up my seat, I'll switch over to that train since the trip to the Loop from Belmont is much quicker on the Red Line as it has fewer stops and takes a less circuitous route than the Purple. If my connections are good and there are no delays that day, again the exception not the rule, I can make it to work door to door, in a tad under an hour.

Between the two lines, the average difference in transit time from Howard to Belmont is approximately equal to the amount of time that the Purple Line trains are spaced apart, meaning that theoretically, if I miss a Purple Line train at Howard, the odds should be good that it's no worse than a break-even proposition to wait for the next one, rather than to board a Red Line train already at the station. (Red Line trains are spaced much closer together). Furthermore, a lot of passengers not boarding the Red Line at Howard is a good sign that its been a while since the last Purple Line left the station, and the odds should be good that another one is coming soon. Therefore it stands to reason that waiting for a Purple Line at Howard should be a good bet.

But alas, despite all the thought put into deciding which train to take, choosing between the Red and the Purple Line at Howard is little more than a crap shoot. There have been many times when I've waited twenty to thirty minutes for a Purple Line train with no explanation for the delay, all the while watching countless Red Line trains leave the station. There have been other times when after just missing a Purple Line, I've boarded a Red Line train, only to have it passed by three or four Purple Line trains before Belmont.

My point is this: the most frustrating thing for a commuter is not the amount of time of the commute, but inconsistency. It's nice to know that if you leave home at a given time, you will arrive at your destination in a set amount of time, give or take a minute or two. Delays of course are an inevitable part of commuting, but some of them, like the one at the Clark Junction are predictable and can be calculated into your commute time. Frankly in the ten years I've been riding this route, I can't remember ever being held up at that junction more than one or two minutes at the very most. Quite often like this week, going to and from work, there were no delays at all at the junction.

Since I do consider myself something of an authority on this very particular subject, I can say without reservation that the delay caused by waiting for Brown Line trains crossing over the tracks at the Clark Junction is definitely one of the LEAST significant delays during my commute.

Far more annoying are the unexpected delays when a train of any color line stands between stations anywhere along the line for five, ten, or more minutes. More often than not the operator will explain (if he or she bothers to), that the delay is caused by a backup of trains ahead. Ah you say, but if the new overpass is built, it would eliminate many of those backups. But from my experience, the most serious delays in the morning occur past the junction, when Brown and Purple Line trains all vie for the same right of way. Since southbound Brown Line trains are the only trains going through the junction that are not affected by the crossover, it's difficult to imagine how a backup of those trains could possibly be caused by the crossover.

On the ride home, by far the biggest irritant is trains backing up at Howard Street. Three lines use that station, in addition to the ones mentioned above, the Yellow Line, formerly known as the Skokie Swift, like the Red Line uses Howard as its terminus. Backups at this station, especially during rush hour are the rule, and it is not uncommon to sit on a train from ten to twenty minutes within sight of Howard, waiting for trains ahead to clear the station. As these backups happen on my way home, they are not as critical, but every bit as annoying. It's very difficult to explain how a one minute delay at Belmont could lead to a twenty minute delay five miles north.

Again I'm not an expert on what's causing these delays that seem much worse now than in the past but I have a few suspicions. The most obvious cause I think is wear and tear on the infrastructure. This past winter wreaked havok with the system and frequent delays occurred on a daily basis. That's just the nature of the game and I don't blame the CTA, apparently things were much worse on the Metra, Chicago's commuter railway. However it's hardly a surprise that an elevated structure that is over a century old would show signs of age. Currently, trains that should be capable of speeds of  30 to 40 mph are frequently reduced to a snail's pace because of poor track conditions.

Switches malfunctioning, and not just at the Clark Street junction, are another cause for delays. Back in the day, there were control towers at the major rail junctions manned round the clock by operators who were on hand who could manually operate the switches if the mechanical systems failed. Today the switches are controlled remotely at a central location, a great cost savings at the expense of efficiency in the case of problems. About ten years ago the CTA eliminated more personnel when they went from two person crews, an operator and conductor aboard each train, to one person crews. That meant that minor problems aboard a train which could once be addressed by the conductor while the train was in motion, now have to be dealt with by the operator, obviously stopping the train and with it, every train behind it.

Also, CTA trains now must be wheel chair accessible which is a great thing. Unfortunately with a one person crew, if a passenger in a wheelchair wants to board a train, it is the operator who is usually responsible for fetching and placing a metal ramp between the platform and the train for the passenger's access. Then the operator must return the ramp to its container before proceeding back to the controls. I've seen this highly inefficient process take up to five minutes to complete. Then the entire process is repeated once the passenger needs to get off the train.

The cash-strapped CTA can sometimes be forgiven for these and a whole slew of service related problems as I often think it's a miracle the authority is able to run at all. However with 320 million dollars burning a hole in someone's pocket, I think the agency would be do well by addressing some of these other problems before they tackle building the "Brown Line Flyover" as it has been called.

