Tag Archives: Chicago

The CTA’s RPM project

The Chicago Transit Authority (the CTA) recently finished work on the main component of its Red and Purple Modernization Project (RPM). The RPM project is an attempt to modernize and add capacity to the North Side Red Line, the CTA’s … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Rail infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Neighborhood types in Chicago, 2020

The maps below present a classification of Chicago’s 2020 residential census tracts based on multivariate analysis. This approach (sometimes called social area analysis or factorial ecology in geography and sociology) is often used to classify small areas in cities. The … Continue reading

Posted in Urban | Tagged | Leave a comment

The geography of transport choices in small areas of big American cities

Here are four census-tract-level maps showing the “modal split” of journeys to work by workers 16 and over during the 2015/2019 period in the central parts of the New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco areas. All these maps … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Change in population by “race” and Hispanic/Latinx status, Chicago area, 2010-2020

Here are maps showing the change in Chicago-area population by “race” and Hispanic/Latinx status between 2010 and 2020. The numbers are from the 2010 Census and from the 2020 redistricting data released by the Census Bureau on August 12, 2021. … Continue reading

Posted in Urban | Tagged | 5 Comments

Change in population, Chicago area, 2010-2020

Here are maps showing the change in population by census tract between 2010 and 2020 in the Chicago area. The numbers are from the full 2010 Census and from the 2020 redistricting data released by the Census Bureau on August … Continue reading

Posted in Urban | Tagged | Leave a comment

New York’s “open streets” vs. Chicago’s “shared streets”

I’ve reported in previous blog posts (here and here) on Chicago’s “shared streets” (which are comparable to what are called “slow streets” in most other cities). These are streets open only to local motor-vehicle traffic and intended chiefly for pedestrian … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Pedestrian infrastructure | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Northeastern Lincoln Park in Chicago temporarily becomes a little less car-ridden

Many parks in large American cities seem to be set up more for automobile travel than for getting around on foot or even by bicycle. An example is Belle Isle Park in Detroit. The park has a very distinguished history. … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Pedestrian infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicago River Trail: forty years to build a thirteen-mile recreational path in Chicago?

There has been talk of building a recreational path along the Chicago River for decades. The Friends of the Chicago River, a lobbying group, has been urging the construction of such a path since its inception in 1979. The second … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Pedestrian infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicago creates yet another “shared street”

Chicago opened another “shared street” a couple of weeks ago: a 1.1-mile-long stretch of Dickens Avenue between Clark Street and Racine Avenue. Chicago uses the term “shared street” for what, in many American cities, would be called a “slow street”: … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Pedestrian infrastructure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Chicago gets a “slow street,” sort of

Overcrowded sidewalks—a bad idea in a time of social distancing—have led many American cities to start a “slow streets” program, in which pedestrians and cyclists are encouraged to use the roadways of certain streets. Chicago came to this movement rather … Continue reading

Posted in Urban, Transportation, Pedestrian infrastructure | Tagged | 2 Comments