Is downtown Evanston the only truly walkable urban area in suburban Chicago?

[urza216]

These "entitlement programs" exist because wages aren't high enough to actually survive. If urban Americans actually were starving, there would be riots.. hence "entitelement programs".

[chitownperson]

At least they exist here.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by chitownperson

At least they exist here.

True.

[cubssoxfan]

Hey OP, are you still there? This post certainly "ran off the track"-sorry the pun, couldn't resist.
Why did you inquire about transit friendly places? Curiosity or are you moving this way?

[East-Mdw]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Born

Before anyone jumps on me, I'm not saying that it is, I'm asking if it is.

If there are any others, can someone please list them so I can check them out on Google Streetview.

Dear Alberta_Born:

You are probably overwhelmed with the many responses.
Yes, Evanston down town is one of the best suburbs that has the feel of an urban area. It is a vibrant town with many cultural, night life, and a great university plus beautiful (although freezing cold in winter) lake Michigan. Some pockets in Evanston can be dangerous to walk late at night. the rest might be too pricy. So,

Yes, there are many other walkable suburbs to Chicago that has a 'downtown' of its own. Question is:

1. how far away are you willing to live from Chicago.
2. the average price of these commuter town centers.
3. do you have other requirements: check out the crime rate. schools.

If you have a budget of rent or purchase (home or town house, condo...) then the recommendations will be more meaniningful.

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by cubssoxfan

And Park Ridge and Skokie and Wilmette and Cicero and Berwyn.

I live in Wilmette. Our downtown doesn't have much to recommend it. I go to downtown Evanston for almost everything.

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

I live in Wilmette. Our downtown doesn't have much to recommend it. I go to downtown Evanston for almost everything.

No doubt Evanston offers more and is larger scale. But knowing Wilmette is mellower, it still has a few places to shop, eat, grab a coffee. There are many suburbs that don't even have that; Schaumburg, Buffalo Grove come to mind (even though they have sidewalks and are "walkable")

[emathias]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I mean the nostalgia factor aside, does it really make sense to run a big empty train or bus around in circles? If the things ran on magic fairy dust it might be less of waste, but the majority of buses are spewing diesel exhaust and not as efficient as a little Jetta and certainly not a Prius or CNG Civic...

The electricity for the El trains is coming from the filthy belching coal fired plants that ought to be shut down...

It is only a matter of time before the environmental load and operational overhead are just too burdensome...

Rush hour is a different proposition altogether -- when those buses or trains are FULL the "CO2 per mile" that anything sort of a fleet of Leaf plug-ins are excellent.

There aren't many empty trains being run. They may be less crowded, but I've almost never ridden on a truely empty train, no matter what the hour. In a downtown-centric place, you rarely have times of day when the trains are full in both directions.

The CTA also uses some train runs for train movement and to prep for rush hour. Not every line is 24 hours. The two that are serve a 24-hour airport and the densest parts of the City with the most nightlife and late-night work.

Some of the new buses the CTA buys now are diesel turbine hybrids and going forward, if they prove to be operationally reliable, more and more of them will be. I believe they get double the fuel economy of non-turbine hybrid buses from just 10-15 years ago, and probably 3-4 times the efficiency of non-hybrid buses from 30 years ago while releasing far less particulates, too, partly due to the CTA intentionally buying higher-quality diesel fuel. At this point, the CTA's most efficient buses averaging 7 riders per mile are matching a solo driver in the best-city-mileage car currently available, a 3rd generation Prius, which can get about 50 mpg in the city, while keeping 7 cars off the street. Those high-mpg buses have seats for at least 42, so 7 people on it would seem pretty empty. At full seating capacity it would exceed the per-person MPG of even a Prius with 5 people in it (the mpg of a Prius with 5 people in it would also decline more rapidly than it does on a full bus). At standing-room-only loads, say 60 total riders, a bus is getting a per-person MPG of something between 420 and 480 passenger mpg. In a full Prius, the number is 250 to 300 passenger mpg. Now, the vast majority of drivers do not have a Prius, and the majority of buses aren't yet turbine hybrids. But even the non-turbine non-hybrid diesels get about 195 passenger mpg when fully loaded. A Prius would need a four-person car-pool to beat that, and even most fully-loaded 7-person minivans or SUVs couldn't match that.

In other words, buses still beat fully-loaded cars, and even very light loads on buses will usually beat single-passenger cars.