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So many US cities have situations like this.

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[-] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

What does this station serve? The point of public transport is to get you into a populated public area or a commuter station, right next to where houses and people are. You build them where they can/are used I.e. in the middle of suburbia where you can walk to them, not next to a highway.

Do US designers understand passenger rail?

Edit: Nobody has responded in this thread about why the way this is built is good (admittedly this particular station does serve a nearby uni, but I was meaning generally and even so, this station location does not seem the best option), offered solutions or agreed that it's just stupid and shouldn't be this way. And some seem to think that suburbs aren't part of cities. It's baffling.

This is also not the first time a US passenger rail conversation I've had on Lemmy has gone like this. Are you all happy with the way your rail works and your commuter traffic? Do you not see how other places work and compare? Do you understand the point of mass transport or is this something that just isnt experienced/taught in schools. I don't get it. The apathy to fix anything is terrible. It does explain a few things about why you get walked over by your governments though. Truly, it's just a bit sad. It's like you don't even realise it doesn't have to be this way. You never used to be like this.

[-] blackbelt352@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Its a subway stop, the line only serves the city. Like the London underground. This station happens to be right next to the interstate.

[-] MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com 26 points 1 day ago

Seems like it serves at least an entire university and has a dedicated pedestrian bridge.

Dunking on US public transport is easy and fun, so I sympathize, but if we do attempt public transportation it's generally not needlessly stupid. Sometimes it ends up stupid anyway, but I try not to hate unnecessarily. It seems pretty close to the university, and I'm sure there are reasons why it's in the middle of a highway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield_station_(CTA_Red_Line)

[-] radix@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Rail sometimes end up in the middle of a highway because the government already owns the land in that median, and it's a lot easier and cheaper to build there than buying and clearing other routes.

The seeds of urban sprawl with shitty transportation were planted decades ago. Fixing it isn't cheap, but some bandaids are easier than others.

Not sure about this station specifically, just speaking broadly

[-] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 1 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

If the priority was on mass transport and not roads (which they quite happily destroy the entire neighbourhood to build), then this would solve the issue. And takes up far less land then a 8+ lane highway.

Better than nothing but a cynical approach to it, and I wonder if that is part of the plan.

"We built this rail line, in a bad location, and few are using it. I wonder why. Guess nobody likes rail, we should build more roads now instead."

Also being general, not about this station in particular

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 18 minutes ago* (last edited 18 minutes ago)

Typically it’s the other order, in the us. We want to build a train line but it’s ungodly expensive and legally fraught to get that right of way. However there’s a convenient highway where we already have a right of way, and there’s room for rail in the median.

I’m not convinced it’s a good idea since no one would want to use it, but it’s well-meaning people trying to get a thing done

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

it should also be noted that the station has bus connections that jump onto (and come off from,) the highway, serving as a connection between busses coming from places trains don't run to the train.

[-] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

That is fair. We have a new train station next to one of our universities too and it replaced a bus line. It doesn't have a highway right next to it as our higher education establishments tend to be in areas of quiet for obvious reasons (but still fairly close tbh), but that's a different problem.

[-] phar@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

You realize that people live in cities and not just in suburbia right? They also work and go to school in cities. What the hell are you smoking?

[-] Mantzy81@aussie.zone -5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You realise that suburbia is PART of cities. You don't have one without the other. That's how cities work. If you lived and worked in suburbia, you're not needing to catch a train. Trains are for the fast movement of a mass of people from one place to another. Inner city trains are usually trams or metro/subway/underground. That is how it works.

Edit: just re-read what I originally wrote and it's pretty clear that I was saying most rail goes from suburbia into cities which would obviously include stops on the way - it's not point-to-point, so the central city fringe between the city and suburbia would be covered. I thought that went without saying.

[-] phar@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Got it. The trains take the people into the city, but there can't be a station in the city to drop them off at. That would be bonkers!

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

The other side of the station probably has a destination. There’a also one like this in Boston; right against I-93 South on one side, stores and neighborhood on the other. They’ve just crammed all the transit into the smallest corridor possible.

[-] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago

As others have said, it's near a university.

However, this isn't how you should build public transit, along a corridor. It a) restricts the other mode of transport for evermore b) it encourages growth near the station (which isn't what you would want) c) discourages walking cities d) it's loud af e) it's not in the centre of an area but the outskirts which means it's less usable for the majority of the area and more for only the people hemmed around the highway.

It's like nobody looks at city maps from around the world and how passenger suburban and city rail is a new/difficult concept.

[-] SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip 3 points 1 day ago

No, it's in the median of the Dan Ryan Expressway / Interstate 94. The other side is the other direction of traffic. I've seen it in person. It is among the shittiest of shitty American transit stations.

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 2 points 23 hours ago

Why the fuck would they put it in the median? What the hell?

[-] glimse@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

You're not gonna believe the demographics in the south side of chicago

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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