The Exploratory Advanced Research Program

The Impact of Automated Transit, Pedestrian, and Bicycling Facilities on Urban Travel Patterns Summary Report

The Study Neighborhoods and Transit Stations

The research team selected the four neighborhoods in the study to represent two broad conditions of land-use mix and population density and two broad conditions of household income to ensure that the research findings could be generalized to a variety of urban conditions. Each neighborhood was served by at least one CTA station, with service frequencies in the range of 7 to 15 minutes. See figure 1 for the location and housing density of each neighborhood.

© University of Michigan
Figure 1. Locations and household density of the four metropolitan Chicago neighborhoods on which the study was based.

Within each neighborhood, the research team selected a transit station and mapped a buffer zone of 1.5-mi (2.4-km) radius around it. This zone provided the population for the simulations. Within the buffer zone, the researchers chose two smaller focus areas within 0.5 mi (0.8 km) of the station, A and B, on which to base the project’s survey. The A and B focus areas surround two different approaches to the CTA station to facilitate planning, designing, and illustrating the potential improvements. Each station approach included a street intersection close to the station that became the site of the transit, cycling, and urban design improvements that were described and illustrated in survey materials. An example of a land-use map with buffer zone and focus area demarcated is shown in figure 2, with the two approaches numbered “01” and “02.” The following sections provide a brief description of each neighborhood. The research team obtained the neighborhood demographic information from publicly available sources and survey responses.

© University of Michigan
Figure 2. Land-use map of the buffer zone centered around Pilsen’s Hoyne/Damen transit station. [NOTE: The highlighted area contains the A and B focus areas included in the survey, and the station area improvement sites are marked “01” and “02.”]

Village of Skokie

The Skokie/Morton Grove neighborhood, served by the Yellow Line, is an area with predominantly low-density residential land use and socioeconomic composition of primarily middle-to-high income, ranking high on measures of suburban living quality. The area has a complete street network, although some fragmentation is introduced by highways and railroads. The Skokie station offers connections with four bus lines, indoor bike parking, and a park-and-ride facility, and it also serves as the Greyhound bus terminal. Service frequency varies between 10 and 15 minutes during weekdays from 5 a.m. to 11:15 p.m. On weekends, frequency is every 15 minutes between 6:30 a.m. and 11:15 p.m. There are no other stations within the buffer zone around the station, and residents are highly dependent on cars for transportation.

Town of Evanston

Evanston, served by the Purple Line, is a mixed-use area with a socioeconomic composition of primarily middle-to-high income. Evanston has a fully connected street network. The focus area covers both low-density residential areas toward the south and a more mixed-use and high-density downtown area around the Davis station, a downtown stop on the Purple Line that was selected for the study. Service frequency varies from 7 to 14 minutes. The station offers connections with seven bus lines and was one of four test sites for the Active Transit Station Signs program, which provides real-time transit and traffic message signs that display travel time, next departing train, delay, fare, and other CTA-programmed information. The buffer zone around the CTA Davis station includes six other stations on the Purple Line as well as a Metra commuter rail stop. The two focus areas selected were a residential neighborhood and a residential neighborhood with an institutional anchor.

Town of Cicero

Cicero, served by CTA’s Pink Line, is an area with predominantly residential land use and a socioeconomic composition of low-to-middle income. Like Pilsen, Cicero is fragmented by industrial sites, but its residential areas are lower in density. The focus CTA station, 54th/Cermak, is the last stop on the Pink Line and offers connections with five bus lines, indoor bike parking, and a park-and-ride facility. Service frequency varies from 7.5 to 15 minutes. The focus area is dominantly residential and excludes the industrial areas and the higher income neighborhoods to the west. The surroundings of the 54th/Cermak station are more residential compared with those of the three other stations located in the buffer zone.

Neighborhood of Pilsen

Located in the lower west side of Chicago and served by the CTA Pink and Blue Lines, Pilsen is a mixed-use area with a socioeconomic composition of low-to-middle income. Pilsen has high-density residential areas and large industrial areas traversed only by major arterial roads. The focus CTA station in Pilsen, Hoyne/Damen on the Pink Line, has indoor bike parking and connects with two CTA bus lines. Service frequency varies from 8 to 15 minutes. The buffer zone around the station includes five other stations on the Pink Line and one on the Blue Line. An industrial area on the south and a university-related area of development in the northeast were not part of the focus area.