Given the chance, this is how I would prioritize spending that money:

• Fix the infrastructure - My question as to why trains have been moving so slowly lately when there is no traffic ahead was answered one day when I stood at the back of a slow moving train and looked at the condition of the tracks we had just rolled over. Instead of two straight lines converging into the distance, the rails resembled the wavy lines of an active oscilloscope readout. One day as our train huffed and puffed at a breakneck five mph, a woman asked her companion: "where do you get on the express train?" "This is the express train" was the answer. It's obvious that trains running at these painful speeds cost commuters far more than one or two minutes per ride.
• More efficient stops - Obviously, stopping for passengers takes up a lot of time. Along the Red Line between the Loyola and Wilson stops, stations are placed at intervals of three, and sometimes even two blocks apart. Having stations that close together runs contrary to the idea of rapid transit. Of course the proposal to eliminate stops would go over with the public like a lead balloon. So how about this: go back to the old system of alternating stops during rush hour? Long time Chicagoans will recognize the idea of designating lower volume stations as either A or B stops which would be served exclusively by alternating A and B trains. The more used stations would be designated AB stations where all trains would stop. The CTA successfully used this system for years. Metra uses a similar system during rush hour. Fewer stops per train would result in shorter ride times and fewer opportunities for unexpected delays.
• More efficient make-up time after delays - Today it seems a much less common practice after a delay to space out trains by running the leader train as an express. Using this practice more often would help reduce backups caused by trains bunched together after a delay. It's true that using these efficiency measures would inconvenience some riders, but on the whole, the system would benefit. In both cases, computer algorithms could be put into place that would determine which and how many stops should be skipped by each train to maximize flow while minimizing passenger inconvenience. 
• Hire more people - I know that not in a million years will we see the return of regular two person crews on L trains but perhaps it would make sense, at least during rush hours to put another crew member aboard each a train to help make things work a little smoother. Re-manning switch stations at the major junctions would speed up the delays caused by inevitable equipment problems. Also, stations today are inadequately staffed. With the CTA's confusing and bug-ridden new Ventra Card payment system, attendants are now spending so much time helping passengers figure out how to pay for their ride (several minutes per passenger in some cases), that they are unavailable to assist with other things, such as assisting handicapped passengers board and alight from trains. Short of that, perhaps a mechanical ramp system could be put into place that people in wheelchairs could easily operate themselves, eliminating one extra job for the already overburdened operators .
• Replace track on already existing right-of-way - The elevated structure south of Armitage and extending at least to Chicago Avenue, used to support four sets of tracks. Over the years, two of those sets were abandoned and left to decay. Ultimately they were removed. Since the acquisition of property for right-of-way is the most expensive aspect of building new rail projects (including the Brown Line overpass), would it not make sense to restore these tracks on already existing right-of-way to accommodate express trains from Fullerton into the Loop? This would not only free up some of the backups on the Brown and Purple Lines, but it would give at least some passengers the option of saving an extra ten minutes of commute time.

It's not difficult to understand why executives like CTA president Forrest Claypool, and politicians like Mayor Emanuel like projects like the Brown Line Flyover. They can point to these splashy projects as part of their legacy. They can say they created jobs and improved the system, however modestly. On the other hand, it's a little hard to place your legacy and engrave your name upon a new section of track, a train that doesn't make all the stops, or an extra station agent.

As anyone who has read this blog knows, I am a huge advocate of public transit. I believe that all great cities give residents and visitors numerous options of getting from one place to another that don't involve the dangerous, over-priced, over-taxing, over-polluting, personal transportation device known as the automobile. Articles by two local writers whom I admire, Blair Kamin, and Lynn Becker, I believe slightly overstated the issue when they compared the Brown Line Flyover to the massively destructive public works campaigns of Robert Moses in New York City and Richard J. Daley in Chicago. If I could be convinced that this project would significantly improve Chicago's transit system, even at the cost of sacrificing some buildings, I would wholeheartedly support it.

However looking at the matter from a practical, cost/benefit perspective, I have to seriously question whether spending money that could be used far more constructively, displacing homes and businesses, and destroying several buildings, some of them over 100 years old, some of them not even ten years old in a vibrant community, is worth it in order to possibly shave off a few seconds of travel time for commuters.

Remember folks, I'm one of those commuters, not somebody who lives in the affected neighborhood complaining about change. Personally I have everything to gain and nothing to lose if the Brown Line Flyover is built, that is with one exception:

To me the greatest fallacy is the assertion that if the Flyover is built, it would enable the CTA to run more trains over the three lines impacted. From my experience as I previously stated, the system in its current state south of Clark Junction, simply cannot efficiently handle the number of trains it has running at the present time. Unless most of the changes I stated above are enacted, how on earth will it be able to handle more traffic?

The answer is simple, it won't, and I'm afraid that unless plans can be put in place that will make the entire system run more efficiently, the Brown Line Flyover will only create more traffic problems than it will solve. Without those plans in place, in addition to the destruction of part of a neighborhood and the homes and livelihoods of its residents, I can't help but believe that the Brown Line Flyover is a foolish idea.

