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DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9001000105
© 1990 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
The Chicago Area Transportation Study: A Case Study of Rational Planning
Alan Black
This case study of the Chicago Area Transportation Study during the late 1950s and early 1960s illustrates ex ecution of the rational planning model. The model is outlined in ten steps and the way the agency per formed each step is described. A fi nal section discusses staff attitudes in a research-oriented agency that emphasized rationality and avoided politics. The study shows that the rational model is workable but raises questions about whether it is effec tive in influencing decisions.
Trains (and Patience) Stretched Thin in Chicago
By LIBBY SANDER
CHICAGO, March 25 - The century-old elevated train system here is as much a city fixture as the towering skyline and the piercing blue waters of Lake Michigan.
But deteriorating tracks and trains, chronic budget shortfalls and a region ever more dependent on rail service are forcing Chicagoans to confront the possibility that the system, commonly known as the El or the L, may be at a breaking point.
"We're living on borrowed time," said Frank Kruesi, the president of the Chicago Transit Authority, which runs the rail service. "The fact is, there's no magic wand when we're looking at modernizing a system that's 100 years old in a very dense urban environment."
The El, with its 1,190 rail cars and 222 miles of track, is the rail component of the transit authority, the second-largest public transit system in the country after New York's. The C.T.A.'s trains and buses serve the city and 40 suburbs, logging 1.55 million rides daily. The El alone accounted for more than 195 million rides last year.