August 02, 2024

Lena Guerrero Reynolds

City Bus & Intercity Bus Infrastructure: Key to Clean Transportation

ELPC Testifies for Better Bus Infrastructure to Reduce Transportation Emissions

ELPC’s Lena Guerrero Reynolds Testified to the Chicago City Council Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Hearing on July 29, 2024. She spoke about two kinds of bus infrastructure: the city bus and the intercity bus, both critical for a clean transportation future.

Read the FULL testimony

Transportation is a leading source of carbon emissions and many other air pollutants in Illinois, and it is led by personal passenger vehicles. Public transportation is the solution, but especially the bus.

By moving 40 people instead of 1 or 2 in cars, a bus creates far less emissions per passenger and is more space efficient in a dense urban environment. About half of all transit trips in Chicagoland are served by CTA buses alone. That’s 5x more trips than all of Metra and connects many neighborhoods beyond the L. Every time someone takes the bus instead of a car, there’s less air pollution, less traffic, and healthier communities.

But when buses get stuck in traffic, they’re slow & unreliable. That pushes people to drive and creates more traffic! We must make the bus experience better to break the vicious cycle. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can set the city bus free, with dedicated lanes and accessible stations that are far faster and more affordable to build out than train improvements.

Chicago should know all this already. We’ve been talking about it for years, but we’ve yet to see a real BRT route come to life, much less an interconnected network that could improve mobility citywide.

Let’s look at some Midwest neighbors. After Cleveland, Ohio, launched its Healthline BRT system in 2008, ridership jumped 47% in 1 year. Grand Rapids, Michigan, launched the Silver Line BRT in 2014. It decreased travel time from 47 to 27 minutes & increased ridership by 40%. Milwaukee, Kansas City, Columbus, the Twin Cities, and more all have bus rapid transit systems, and we are falling behind our peers and failing our fellow Chicagoans if we neglect to do so.

Read THE Midwest B.R.T. Blog

Next, the intercity bus has some of the same benefits: getting people out of cars and reducing transportation emissions. But our existing bus infrastructure is at risk here. Our Greyhound station was sold to a private developer, so we expect a condo high-rise to be proposed for the land once the lease ends this October.

Greyhound is just one of several intercity bus companies that have used this station, with a peak of 82 daily buses, carrying over 500,000 people to far more destinations than Amtrak.

Read the Chaddick Institute Report

Maybe you’re not a fan of the current station and think we could find a better spot. But the reality is that there’s no viable alternative we can secure by October. There is not enough space at Union Station. If the current one shutters, dozens of bus runs could cease operating, and passengers would be confused and lost in the rain and snow on street corners.

Chicago must purchase or lease the station to at least have time to study the best solution. These buses serve folks with lower incomes, less car access, and higher unemployment than average. They deserve dignity and safe travel, too. People with disabilities, students getting to school, women seeking reproductive healthcare, LGBT homeless youth, and domestic violence survivors are just a few of the thousands who depend on this station now and don’t deserve to be kicked to the curb.

So please, set the city bus free from traffic and protect the intercity bus as a lifeline for our most vulnerable travelers.