Two inches?

We here in Chicago are feeling not a little smug these days as news reports coming from the great city of Atlanta tell us that city came to a standstill this week because of two inches of snow. In Chicago, an incapacitating snowfall is measured in feet not in inches so it does seem a little ridiculous to us that two measly inches would cause such a fuss.

Chicago this month has had its own problems with the severe winter, schools and places of business have closed due to unusually cold temperatures. Of course cold and snow of any kind is unusual in the Sun Belt; consequently cities like Atlanta are not equipped to deal with the white stuff. The entire city I'm told has all of three trucks equipped with snow plowing apparatus, and folks there have little experience driving on snow and ice, not to mention adequate clothing for sub-freezing temps. Consequently many Atlantans were stranded in their cars for up to 24 hours in the cold, trying to get home from work. Before we get too cheeky up here in Chi-town about our friends' plight in the Peach State, we have to remember it's all relative. I have no doubt that people in places like Minneapolis and Winnipeg are laughing at us right now for bitching and moaning about our chilly weather.

But two inches, really?

Sorry, I got a little carried away. A city after all can't be expected to come through unscathed whenever there's a once in fifty year weather event. I'm reminded of the 1979 blizzard in Chicago. Over a period of three days, about 200 feet of snow fell on this city. OK that's a bit of an exaggeration. Anyway the mayor at the time, Michael Bilandic was asked why the city was so slow in dealing with the snow problem. His answer, "what snow problem?", cost him his job. I can still see the famous campaign commercial of his soon-to-be successor, Jane Byrne. She wasted no time taking advantage of Bilandic's miscue by standing outside in the middle of the blizzard promising voters that if she were elected mayor, it would never snow again. She won the election and gosh darn it, we haven't had that much snow since. The other result of that blizzard is this: such is the fear of a repeat of the Bilandic fiasco, at the mere mention of the possibility of a trace of snow, the sitting mayor orders the entire fleet of plows and salt spreaders onto the streets. This city dumps so much salt on the streets in the winter that you can literally taste it in the air. It's not uncommon to see more salt on the streets than snow, although rumors of children in Chicago building saltmen are urban legend.

That's beginning to change. Due to budgetary constraints, we simply don't have as much money to spend on salt as we used to. It's mere speculation, but since our current mayor has aspirations other than being mayor for life, perhaps he's not quite so gung ho about dumping salt before the snow even starts to fall. A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, we got about a foot of snow (no exaggeration) and at least in my neighborhood, there were no plows to be seen for most of the day. Still, people managed to get out, walking and driving about town without too much fuss. Of course most people in this town at least own a snow shovel.

My guess is that most people in Atlanta don't. Still, two inches?

I was transfixed on the TV while eating lunch today. The entire broadcast dealt with Atlanta's snow problem. There were helicopter shots of highways filled with stranded vehicles, people checking in to hotels after abandoning their vehicles, and live coverage of the Governor of Georgia apologizing to his constituents at a press conference for the chaos that ensued after their ahem, snowstorm. He's up for election later this year  and my guess is that the press conference was largely damage control. While politicians can't be blamed for bad weather, all indications point to the fact that the city of Atlanta and the State of Georgia screwed up:

• Turns out there was a severe ice storm a few years back in the area with much the same results. 
• This storm had been predicted for many days, heck I even knew it was coming thanks to a Facebook friend, so there was plenty of time to prepare. 
• When the storm began, the city advised businesses to send their employees home early without any thought of staggering release times, meaning that everyone was out on the roads at exactly the time the storm was at is worst.

But it's a double edged sword. Had government officials told people not to come in to work at all in anticipation of bad weather and the storm had proven not to be severe, you can bet there would have been hell to pay due to lost production and revenue from those businesses. It's a crap shoot and this time the local and state officials lost.

A few years ago, we had a bad storm that dumped between two and three feet (again, no exaggeration) on the city. Everybody knew it was coming for about a week, and almost everybody was prepared. Still, several motorists were stranded on Lake Shore Drive in snow drifts that literally covered cars up to their windshields and higher. Few however felt much sympathy for those people as they simply defied logic by driving that day.

That's not to say the folks in Atlanta should have been more prepared; the real culprit is the fact that Atlanta and so many other cities like it are designed around the automobile, allowing for little or no other transportation options. Here in Chicago when we were confronted with the very real threat of a major blizzard hitting later in the day, most everybody who elected not to stay home that day, chose not to drive to work. That meant even if they got stranded on say, a bus, they could get off and walk to a transportation alternative, or simply walk home. That is not an option in a city like Atlanta where most people live several miles from where they work and have no option other than driving.

