The Chicago Transit Authority’s boss agrees with critics of the DuSable Lake Shore Drive redesign who want bus-only lanes. He also defended his agency’s slow progress on reaching full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
CTA President Dorval Carter Jr.’s comments Wednesday about the North DuSable Lake Shore Drive redesign came days after mayoral allies protested a soon-to-be-finalized plan for the lakefront highway that prioritizes cars over public transit.
“I think that it was heard very loud and clear what a lot of people thought of that option,” Carter said during the transit agency’s board meeting Wednesday.
Dozens of critics, including a handful of City Council members and state representatives, rallied last week outside of the final open house for the Redefine the Drive project, a massive project to remake the northern leg of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
They argued for bus-only lanes, at a minimum, and warned that rebuilding a car-centered highway would encourage driving over public transit for years to come.
Carter indicated that those critics may have a point.
“I don’t have a crystal ball as to whether that will influence the final outcome of this process … but certainly I do know that it was heard,” Carter said. “And I think that kind of advocacy is always very helpful because it amplifies a lot of what CTA tries to convey in terms of what we believe is the position among various issues and how they affect our customers.”
The DuSable Lake Shore Drive project is being led by the Chicago and Illinois Departments of Transportation with input from the CTA and Chicago Park District.
It’s unclear if the pushback against the DuSable Lake Shore Drive plan will change the project’s overall design.
Transit officials last week said they were now considering the only design among the five finalists that did not include bus-only lanes along the entire drive.
At last week’s open house, city Transportation Commissioner Tom Carney said his agency was taking in all feedback to improve the design.
But another official indicated the design was all but final.
“This will help us fine-tune our next steps,” Jeff Sriver, the city’s director of transportation planning, told the Sun-Times last week.
Transit officials said they will next complete studies needed to apply for federal grants, a process that could take a couple of years. After that, construction will be completed in phases, starting near Grand Avenue, over five to 10 years.
Money called key to ADA progress
Carter on Wednesday said he’s improving accessibility of L stations as fast as he can, given funding restraints.
The Sun-Times last week reported that CTA’s revised All Stations Accessibility Program, or ASAP, had more than doubled its budget and hadn’t built a single planned elevator. The plan, begun five years ago, will make the CTA the first transit system more than a century old to be 100% accessible by the year 2038. Thirty percent of the CTA’s L stations still don’t have an elevator.
“No one would be happier than me if I can find the money to accelerate the timeline on that plan,” Carter said. “That timeline is not indicative of what I want to do. It is indicative of what I’m forced to do because I don’t have the money to do it faster.”