In effort to instill more efficiency, dependability and predictability into the bus service portion of its overall transit system, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has announced its intention to begin work on a project that will effectively double the present 3-mph average bus speed in a pre-designated area of the city’s downtown to be known as Loop Link.
The new system will consist of a 2-mile bus rapid transit area serving Washington, Madison, Clinton and Canal Streets comprising bus-only lanes and rapid transit-style boarding stations. The $13.8 million construction project will debut later this year, although construction itself will likely stretch well into 2016.
A Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) spokesperson said the work will result in temporary lane closures and reductions, which will begin on portions of Madison and Clinton in mid-March, followed by Washington, Canal and Jackson come spring, and Randolph Street in late summer.
Commensurate with this project is the goal of reorganizing the streets of downtown to enable foot and bicycle traffic more space. It is hoped that increasing bus ride times for the approximately 21,000 bus commuters who come through the designated area of the Loop each day will reduce congestion, thus easing bicycle and foot traffic’s need to be held up behind slow or unnecessarily stacked buses.
The hope at CTA is that bus rapid transit will catch on quickly, despite the 18 months of construction which will mean that general traffic on several Loop streets will lose at least one lane—permanently.
"The central Loop bus rapid transit has got to come out of the box as something that people are impressed with and that they can really feel the change,” said Peter Skosey, project advocate and executive vice president at the Metropolitan Planning Council. “And not only bus riders, but also motorists and others who today face a kind of chaotic mess on downtown streets.”
