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Chicago is the In & Out Capital of the US. Arguably the world as well. The only question: is there even a second place? I'm using "In & Out" to define both city and metro area whose entire transportation system is basically designed to do only one thing: get people in and out of the greater downtown area in the city.
For better or for worse. And there is a lot of both. There is no "honor" in the title; just a distinction and there is not an element of better/worse about it. You can see for yourself in the attachment here. Three maps are included:
• INTERSTATE
The only by-pass around Chicago would be I-294. It is no beltway for it only has two legs: west and south. It is designed to connect east-west traffic from Indiana with north-south traffic coming from Wisconsin. It doesn't serve the city of Chicago for in its full length, it goes through the city only for a block or two (the O'Hare linkage to city limits).
• METRA
Commuter rail has lines that terminate in the Chicago suburbs in IL, IN, & WI. All lines run to and terminate in downtown Chicago's four major commuter rail terminals.
• CTA
Rapid transit is almost a carbon copy of Metra insofar as virtually all lines run to the Loop (none terminate there). The only exceptions are the yellow line (Skokie) and the purple local (Evanston), both of which are designed to get you downtown. Both the yellow and the purple local terminate at Howard St where one catches the red line to the Loop. The purple express takes Evanston passengers downtown, running as an express south of Howard.
This system is good in the sense that it certainly helped elevate downtown to the mind boggling city center it is. Unfortunately this comes at a price. Suburb to suburb rail connections are unknown. The highway system suffers greatly by all being designed to go in and out of the core. In the north suburban area from city limits to the Wisconsin state line. There is absolute none, zero, zilch east-west super highway in the entire area (and that is all of Cook County north of Chicago and all of Lake County. East-west roads are a disaster.
Chicago is the city of concentric rings, spoke and wheel. There is nothing like it. Certainly not in the US and I'll wager: none anywhere in the world.
Note: New York was never a consideration here. New York is structurally different from every other city. It has two main hubs, each the largest in the country, with Midtown and Downtown. And it certainly has a third lesser on with DT Bkyn. Feel free to throw in Jersey City if you like. The real core of New York is Manhattan's lower two thirds and the 10 or so miles distance between the Bowery and the north end of Central Park is so linear that one can't really call it a core. The New York area is not and could not be designed in concentric circles due to topography and historical development. And if you really want to make this complete, consider this: the real core of New York is Midtown. It is by far the largest core in the world. And it didn't even come to existence until the first half of the 20th century. New York is just plain different.
Only question is: is there even a runner up to Chicago or at least a group of cities/metros that seem to have a degree of being downtown centric, in and out?
To my knowledge, Boston doesn't have any major outer-suburban employment hubs; it's all about downtown and the Cambridge area, and the mass transit is very hub-and-spoke.
To my knowledge, Boston doesn't have any major outer-suburban employment hubs; it's all about downtown and the Cambridge area, and the mass transit is very hub-and-spoke.
The fact Boston’s MSA has 4.9 million and CSA has 8.6 means that almost 40% of the region is not centered around Boston.
Compared to Chicago which has like 450,000 people in its CSA but not MSA.
I can’t imagine that Chicago is worse than Boston in this regard. Crossing town without going into the city first is often a nightmare.
I guess on the metro-level, 128 and 495 are good at moving people around Boston. I just wish there were a subway that went in a ring around the city.
Quote:
Originally Posted by btownboss4
The fact Boston’s MSA has 4.9 million and CSA has 8.6 means that almost 40% of the region is not centered around Boston..
The Boston CSA is laughably over-bloated, though. Athol (MA), Meredith (NH), and Charlestown (RI) are all in the CSA but don’t feel like metro Boston at all, imo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by edsg25
Chicago is the city of concentric rings, spoke and wheel. There is nothing like it. Certainly not in the US and I'll wager: none anywhere in the world.
Huh. I missed this on my first read-through. Yeah Boston is aggressively the way you describe: 128 and 495 are the circles (i.e. the wheel). I-90, I-93, route 1, route 2, route 3, route 9, route 24, US-3, I-95 (when it doesn’t overlap 128), the commuter rail trains, and the subway trains all radiate out from downtown (i.e. like spokes.)
To my knowledge, Boston doesn't have any major outer-suburban employment hubs; it's all about downtown and the Cambridge area, and the mass transit is very hub-and-spoke.
Waltham? Needham? Woburn? Assembly? This is completely false... Boston has a much higher % of people not working down than other cities.
Yeah, I'm not sure Chicago is unique in the spoke and wheel effect of transit in rail and highways.
But it is still ULTRA-CORE-CENTRIC kind of city. No second CBD even to conceded really.
But it remains half-a-wheel.
With Lake Michigan the other half.
It even has diagonal streets slice thru
heading toward the ULTRA-CORE-CENTRIC SPOKE
Wrigley Field seen, has diagonal Clark Street and Broadway St
To my knowledge, Boston doesn't have any major outer-suburban employment hubs; it's all about downtown and the Cambridge area, and the mass transit is very hub-and-spoke.
Sure it does, the entire 128 technology corridor and Metro West are both major major suburban employment hubs.
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