RTA joins calls to add bus lanes on DuSable Lake Shore Drive

The Regional Transportation Authority wants city and state planners to “go back to the drawing board” and redesign North DuSable Lake Shore Drive with at least one bus-priority lane.RTA Chairman Kirk Dillard on Thursday joined that prioritizes cars over public transit. Saying it is “a climate issue,” Dillard noted that tens of thousands of riders use the bus on North DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Choosing a redesign that encourages cars over buses would be bad for the environment, he said.He also pointed out that the current design contradicts Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team report, which he said was “screaming for more bus rapid transit.”“I mean, this is [a once in] a 50- or 60-year ... decision,” Dillard said Thursday at the board meeting of the RTA, which oversees the finances and transit planning of the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace.The Redefine the Drive project, which will remake DuSable Lake Shore Drive between Grand and Hollywood avenues, is already more than a decade into its research and design phase.“Generally, we are last in the nation in the miles of bus rapid transit. ... So [there’s] lots of work in terms of getting our message across on the importance of that, and hopefully CDOT and IDOT go back to the drawing board,” Dillard said.RTA Executive Director Leanne Redden said, “We feel strongly that transit must be prioritized by providing at least one bus priority lane in any future plans.”Some of the options planners were considering for the renovation of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.North DuSable Lake Shore Drive Phase 1 studyTheir comments came a day after , and one week after the Illinois and Chicago transportation departments of what they plan to do to overhaul the lakefront highway. The transit agencies had narrowed the possible design options to five — four of which included dedicated lanes that prioritized buses. But the agencies recently said they were likely going to choose the only option that included no bus priority lanes. Transit officials said that option still improves bus traffic through the use of short, bus-only lanes on entrance and exit ramps.The RTA previously advocated for redesigning DuSable Lake Shore Drive with either a bus-only lane or a bus-priority lane in each direction.“Both alternatives provide at least one transit-priority lane, which is essential to not only ease congestion for all users of the corridor but to meet critical climate goals for the region and state,” Dillard and Redden wrote in to CDOT Commissioner Tom Carney and IDOT Secretary Omer Osman.