Do you remember the last time you used public transportation? Unless you live in the city or need it to get to school, you can’t. Recently, it seems as though public transportation, especially in the suburbs, has fallen out of style and is overall insufficient. From what I have seen, public transportation is rarely used in the suburbs because the majority of people either drive themselves or have somebody else drive them. I rarely see any full Metra trains or Pace buses anymore.
It’s understandable that some people have to use trains or buses to get where they need to go, but for most people, public transportation is unnecessary. According to illinoispolicy.org, CTA ridership in 2024 was 60% of what it was in 2019, and rail ridership is 54% of what it once was. Now, that might start increasing as the shift from working at home to working in the office continues, but that does not change the fact that public transportation will continue to become less and less popular. According to the Illinois Environmental Council, only 53% of jobs in Chicago are easily accessible by transit, and if you’re living in the suburbs that number drops to only 12% of jobs. This means that, even if everyone uses public transportation, only a finite amount of people will actually be able to get to their jobs easily.
Now there are some upsides to using public transportation like not having to pay for gas and avoiding car traffic, especially if you are taking a train, but, with where it is now, public transportation just does not have the provision that it could have. My suggestion is to add more bus only lanes so that traffic is avoided, adding more stops so that more people can get to where they need to be, adding nicer and more updated buses and train cars and advertising to the public more to get a further outreach. Finally, adding more access to public transportation in suburban areas will allow more people to use it. But for now, we are stuck with a somewhat insufficient public transportation system.