By CHARLES B. CLEVELAND Chicago The Regional Transportation Authority: Getting from 'A' to 'B' in urban sprawl OF ALL the problems which face
modern urban society, the one which
seems most resistant to solution is how
to get our citizens from point A to point The automobile has failed. It is impossible to build highways fast enough; The alternative is public transportation. The Greater Chicago area has
created a six-county Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) in the hopes
of meeting the transportation needs of
Northern Illinois. Its task is to coordinate and improve service to the
public, maintaining quality of service at
stabilized fares. It is required to
produce a five-year plan—reviewed annually—to show it is continuously
studying population trends, transit innovations and ways to cut costs. The
RTA is empowered to purchase services
from existing companies, which means,
in effect, RTA is underwriting a part of
their costs. It may also buy existing
companies. It can plan and construct
new facilities on its own initiative. The RTA has been in existence since
early 1974. Despite its wide ranging
mandate, it has exercised few of its options. As a result, promised improvements in service—new lines, better off-hour schedules, new routes—haven't
really materialized. Instead it has concentrated on keeping existing facilities
in operation and in keeping fares from
going up. There is general agreement
that a number of bus companies would
have folded and some commuter lines
cut back services had it not been for the
RTA. It will also put some 230 new suburban buses into service this year. Establishing a truly comprehensive
transportation system, whether it be in
Chicago or in a more moderate sized
community, means coping with urban
sprawl. At one time much of business, commerce and industry was concentrated downtown; in the case of
Chicago, the Loop. Commuter lines
spread like fingers toward Waukegan,
Hebron, Harvard, Aurora, Elgin,
Joliet, Park Forest, and Indiana border
cities. These commuter lines still form
the base for area growth under guidelines of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC), but
transportation patterns have changed.
More and more commuters rarely, if
ever, go downtown. Shopping centers
have moved to the suburbs and to a
great extent, so have places of employment. In the process the face of urban
America has been completely altered. This has created a brand new demand for home-to-job, home-to-school,
home-to-shopping, home-to-doctor
transit facilities. At present, these
facilities are few. Even where they do
exist, there are still the traditional headaches. Most commuters go to work
between 6 and 10 a.m., returning home
in the afternoon; in between valuable
equipment is unused, costly personnel
being paid. The economics of mass
transportation are so poor that it is
no longer disputed that government
subsidies are required and inevitable. The federal government recognizes
this; having gone through an era of
highway building, it is now shifting to
mass transit. Last November a $11.8
billion federal Mass Transit Assistance
Act was signed into law. Experiments
ranging from dial-a-bus to computer-run subways are underway. The RTA came into existence in early 1974. It inherited traditional
problems and one more: regional
rivalry. Chicago voted overwhelmingly
for the RTA, but the suburbs were opposed. After the election the board remained stymied for months over selection of a chairman, again because of regional rivalry. The big fear was that
the RTA would simply take areawide
financing to support the Chicago Transit Authority which operates a subway, The first RTA budget, passed on July
1, reflects an effort to spread available
funds throughout the area: CTA $105
million, commuter railroads $24
million, suburban bus lines $5.5 million.
Other items: $12 million to repay part
of a $34 million loan from the state; $18
million for transit improvements, $8.3
million for incentive fare plans to encourage ridership, $6 million for RTA
operations and $5.5 million for a sinking fund. The money comes from the RTA's
share of sales taxes in the six-county
area, from Chicago vehicle stickers and
help from Chicago, Cook County, state
and federal governments. The RTA
also has power to levy areawide taxes
on parking lots and gasoline. These taxes have not been used so far but are
probably inevitable. Undoubtedly they
will stimulate more citizen irritation.
The RTA is destined to have ongoing money problems; needs simply
outdistance available financing. The
RTA would like to buy the rail lines
which serve the area—Chicago North
Western, Milwaukee, Burlington
Northern, Illinois Central-Gulf, Rock
Island, Chicago South Shore. The
RTA's original offer was $19 million; the railroads asked $60 million. Even where money is available, it can
create its own headaches. It is relatively
easy, for example, to get funds for
equipment or capital improvements, but
difficult to get operating funds. For example, where an area wants to encourage citizens to take the train downtown, it probably would prove cheaper to build a commuter parking lot than to
buy and operate a shuttle bus. On the
other hand, a parking lot usually is on
expensive land that eats into the already
shrinking local business area. This
cluster of problems illustrates that getting citizens from point A to point B
remains one of urban society s toughest problems to solve. 286 / Illinois Issues / September 1975