The good news is that despite being terribly inconvenienced, people in Atlanta experienced something we experience up here in the Snow Belt more often: the misfortune of a community bringing people together. There were lots of stories of people helping out strangers by opening their doors to them, by bringing food, or simply commiserating with one another. Here is a link to a feature made by the Atlanta CBS affiliate featuring the husband of a friend of mine among others, helping out. I remember three years ago when we had our last big blizzard, people were nicer to each other. I have nothing but good memories of that experience and I imagine given some distance from the event, most Atlantans will feel the same. Nothing brings people together more than shared misery. As they say, if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger.

I close with some words of wisdom from Facebook. Yes between all the babble and photographs of cats you can find some real wisdom there. One friend posted that he found the terms describing our recent arctic blast, namely "Polar Vortex" and Chiberia" to be rather unsatisfactory. One of his friends replied: "I just call it January." The winner came from another friend who posted this:

If you're not homeless, please don't complain about the weather.

I rather liked that one. Try to stay warm everybody.

Farewell Michael...

The end of the year causes most of us to sit back and take account of the events of our lives, our communities, and the world over the past year. Most of us take the good with the bad, and we consider a year to be good if we come out slightly ahead.

For Chicago, my home town, it's been a year of losses. It was a particularly bad year for architectural preservation as we lost the beautiful and historic St. James Church in Bronzeville. We also lost the battle to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital which is being demolished as I write this. Perhaps worse than the loss of the building itself was the devastating precedent of the ruling by the city's Landmark's Commission, which declared the building worthy of landmark status then in the next breath, determined that economic considerations trumped that status, clearing the way for the building's destruction. After that disastrous ruling, no building in this city is safe from the wrecking ball.

More mundane to be sure but also worth noting was the loss of the enormous baseball that proudly announced the presence of the former Thillen's Stadium at Devon and Kedzie on Chicago's far north side.

Chicago lost a long time institution this year as all of the Dominick's grocery stores closed their doors for good this past Saturday, leaving thousands of workers unemployed during the holidays. Some of the locations have been purchased by other businesses but the vast majority of them will remain shuttered for the foreseeable future. As many of these stores anchored shopping centers, the businesses that shared those centers no doubt will suffer as a result. And a city already well known for its "food deserts" will have one fewer source of fresh food at reasonable prices in neighborhoods that can't afford to be without them.

There is one more loss to the city that I'd like to note. Today was the last day on the job for a wonderful man who for 36 years was the operator of CTA trains, mostly along the Red Line which runs almost the entire length of Chicago from 95th Street on the south all the way up to its northern boundary at Howard Street. His name is Michael Powell. I first met Michael about ten years ago as I was taking my young son to his grandmother's apartment downtown. As I did as a child, my boy liked to sit up front to watch the operator drive the train. Most of the operators I think appreciated the attention but for the most part kept quiet as the company rules prohibit them from talking to passengers while the train is in motion. Given that by now he's finished his last run, I can safely say that Michael had little regard for that rule. My boy and I learned Michael's life story that day, especially his love of trains. He never wore the standard issue uniform, as you can see in the picture he preferred the more traditional striped engineer's uniform and cap, his "Choo Choo Charlie outfit" as he liked to call it. If anyone was born for a particular job, it was Michael. I was shocked when he told me earlier this month that he was about to retire.

Michael Powell on his penultimate run

Another policy that Michael had little regard for was the application of the recorded voice of the CTA that calls out stops and lets the passengers know, as if they didn't know it already, that there was a delay. On Michael's runs, you seldom heard that smooth but impersonal voice. Instead you heard Michael's friendly, high-pitched voice commenting on the events of the day, or just informally shooting the breeze in a stream of conscious manner. As Michael delivered his train into the Loop during rush hour, he would typically bid adieu to his passengers with: "May the Force be with you" or other popular aphorisms. Sometimes he would simply say: "goodbye and have nice day." Never would anyone of Michael's regular riders think for a moment that he didn't mean that from the bottom of his heart.

Michael's humor could be cornball but every once in a while he hit the nail right on the head. My favorite experience of riding aboard one of his runs was the day we had a blizzard that dumped about three feet of snow on the city. The storm was so bad that most businesses discharged their employees even before the first snowflake fell. Since we were in the middle of a project, my colleagues and I chose to stay at work and by the time we left, about a foot of snow was already on the ground. Needless to say, the train platform was crammed with cold and frustrated passengers who had no idea how long the journey home would take. After what seemed like an eternity, a train pulled into the station. As luck would have it, it was Michael's train. Although the train was packed like sardines, Michael told everyone to keep calm, that we were all in this together, and that by cooperating, we'd all get home in due time. His charming sense of humor calmed everybody down and soon he had the passengers eating out of his hand. I'd say the blizzard reached it's apex right around the time our train got to the Sheridan station, just north of Wrigley Field. The unfortunate people who got off at that station were hit by a tremendous gust of wind and snow; frankly it was a bit comical as the poor folks looked as if they didn't know what hit them. "Don't laugh..." Michael told the rest of us over the loudspeaker, "...pretty soon, that will be you."

