How the Ashland BRT Would Change Chicago

Matt Dellinger’s analysis begins with a description of Chicago’s unique qualities as an urban metropolis. First of all, Chicago is both car­-oriented and transit-­friendly, which explains why its recent plan for bus-rapid transit along Ashland Avenue became controversial. And, “[the] planned 16­-mile Ashland BRT would affect a cross­-section of Chicago that contains all of the city's ethnicities, income levels, and zoning types.”

The benefits of the line are to provide a north­-south transit corridor to connect the L lines without passing through downtown. The BRT proposal is a low-cost alternative to “a new rail link, the ‘Circle Line,’ which would have required new subway and elevated track at a cost of over a billion dollars,” reports Dellinger.

Most of Dellinger’s copy is devoted to sharing the voices of the project’s many proponents and opponents; both sides are reacting from an assumption that the proposed BRT would effect a fundamental change in the city of Chicago.