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I don't know exact numbers, but Chicago proper is 2.7M, I would guess roughly 200-300k are serviced outside the city. So roughly 3M total.
Obviously Chicagoland is much larger than greater Washington, but the CTA does nothing for people in dupage, lake, will and a good portion of cook county. While those counties have access to metra, I think we can agree most if not all metra riders are choice riders.
I already said Chicago has more riders in raw numbers which it should. There are over 9 million people in Chicago. The real question is will DC pass Chicago in raw numbers by 2030? With the transit upgrades moving in the DC region and the major shift to urban walkable living region wide, it will be interesting to see how much longer Chicago stays in front of DC by shear ridership numbers. The largest BRT system in the country is moving in Montgomery County and Virginia is finishing the Silver Line and adding their own street car lines and BRT bus system. DC is adding the 37 mile 8 line streetcar network. This will be an interesting couple of years. DC is obviously well ahead of Chicago in ridership share so that's not up for debate.
I already said Chicago has more riders in raw numbers which it should. There are over 9 million people in Chicago. The real question is will DC pass Chicago in raw numbers by 2030? With the transit upgrades moving in the DC region and the major shift to urban walkable living region wide, it will be interesting to see how much longer Chicago stays in front of DC by shear ridership numbers. The largest BRT system in the country is moving in Montgomery County and Virginia is finishing the Silver Line and adding their own street car lines and BRT bus system. DC is adding the 37 mile 8 line streetcar network. This will be an interesting couple of years. DC is obviously well ahead of Chicago in ridership share so that's not up for debate.
We shall see. I do believe DC is the current model for new urbanism/TOD and I hope Chicago looks to DC as it further develops its own infrastructure
I don't know exact numbers, but Chicago proper is 2.7M, I would guess roughly 200-300k are serviced outside the city. So roughly 3M total.
Obviously Chicagoland is much larger than greater Washington, but the CTA does nothing for people in dupage, lake, will and a good portion of cook county. While those counties have access to metra, I think we can agree most if not all metra riders are choice riders.
I already opinted out he was using MSA numbers... Chicago is NOT 4 mil behind Washington... it's merely 600k behind.
On the other hand, I will go with that, but please DC posters, NEVER BRING IN YOUR CSA TOTALS AGAIN. FOR OTHER THREADS. YOU CANT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS WHENEVER IT SUITS YOU BETTER.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
I already said Chicago has more riders in raw numbers which it should. There are over 9 million people in Chicago. The real question is will DC pass Chicago in raw numbers by 2030? With the transit upgrades moving in the DC region and the major shift to urban walkable living region wide, it will be interesting to see how much longer Chicago stays in front of DC by shear ridership numbers. The largest BRT system in the country is moving in Montgomery County and Virginia is finishing the Silver Line and adding their own street car lines and BRT bus system. DC is adding the 37 mile 8 line streetcar network. This will be an interesting couple of years. DC is obviously well ahead of Chicago in ridership share so that's not up for debate.
DC CSA is 8.9 mil... the outer burbs of Chicago function no differently...
The amount of people that are choice riders is Chicago's problem. People like their cars more in the Chicago region wide than DC. The sustainability goals are different in the two region's.
Agreed, however, that doesn't effect what is the busiest transit system....
Portland for instance is all eco friendly and sustainable... but can you compare Portland to DC or Chicago? No way.
I already opinted out he was using MSA numbers... Chicago is NOT 4 mil behind Washington... it's merely 600k behind.
On the other hand, I will go with that, but please DC posters, NEVER BRING IN YOUR CSA TOTALS AGAIN. FOR OTHER THREADS. YOU CANT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS WHENEVER IT SUITS YOU BETTER.
DC CSA is 8.9 mil... the outer burbs of Chicago function no differently...
We would have to add Baltimore transit ridership if we use CSA numbers.
We would have to add Baltimore transit ridership if we use CSA numbers.
Would have no problem with that, I doubt it adds on much, and DC is still ahead in ridership, but to say DC is almost double in Chicago in population ridership is not the real picture. You add only 48,999 to rail ridership from Baltimore subway (probably some other systems there also) and add on the 3-4 million folks that are there in reality, plenty of them driving in, going to park and rides, and already adding onto those DC totals... Driving around DC metro this summer I saw quite a few park and rides, which I'm sure connect into DC, then subsequently get on the wmata to connect again to their offices. They are high b/c you have those additional 3-4 million folks in the area. That ~50k is similar to outside areas in the Chi Burbs but DC metro is multipolar.
They are both the 2-3 no matter how you look at it though, there is definitely a gap from NYC, then a gap from Chi/DC ...
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