How Chicagoans Get To Work... (employment, theater, schools)

[Freefall18]

Transitized published an interactive map that I found pretty interesting:
http://www.transitized.com/commute/

[im_a_lawyer]

Car usage is much higher than I expected... where do you people park your car?

[almost3am]

yeah, driving is way higher than I thought, but maybe it is related to working in the loop.

[marothisu]

Cool map, but this could be done better. The normal behavior by just looking at the map is that "most people get to work by _____ here." While it's true it's showing the #1 mode, it doesn't do a good job of taking into account other modes that are close to it. For example, I notice a census tract in Austin near the Green Line is 44% driving versus 35% public transit. That's not as big of a difference in transit as is psychologically interpreted by the average person.

If I were them, I would make a heat map that shows the diversity of modes instead of just showing a color for the #1 mode. I did it in a map for racial diversity by tract. They could do something similar and make a heat map based on the average percentage for each mode of transportation in each tract away from 16.6667% (100 divided by 6 modes evenly). You could probably weight it too based on the #1 mode after that too.

[Freefall18]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Cool map, but this could be done better. The normal behavior by just looking at the map is that "most people get to work by _____ here." While it's true it's showing the #1 mode, it doesn't do a good job of taking into account other modes that are close to it. For example, I notice a census tract in Austin near the Green Line is 44% driving versus 35% public transit. That's not as big of a difference in transit as is psychologically interpreted by the average person.

If I were them, I would make a heat map that shows the diversity of modes instead of just showing a color for the #1 mode. I did it in a map for racial diversity by tract. They could do something similar and make a heat map based on the average percentage for each mode of transportation in each tract away from 16.6667% (100 divided by 6 modes evenly). You could probably weight it too based on the #1 mode after that too.

Yeah, I had this same thought. The colored version of the map is a little deceiving and makes it look like people are more dependent on cars than they actually are. But the detailed statistics by tract are interesting.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Freefall18

Yeah, I had this same thought. The colored version of the map is a little deceiving and makes it look like people are more dependent on cars than they actually are. But the detailed statistics by tract are interesting.

Yeah definitely. I think I know what my next little data project is

[Attrill]

Yep - could definitely be better just by using shading instead of blocks of solid colors. Many areas along the Blue Line and on the Western edge of the Northside close to the lake have drive/transit numbers that are less than 5% apart. The tract I live in is red, but is 40%/37% between driving and transit.

Great map nonetheless!

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by im_a_lawyer

Car usage is much higher than I expected... where do you people park your car?

Most people don't work in the loop.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by jsk1983

Most people don't work in the loop.

...the biases of the posters that frequent this board as much as anything! The patterns of reliance on personal vehicles are well known to anyone that goes to anything like RTA board meetings or reads the reports they send out. Efforts to get folks to use things like bus links to rail are often frustratingly under utilized. The fact is even with nice applications to minimize time spent waiting for a connection most people find that they can often get to work faster in a personal car. The paucity of options for transit when ones work location is outside the Loop is also a huge factor - all the smaller places of employment like retail and even the larger but non-traditionally scheduled work locations like hospitals and even schools mean that the strong emphasis on Loop centric transit does not fit the life / needs of most workers.

Sadly spending more to add routes that would cater to folks outside the Loop / on different schedules is a HUGE money losing proposition. It should not even be on the table save for the fantasies of those that see rail like playthings and get obsessed with shiny new hardware. Even the potential for "bus rapid transit" to really mess up the flow of not just workers but goods that move via trucks on surface streets ought scare the heck out of anyone that really cares about the economic health of the region...

Rational efforts to use technology to coordinate the flow of vehicles is far and away the best "bang for the buck" for advancing commute efforts but the loud voices of folks that really want more trains to run 24x7 so they can more easily get from bar to live theater to other entertainment options together with scaredy cats that won't have that get of device in their vehicle make it unlikely to ever see widespread use.

[ParkerP]

Originally Posted by jsk1983

Most people don't work in the loop.

There is something to that. Jobs are spread out all over Chicago. Also, myself, along with a LOT more of my neighbors live in the city and work in the suburbs.