Luck was with me again today as I left home unusually late this being New Year's Eve. It just so happened that I boarded Michael's train for one last time. I heard that familiar voice and remembered him telling me a few weeks ago of his imminent retirement. Something was strange however. That canned CTA voice kept popping up on the loudspeaker, much more often than it ever did during Michael's runs. Just every once in a while, Michael broke in to say "all aboard, thanks for riding." When our train dipped into the subway after Fullerton, that familiar voice broke in again saying, "My name is Michael and I'm about to retire after 36 years. It's been my pleasure to serve you." There was a collective groan from the passengers. Someone aboard our car informed us that in the first car people were signing cards for Michael. Just about everybody got off and headed there to sign his card and wish him well.

So did I.

I got off at my stop, shook his hand and said good bye. He told me that he'd miss me. I said that I'd miss him too.

All choked up, I never got the chance to thank him. It was always a pleasure to ride with him.

Happy New Year Michael, and may the force be with you.

This morning's commute...

A beautiful, sunny, ice-free morning seemed perfect for my first bike ride to work since I hung it up for winter in the middle of January. Wouldn't ya know it, about 2.5 miles into the ride, my back tire blows. Being not fully equipped to change the flat, yes it does pay to be prepared, I hauled my sorry self, and my sorry bike about a mile to the L.

Not only was I not prepared for the breakdown,  I wasn't prepared for riding the L either as I left the book I had been reading at home. So, equipped with a Red Eye, (I had to have SOMETHING to read after all), and a bad attitude, I rode public transit, as I have for the last two and one half months to work.

Pigeons did not grace my train this morning, instead something even more unusual, an honest to goodness major league sports franchise mascot. Now before I had children, I would have been aloof to such nonsense. Priding myself on being a purist, I'd have ignored the person dressed up in a ridiculous costume as well as his (or perhaps her, I couldn't tell) companions, two young women who were handing out key chains and foam fingers advertising their team. Back in the day I didn't approve of things such as mascots, the game was all that mattered, mascots were for, well, children.

All that's changed of course, my son who is now 12, is a sport's maniac, and much to my chagrin, is also obsessed with the mascots. He compares the attributes of various team mascots and continues to ask me what the mascots were like when I was his age. Somehow he can't quite comprehend that there were no mascots during my poor deprived childhood so very long ago. OK I vaguely recall Bennie the Bull from the seventies when I was a teenager. Back in those days Benny didn't have what you'd call a schtick, he was just a guy wearing red pajamas and a bull's head, who walked around the old Chicago Stadium and shook fans' hands during Chicago Bulls games. Anybody could have done it, and in fact I know a guy who did just that. His friend, the regular Benny T. Bull was either sick or hungover, and asked this guy if he would be Benny for a day. He did, and nobody knew the difference.

Today, being the team mascot is a big deal, and much effort, training and I'm sure money goes into the job. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered college degrees in the subject.

For Christmas last year I bought my son a packet of tickets to the Chicago Wolves, a minor league hockey team, and we've been attending their games on a regular basis. They have a mascot called Skates, a guy (I'm pretty sure it's a guy), dressed head to toe in what else, a wolf costume. During the intermissions, he skates around dodging the Zambonis whipping the crowd into a frenzy by teasing them with tee shirts he either throws or sling shots into the seats. My boy was fortunate enough to catch one of those shirts last year and it remains one of his most cherished possessions. I too have been sucked into the act and have a soft spot deep down in my heart for Skates and his antics, as I know these cherished days with my son will not last forever.

Anyway, the creature I saw today was Southpaw, the mascot for the Chicago White Sox. I can't tell exactly what Southpaw is supposed to be, the best description I can give is a friendly looking, furry green monster in an oversized White Sox uniform. I took a key chain from one of the young ladies, a foam finger from the other, asked them who the Sox were playing on Opening Day (something I should have already known), then warned Southpaw not to hit his head as he walked out the door of the train.

Something about seeing that green monster made me forget all about my up to that point miserable morning. Can't wait to get home to tell the kids I saw him.

But I'm keeping the keychain and foam finger for myself.

Passenger Pigeons

Two legged passengers on the L are not an unusual site, unless they happen have two wings as well. That was the case this morning as a pair of pigeons hopped aboard our train at Howard Street. Since the train was an express, this pair of dark feathered Rock Doves would be traveling with us until Belmont, a roughly fifteen minute trip of five and one half miles. Usually when a winged passenger hops aboard a train, the paying riders make a fuss and shoo it off before the doors close. A few weeks ago I saw a man go into near hysterics when a pigeon briefly entered the train only to be unceremoniously escorted out the door. The way the man carried on long after the bird was kicked off, you'd have thought a tiger had boarded the train.

That wasn't the case today, these two birds made themselves at home as a couple of human passengers gave them some bread crumbs, while others just smiled and took pictures of them with their cellphones. No one seemed particularly disturbed by the well behaved avian passengers whom I assume did not pay the fare. As the train approached Belmont, the birds headed toward the door and waited patiently as the train pulled into the station. To help them along on their journey, the man who fed them gently encouraged them to be on their way, but I don't think it was necessary. Like the panhandlers who occasionally work the trains, these most urban of birds knew exactly how long to test the patience of their fellow passengers.

