In August, Uber and Lyft jointly released an analysis conducted by Fehr & Peers examining how their vehicles are contributing to VMT in six major cities: Boston, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The study found that Uber and Lyft vehicles account for just 1-3 percent of total VMT in the metro regions. However, they are contributing a significantly larger share in the core counties of several of these regions.
Chicago
Chicago parking concession big win for investors, hard on curb management
In 2008 the city of Chicago made a deal to allow a private company to run and receive all revenues from parking meters. The concession has been widely denounced as a bad deal for taxpayers. Critics of the deal often point to the missed opportunity of parking revenue. Others note that the concession makes the city less nimble when implementing innovative curbside solutions for transit, cycling, and placemaking. Recent analysis shows how the deal is working out for the city and private investors.
Chicago opens TNC data to the public
Getting data from transportation network companies for planning and other purposes has been a challenge. Agencies want to understand where TNCs are operating in order to address curb management, congestion, and transit-cannibalization issues. But TNCs have viewed such data as proprietary and have been reluctant to share. Chicago, however, has an advantage over many cities in this area, due to its per-ride TNC tax established four years ago. Now the city has made that data public.
Chicago opens TNC data to the public
Getting data from transportation network companies for planning and other purposes has been a challenge. Agencies want to understand where TNCs are operating in order to address curb management, congestion, and transit-cannibalization issues. But TNCs have viewed such data as proprietary and have been reluctant to share. Chicago, however, has an advantage over many cities in this area, due to its per-ride TNC tax established four years ago. Now the city has made that data public.
Wisconsin’s millennial-recruiting pitch falls flat
Wisconsin’s efforts to attract young workers from Chicago seems to be falling flat. One reason may be that the target audience prefers transit to driving, and other decisions by the state have undercut transportation options that Millenials find appealing.
Chicago to use TNC fees to improve 'L' service
Chicago was the first U.S. jurisdiction to collect a per-ride charge from ride-hailing passengers. Now, Chicago and its transit authority are earmarking a recent increase in the fee to fund transit improvements, and they have announced the specific locations of the projects. Other cities and states are also trying out these fees and taxes, but their application is not yet an exact science.
Offsetting loss of public transit revenue due to ride-hailing services
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing an increase in the city’s fee charged to ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to offset the loss of revenue from public transit users who switched to ride-hailing services. This additional revenue, to be used specifically for mass transit, will add to the $59.6 million generated in 2016 as a result of the fee.
Offsetting loss of public transit revenue due to ride-hailing services
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing an increase in the city’s fee charged to ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to offset the loss of revenue from public transit users who switched to ride-hailing services. This additional revenue, to be used specifically for mass transit, will add to the $59.6 million generated in 2016 as a result of the fee.
Removing curbs, lane markings, and signage to create a better street
In an effort to create a safer, more inviting environment for walkers and bicyclists, the City of Chicago is beginning construction on its first “shared street” project. The idea behind shared streets, also known as woonerfs or living streets, is to erase the boundaries between uses and question the hard and fast rules that govern driver behavior.
CMAP’s new tool elevates the urgency for innovative transportation solutions
While the state of transportation funding remains uncertain both at the national and state levels, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is taking an innovative approach to bring public awareness to the degrading transportation infrastructure within the seven-county Chicago metropolitan region. CMAP spent $82,000 to design a website that uses an immense amount of transportation data collected by the agency to create user-friendly visualizations of the challenges facing regional transportation systems.