RTA survey (Chicago, Schiller Park, Rosemont: home, transfer to, live)

[pvande55]

I read these and found it ludicrous. Regional Transit Survey Finds Customers Highly Satisfied with Service - Regional Transportation Authority
Among the more questionable results, 71% are satisfied with coordination of schedules between services for transfers, 75% with signs directing you to other services when transferring, and 75% Availability of transit throughout the region. One weaker area was parking, only 68% satisfied with that. My comments: Many times there are no signs whatsoever. Even at Mayfair, where you transfer to the Blue line, I have never seen any. Ditto with Prairie Crossing where two platforms enable a switch from North Central to Milwaukee North or vice versa. Transfers to PACE buses are available at Schiller Park and Rosemont, though the buses skip the station by a few blocks, but no signs exist at the stations. Schedules are seldom coordinated. Availability of transit? What a joke. According to the RTA's own map there are large areas without so much as a twice-a-day PACE bus. There is the moral equilvalent of a Chinese wall between the Northwest and Southwest suburbs, unless you want to take the scenic route through the loop. However the demographics are flawed in any case. It was mostly present, not potential, riders. 73% lived in the City of Chicago, only 10% outside Cook County, and 50% did not transfer between modes, what do they know about transfers? Another surprise was CTA riders more than Metra were dissatisfied with parking. I though parking was the big complaint with Metra. If the RTA surveyed those who didn't ride they would find a lot of complaints they don't want to hear. I guess the purpose was to find out whether a universal fare card was a good idea. Obviously not a high priority.

[chirack]

Actually the parking thing is not a surprise to me. The El generally lacks parking (yes there are parking lots on some lines at some stations but really not enough on the system as a whole) and there are lots more CTA riders than anything else. The Dan Ryan really lacks easy intergration with cars either via lot or easy to access Kiss and Ride. All you can do is drop someone off at the station risking tieing up traffic for a moment and walking into the 95th street station can be like playing a game of dodge em between all the cars and the busses.

[chirack]

IMHO, there might need a better breakdown of who uses what in the survey. Also check the details:
“ However, it should be noted that 51% of Metra customers did not feel the signage directing customers to other services was applicable to their trip; meanwhile, 27% of CTA respondents felt it was not applicable.”

Perhaps because they drove to the station and didn’t need to transfer to a bus? In the city driving to the station is usually more optional. I would prefer say driving to 95th street and using a safe lot over taking the bus home but driving there would present problems(no where to park!).

Also the burbs are a different beast that the city when it come to view on transit and on being able to walk. Compared to the CTA , PACE is rather bad at things other than being clean and on time.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chirack

Actually the parking thing is not a surprise to me. The El generally lacks parking (yes there are parking lots on some lines at some stations but really not enough on the system as a whole) and there are lots more CTA riders than anything else. The Dan Ryan really lacks easy intergration with cars either via lot or easy to access Kiss and Ride. All you can do is drop someone off at the station risking tieing up traffic for a moment and walking into the 95th street station can be like playing a game of dodge em between all the cars and the busses.

The "L" is NOT a commuter line and as such should NOT generally have parking. Mass transit is an extension of walking, not a car replacement. Adding parking near "L" lines instead of adding housing or office space would be a stupid, foolish, wasteful idea.