Transport Nexus

A Failure of Governance

Ryan Richter — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 16:22:24 +0000

I am absolutely appalled by the failure of governance in the state of Texas that resulted in a severe weather event turning into an absolute calamity for millions of people. This is the definition of a man-made problem similar to the levee failures in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in that failure of government to […]

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How to get a Starbucks (or a Trader Joe’s) in your Community

Ryan Richter — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 14:00:00 +0000

The urban planning questions we should be asking about these businesses. I have been involved in many downtown community plans professionally and have been active in my own neighborhood on economic development concerns and the question that I hear asked most often is along the lines of Why can’t we get a Starbucks (or Trader […]

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Hyperloop

Ryan Richter — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:29:26 +0000

I’ve been writing on social media about my disdain for Elon Musk’s foray into solving mass transit problems with the hyperloop for some time. But now we have evidence of a test ride with real people by Virgin Hyperloop in the Nevada desert. CNN covers the event, which is basically a commercial, though their article […]

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The real Blue Line problem

Ryan Richter — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 03:34:35 +0000

After reading and discussing the article, The CTA’s Blue Line has a big problem, I’ve decided I need to weigh in on this. Because, guess what, the Blue Line does not actually have a big problem – in fact, it’s a victim of its own success! That doesn’t mean there isn’t any problems that can’t […]

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Connecting to the North Branch Trail

Ryan Richter — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 23:30:05 +0000

The North Branch Trail, which has been planned for over 10 years, will finally be opening this week (well, Phase I anyway. Phase II is under construction until next year). Extending the existing eastern trailhead from Caldwell Avenue and Devon Avenue in Edgebrook is essential to making the trail easier to access by bike, as […]

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Urban Street Transformation – Loop Link

Ryan Richter — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 04:24:42 +0000

Loop Link, the new bus service with some bus rapid transit amenities, is already having a large impact on the urban streetscape in downtown Chicago in advance of its opening this past Sunday. Even if you don’t ultimately use the transit system part of Loop Link, as a cyclist and/or pedestrian, Loop Link already has […]

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Complete Streets?

Ryan Richter — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 19:46:31 +0000

Complete Streets is a great thing – a real sea change in designing our streets for people rather than cars. But, unfortunately, sometimes we still get the engineering mindset when it comes to deploying complete streets policy: In West Allis, a working-class Milwaukee suburb, the state proposed adding bike lanes to a six-lane highway that […]

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Planning for People: Land Use

Ryan Richter — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 01:29:20 +0000

In Chicago, where I live, land use planning is largely the domain of the zoning code. The Alderman has control over granting variances to the zoning code (Aldermanic prerogative). Thus, the Alderman’s office has tremendous control over whether anything gets built because, despite the fact that Chicago’s zoning ordinance was re-written only 10 years ago, much of […]

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Planning for People: A Step Back in History

Ryan Richter — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 04:41:25 +0000

I would like to follow-up on my Planning for People in Jefferson Park post and expand a bit on what it means to “plan for people”. For at least the past 60 years, the architecture, planning and engineering professions have fundamentally changed the way they designed cities. Cities, a creation of the human race for […]

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Geography is Fun

Ryan Richter — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 05:04:31 +0000

Geography is fun. I’ve been playing around in Google Maps. Here are two maps made locally for my Chicago neighborhood of Jefferson Park. The first, a map of all parking lots in downtown Jefferson Park: The second, a map of election results from the February 24, 2015 municipal election in Chicago. I’ve mapped the […]

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