
Evanston: A Suburb That Actively Discourages Cars - akg_67
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/evanston-illinois-what-works-213282
======
rayiner
The article implies that Evanston is an archetypal suburb, but that's
misleading. Both the Metra (Chicago's commuter rail system) and the El (the
subway) have stops in Evanston. Metra trains leave every 15 minutes during the
morning rush hour and get you to the Loop in under 30. Pre-car era suburbs
radiate out from cities like Chicago and New York, connected to their core
cities via rail infrastructure built a century ago. They have long-had
appropriately-zoned downtowns to facilitate mixed residential/commercial
development close to transit.

Most suburbs in the U.S. are entirely unlike Evanston. They have little to no
rail infrastructure. Even when they do, the area around the rail stations is
inappropriately zoned. For example, the new stops on D.C.'s Silver Line will
require decades of aggressive redevelopment before they are comparable to the
walkable commuter suburbs of Chicago or New York. The Tysons Corner metro
station is in the median of a giant highway with 4-lanes in each direction.
There is a single high-rise apartment building within a convenient walk, and
even that requires traversing huge un-pedestrian-scale skybridges over the
highway.

E.g. here is the area around the Scarsdale commuter line (a town in
Westchester County, NY): [https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/736x/46/96/3b/46963b601...](https://s-media-cache-
ak0.pinimg.com/736x/46/96/3b/46963b6010c546765e6a226ec40f18bd.jpg).

Here is the area around the Mclean metro station (a similar suburb in Fairfax
County, NY): [http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/mclean-metro-station-
tysons-c...](http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/mclean-metro-station-tysons-
corner-new-va-44716665.jpg).

~~~
lafay
Totally agree here. Evanston is a "suburb" only in the sense that it's a
separate municipality. In all other respects, it might as well be just another
neighborhood within the Chicago city limits.

Which is not to say that Evanston shouldn't be applauded for a transit-focused
development policy. But it's silly to suggest that it could / should be
modeled by other suburban municipalities that don't have similar existing
infrastructure and proximity to the urban core.

~~~
mrchicity
Evanston is definitely a suburb. There is a walkable area near the train and
university, and some apartments, but there is a lot of single family housing
on much larger lots than you'd find in the city. People have big yards, multi-
car garages, 1000s of square feet in living space. It's denser than more rural
suburbs like Lake Forest or Highland Park, but not very similar to Chicago
proper. Even in well-off Chicago neighborhoods with a lot of large houses like
Lincoln Park, most are townhouses or rowhomes, and there is a larger mix of
condos/apartments.

~~~
tptacek
It's a suburb, but nobody who's ever been to Elgin could say with a straight
face that Evanston is the "archetypical" suburb. If Chicago were organized the
same way NYC was, OP/RF/FP and Evanston would be boroughs.

The better way to frame this, without getting into the special-case trouble of
Philadelphia, NYC, and Chicago, is that the _overwhelming majority of suburbs_
are not like Evanston, and are not hooked up to the arterial public transit
connections of their major metro areas.

------
bbarn
This is basically a puff piece. Evanston has a cute little downtown area
that's great for walking, but like most suburbs, lots of streets don't have
sidewalks, the main route north through it (ridge) is banned to bicycles,
forcing awkward navigation of one way streets, etc.

We need to stop judging and talking about cities by what their small flashy
city-centers are, and start thinking about how people live in and around them.
Don't mistake "Actively encouraging retail shopping" with "actively
discouraging cars". There are 3 massive parking lots that dump you downtown
and all but force you to walk through the outdoor mall there.

~~~
bunderbunder
Not to mention that outside the dense downtown area, it's hard to get around
Evanston efficiently without a car.

I'll grant that it's way better than the outer suburbs, and even better than
most independent cities. But it's not any better than other suburbs that are
served by CTA. It's been a while since I've been to Oak Park, but as I recall
it was even more bike and pedestrian friendly than Evanston is.

~~~
tptacek
The major streets in Oak Park all have bike lanes, the minor streets are
narrow enough to make bicycling in the street safe for minors (possibly
excepting the streets just off Harlem, North, and Austin, which get abused for
traffic bypass), and it's hard to live in Oak Park and be more than a 10-15
minute walk from one or sometimes two CTA train lines.

Evanston is about twice as big as Oak Park is. If you combine Oak Park and
adjacent Forest Park, capturing the end of the CTA blue line, I think you get
a more reasonable comparison, in which both suburbs fare about equally.

But Oak Park is also very car friendly: residential lots mostly have garages,
there are lots every few blocks downtown, and the streets all have convenient
metered parking. And, Oak Park's downtown area is far less developed than
Evanston's.

It's really tough drawing conclusions about suburbs in Chicago from Oak Park;
it's barely a suburb at all. Beverly, on the south side of Chicago, is far
more suburban than Oak Park is.

------
bunderbunder
Fact check: That picture with the caption "This Is What Carless Suburbia Looks
Like" was not taken in Evanston. It was taken in Logan Square, a neighborhood
well inside Chicago.

Source: I walk past that mural regularly (it's located along Milwaukee), and
the destination signs on the train in the background are blue. The Blue Line
doesn't go anywhere near Evanston.

------
maxerickson
Evanston is home to Northwestern. Most cities/towns in the Midwest that are
home to large universities happen to be more pedestrian friendly than average.

(I'm surprised the articles skips that observation)

~~~
akg_67
Did you read all 5 pages of the article? It does mention Northwestern and its
20,000 student population. Based on most of the HN comments, my guess is not
many people realizing article is spread over multiple pages.

~~~
maxerickson
Yeah, I missed the paging.

------
ctrager
I live one block north of the northern Evanston border. I bike through
Evanston frequently to ride into Chicago. For a biker, the connections from
Evanston to Chicago are not great. They feel risky, especially at busy times.
Specifically, you either ride around Calvary Cemetery,
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Evanston,+IL/@42.0244529,-...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Evanston,+IL/@42.0244529,-87.6744743,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x880fcffd34e80a77:0x6f21a10d05c0671a),
on the sidewalk, along the lake. Beautiful but the sidewalk is narrow and
there are pedestrians, people walking their dogs. Or you ride in the street.
Too scary for me. There's no bike lane and traffic travels fast, maybe 40 mph?
Or you ride on the west side of the cemetery which has a bike line that
disappears and reappears, and also the traffic there too travels fast. Here,
btw, is Evanston's bike plan:
[http://www.cityofevanston.org/assets/Evanston%20Bike%20Plan%...](http://www.cityofevanston.org/assets/Evanston%20Bike%20Plan%20Update%20FINAL%202014%200716.pdf)

~~~
ctrager
The plan notes that the percentage of people who commute by car is about 51%.
By bike, about 2.5%.

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akg_67
Just FYI, this article is spread over multiple pages. It has 5 pages. Based on
reading HN comments, my guess is that most HN readers might be making comments
only after reading page 1. The article is about Transit Oriented Development
(TOD) and not just about Evanston though it uses Evanston as case study. The
article also touches other area of Chicago, a city in Brazil, a research study
in King County, Washington, etc.