Presumably they hung around the trendy Belmont/Halsted neighborhood for a while before catching the train for home. It wouldn't have been a problem for them of course, pigeons have a perfect sense of direction. 

During the commute...

There was a story on the network news the other day about the amount of time commuters spend in their cars. In one year the reporter said, if you took the cumulative time an average driver spent in the car stopped in traffic, it would equal the amount of time if would take to play nine 18 hole rounds of golf. It turns out Washington DC has the worst traffic in the United States. There a drive that would take one half hour with no traffic, typically takes about three hours.

Humph I thought self righteously, why don't those folks just take public transportation?

I got my answer yesterday, twice.

On the way to work a young man was listening to music through his ear buds. The difference between him and the twenty other people on the train listening to their music was that his music was so loud it could be heard throughout the train. You couldn't hear all his music however, just the percussion part which was the driving beat of some kind of dance music that carried on at the same cadence and tempo for at least fifteen minutes non-stop. It wasn't ear piercing loud mind you, just incessant, akin to Chinese water torture. It didn't help that the train was delayed for about five minutes on the bridge over the river. The thought of opening a door and jumping into the frigid water thirty feet below did cross my mind.

I have several transportation options to get home and choosing the best one can be a bit of a crap shoot. Last night the subway seemed to be the best option as it quickly gets me half way home where I have the option of hopping aboard an express train. There's now a message board at that half-way station which posts the arrival time of next train. It turned out there wouldn't be another express for at least ten minutes, so I hopped back aboard the original train which would probably beat that extra ten minutes.

It was the wrong choice. About three stations from home my train stopped. The driver got on the intercom to say there was a train ahead of us which should be moving shortly. It didn't. After about ten minutes (it seemed longer) the canned voice of the CTA told us that we were experiencing a delay. Pardon the expression but, no shit Sherlock. Just then, the express train passed us on unobstructed tracks. To make matters worse, the woman sitting next to me began a phone conversation with her estranged partner, telling her and the rest of the train that she couldn't live with her anymore because she the partner, was sick and in desperate need of psychological help. Turns out the partner had a penchant of throwing furniture at my seat-mate. "Yes I know I do bad things too but at least I don't throw furniture at you" she said.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. All I can say to those people who complain about sitting in their cars in stop and go traffic wishing they were out on the links is this:

"See what you're missing?"

Cable Cars

The fantastic site Forgotten Chicago, has this piece on a largely forgotten piece of Chicago history, its cable car system.

Legend has it that Andrew Hallidie, an engineer and manufacturer of wire rope, came up with the idea for cable cars one day while walking up one of San Franciso's steep hills. In the middle of a snowstorm, he saw a team of horses struggling to pull a streetcar up the slippery grade, then lose their grip on the pavement, sending them and the car and its passengers sliding and crashing at the bottom of the hill.

Hallidie's idea was to propel the cars up and down the hills by means of an onboard mechanical gripping system that a "gripman" would engage onto a continuously moving underground cable. Hallidie's invention is a classic example of 19th Century brilliance and audacity. Building such a system was an enormous undertaking, requiring a tremendous amount of maintenance. But it was a brilliant solution that worked perfectly well for the absurdly steep hills of the City by the Bay. As it does to this day as three lines still exist transporting mostly tourists.

Even without hills, the system worked pretty well in Chicago as well, ours would become the largest cable car system built anywhere. It wouldn't last long however as the cumbersome system was replaced by the much simpler system of self-propelled streetcars in 1906 after only 24 years of operation.

The Forgotten Chicago article lists some extant remnants of the old cable car system, including vehicle barns and power plants. These buildings contained the enormous steam engines with their gigantic pulleys that set miles of cable in motion. One of these buildings stands today at LaSalle and Illinois Streets,  you may know it as the building that once housed Michael Jordan's Restaurant.

The most famous remnant of the cable car system however is the term we use to describe our downtown. The term "the Loop" was originally coined to describe the loop of cable cars that once circled Chicago's central business district, an area much larger than the area defined by today's L tracks.

An interesting fact I recently learned about San Francisco's cable cars is that one of the early investors in the system was one Abner Doubleday, who is today most famous as being the man mistakenly credited with the invention of baseball. He may not have invented the National Pastime but among other significant achievements, was indeed a big player in what would become one of the coolest transportation systems ever invented.

If you ever find yourself in San Francisco, by all means treat yourself to a cable car ride. If you dare, don't sit inside but stand on the platform and hang over the edge as the little Powell-Hyde car makes its way up Russian Hill. It may sound hokey but it is indeed one of the greatest urban experiences anywhere.

A case for walking

Urban planner Jeff Speck has written a new book called Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America One Step at a Time. I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet but here is a capsule review from the site Brain Pickings. Here is an interview with him from the blog DC.Streets.

Speck's views are nothing new, he is channelling the work of Jane Jacobs who wrote the groundbreaking book The Death and Life of Great American Cities back in the early sixties. In Speck's words:

We’ve known for three decades how to make livable cities — after forgetting for four — yet we’ve somehow not been able to pull it off. Jane Jacobs, who wrote in 1960, won over the planners by 1980. But the planners have yet to win over the city.

Jacobs' startling idea was that cities as they had been built for millennia actually worked, and that two generations of "progressive" urban planning led to lifeless, boring cities. As Speck points out today, Jacobs' work turned out to be prophetic; fifty years after the publication of her book, people are finding old fashioned, big, congested, walkable cities very attractive places in which to live. In contrast, newer cities emphasizing open space and convenience built around the automobile are falling into disfavor. Yet we continue to build them.

Speck's argument is that while planners today do accept Jacobs' work, they continue to answer the demand to design cities to be the servant of the automobile rather than the other way around. The typical response in this country to complaints about bad traffic is to build more roads. And the inevitable result of more road construction is this: more people getting into their cars creating even more congestion. The solution to more congestion is, guess what, more roads.

Now take Chicago. Anyone who has lived here for a while, knows that driving in this city has progressively become more and more of a hassle in recent years. Congestion on the roads has gotten much worse not to mention that parking, especially in the Loop has become prohibitively expensive. When I drive I admit myself to cursing the bad condition of the roads, the seemingly endless construction delays, and the ridiculously expensive parking. Conventional wisdom might say this is a bad thing; the hassle factor keeps people away from the city. Adding traffic lanes to ease congestion and building more parking lots in the Loop would certainly reduce at least some of that hassle.

But not so fast. It is not necessary to drive in Chicago. This is one of the very few places to live in the United States where owning a car is not a prerequisite. True our public transportation system leaves much to be desired, but it is a functional system just the same that is light years ahead of those of most other cities in this country. What's more, there are transportation alternatives in Chicago that go beyond public transportation. Chicago remains a very walkable city and day by day strives to become more bike friendly.

Reducing the number of cars on the road seems to be the most reasonable solution to our traffic congestion problems. Other big cities around the world have recognized this and have proposed charging drivers a fee for the privilege of driving in their central business districts. Chicago seems to be doing it inadvertently. Bad planning and budget restraints have resulted in the crumbling infrastructure of our highways. Former mayor Richard M. Daley's sale of parking meter revenue to a private concern has come under a great deal of scrutiny, not the least of which is the fact that the company that now owns the right to charge us to park on the city's streets has continually raised their parking fees. "Unfair" cry the critics, including myself at times. But in reality, these cases of what seem to be bad policy, may in fact be working in our favor. If people insist on driving downtown, which they certainly continue to do, they must pay a price in both time and money. Those who don't care to pay that price, find a plethora of alternatives to get around town, including walking.

Building cities around the automobile creates an endless cycle of road construction, increased automobile usage, and congestion. Building cities around the pedestrian creates another cycle: as more people walk around the city, more amenities for them are created. The more amenities, the more vibrant and interesting the city becomes, which attracts more people. Speck's conclusion is that generalists such as mayors, who have a vision the direction the city should take are better to be in charge of urban planning rather than specialists like public works commissioners, who are more concerned with solving specific problems, such as traffic congestion.

Not surprisingly, Jeff Speck cites New York, San Francisco and Chicago as examples of vibrant, walkable cities in the U.S. that have a bright future. Whether by design or just dumb luck, we end up ahead in the long run by making driving less attractive.

In case you're interested, here's an interactive map of the United States that describes state by state how people commute to work. Not too many surprises.

Today's commute...

I took the Metra Electric commuter train down to Hyde Park this morning. Whenever I ride that train my thoughts go back to a dear friend, John Mahtesian. John was a wonderful photographer whose work was filled with keen wit, a profound sense of humanity, and not a trace of cynicism. That's why you probably never heard of him.

John lived in Hyde Park and on the morning of October 30, 1972 as was his routine, he hopped aboard a train at 57th Street for his daily commute to work. Back then that rail line was owned and operated by the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. John entered the last car of a Loop bound train and spotted a seat in the rear half of a brand new double decked Highliner car, but another man beat him to it. The man flashed John a little victory smirk as he jumped into the coveted seat. Since there were no other seats available, John moved over to the vestibule area to stand in the center of the car.

That seemingly insignificant event saved John's life, and no doubt cost the other man his. Minutes after boarding, their train overshot the 27th Street Station. The engineer got permission from the conductor to back into the station, however the crew did not signal properly and an express (carrying a co-worker of John's), slammed into the train at a high rate of speed. The rear of the car where the man beat John to his seat was obliterated. John was severely injured, in fact he was the last survivor to be removed from the wreckage some six hours later. 44 people died in that crash, to this day the worst rail accident in this city's history.

John was fully recovered by the time I first met him eight years later, in fact the insurance settlement he received for his injuries enabled him to embark on the first of many journeys to the land of his parents, Armenia, where he made some of his most memorable photographs. Every time I ride that train I think of that terrible tragedy and of my old friend.

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Going home from Hyde Park is always a bit of an ordeal no matter how I do it. The last time I drove, it took me about two hours to get home. Today's trip involved a bus to a train to another train to a bus. Not so bad, it took only about 1.5 hours. A strange thing happened at 35th Street. The train on the opposite platform opened its doors and everybody got out and boarded our train. It turned out the other train was from a different line that accidentally got switched over to our line. In other words, the train got lost. That was a first for me, not to mention an unpleasant first for all the passengers aboard the wayward train. They had to backtrack on our train to the last common station for the two lines. The lady who sat next to me went on about how this was her first time riding the L, about how awful an experience it was, and how she just cut her pinky toe open and it was bleeding all over the place. It didn't help when we got into the next station where her train was waiting, but completely jammed.

My second train was an express. The woman who shared my seat and her teenage son debated that fact as it was moving at a snail's pace. For the entire ride, mom and son complained about the speed of the train, even getting a fellow passenger involved in the conversation, wondering aloud why this express train was traveling so slow.

I could have told them the tracks were old and the summer heat didn't help, as a result the trains had to move slowly for safety reasons.

I should have told them to be happy, things could have been so much worse.

But instead I kept my mouth shut, just doing my best to enjoy the ride.

Another conspiracy theory put to rest...

Here's a misleading article that appears in today's Huffington Post titled Creeps and Weirdos: The Auto Industry Agenda for Keeping You on Four Wheels. 

The article was picked up by Nation of Change, a left leaning political organization who has without my permission added me to their mailing list. In other words they're spamming me. Anyway, the article starts out by mentioning a guy in LA who doesn't himself drive but parks his bike in his rented parking space. His building's management wrote and told him the spot's for cars only and to cease and desist with parking the bike in said space. To me that seems a trifle silly, but there probably exists a reasonable, amicable solution for both parties, not something worth basing an article on in a national publication.

Then the article brings up two print ads for GM that appeared in college papers at one time or other. One ad consists of a photograph of a bus whose destination sign reads "Creeps and Weirdos" with an inset reading "Luckily there's an alternative" and goes on to describe reasonable rates for purchasing a Chevy Cavalier. The other ad features a photograph of a guy on a bike shielding his face from an attractive woman in a car. The ad implies the sly smile on her face means she's smirking at him for riding a bike and not driving. The copy reads: "Reality Sucks, luckily the GM College Discount Doesn't", then adds details about buying a car and a pickup for low rates.

The Huff Post article excoriates GM for trying to use "shame" to manipulate consumers away from using means of transportation other than the automobile. It goes on to list all the obvious reasons why we should shun our cars in favor of those very alternative means such as bikes and public transportation.

Fair enough, I've been saying exactly the same things about alternative transportation on this blog for nearly three years. What the Huff Post article does not mention is that both ads, the bus one which appeared in Vancouver six years ago, and the bike one which appeared more recently in a few college rags in the US, were both roundly criticized by readers and the plug was pulled on both of them almost as soon as they first appeared.

Now I'm as much of an advocate of riding bikes and taking public transportation as the next guy, but frankly I don't take these ads at all seriously, nor am I offended by them in the least. To me they're just cheeky ads that are trying their best to get folks' attention and get them to buy their product. That's what advertising is all about.

After all, all's fair in love, war and advertising, and if people are dumb enough to let an ad convince them that they should get off their bikes and into a car, well shame on them.

All I can say is let the buyer beware and let's lighten up for gosh sake.

A little landmark

On a jaunt down to Hyde Park last month, I grabbed this cellphone photo of the oldest extant L station in Chicago, built in 1892. From the Landmark plaque visible at the left of the building:

Built as part of Chicago's original elevated line connecting downtown with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, this is one of the oldest surviving mass transit stations in the United States and is the last surviving example of the City's original "bow-fronted," Arts-and-Crafts-styled street-level stationhouses. The station and its accompanying ornamental street overpass spanning Garfield Boulevard also represent a rare example of graceful transit design intended to relate to the City's famed park boulevard system.

As you can see from the quite ungraceful roller doors on both sides of the canopy, this station has served a very different purpose from what it was intended for a number of years. Those hideous doors and numerous coats of paint can't disguise the care of the design that was common in the day when public transit was privately owned and had to compete with other conveyances for riders. Back in the early days of the L, the trains were pulled by noisy, soot belching, steam locomotives and it's not hard to imagine that it took some convincing to get riders to climb aboard those trains some twenty feet up in the sky. For those early riders it must have been an exhilarating, if not harrowing experience.

The station was designed by Myron Church, and was designated a city landmark in 2001, the same year that it was replaced by the new station across Garfield Boulevard. Here is Chicago-L.org's take on the station.