So many US cities have situations like this.

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.

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)

Uogh also just thinking about all the microplasrics and car fumes in the air, not a great experience.

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?

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.

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.

I’ve realized first handed how much a 24’ wall/ sound barrier does. Like omg it should be all along all highways especially if it’s a bridge over houses just like the other parts of this city.

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.

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

Holy narrow gauge Batman

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!

Train lines generally run through and stop at suburban stations into the city. It's a hub and spoke with stops on the way. I think you don't understand how rail works in all other cities. Or you're trolling. Or you're USian and this explains both the lack of knowledge at how most city rail works and the lack of public transport.

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.

Mate you’re being intentionally obtuse and it’s fucking tiring. Take that shit to Reddit or have a real convo.

What are you clowns fighting about. Trains take people places and cities have suburbs. Now just kiss and get it over with.

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.

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.

That’s the electrified third rail.

I think there's 4 rails there. I believe the 1 on the outside is the electrified 3rd rail, the middle is the outside rail, the left is a rail to prevent derailed trains from entering the road, and the 4th rail is not visible in this video.

Here's another perspective of that station:

Also fun fact, there's 2 Garfield Stations in Chicago.

I'm really not - it appears many don't know how city rail works - just ask any other person from any other city, european or asian

That is a very high definition video. Is that just 4k on a phone?

It’s the frame rate I notice more than the resolution. I think it’s shot at 60fps.

Its the US

Nobody gives a shit about people needing public transportation

Or people suffering from Boise because those are just the stupid poor people

You can't make money off of them so they're useless

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

I saw these in Chicago. Looks like hell.

Irving Park on the Blue line was my morning and evening walking nightmare. I always felt so exposed to just a random accident especially a truck tire which I did witness hit the station but no people or trains thankfully.

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

It's also insane that there would be a metro station next to somewhere that no pedestrian ever wants to go.

The way I instantly recognized that and I don't even live in that state anymore lol

Be happy you at least have access to something resembling public transport

I'd be less concerned about noise and more so flying debris. Interstates are dangerous in that flying debris can be as bad as chunk of spare iron flying.

When I lived there Americans would act like I was suffering because I chose to ride my bike home. They would push to give me a ride really hard.

If I tried to take a bus, they would rather drive me around than let me take the bus.

They were very kind, but god they are confused

Put in some earbuds and stfu. Holy shit first world problems lol.

Why is it just exposed like that. That seems needlessly dangerous.

We dont have this in Sweden. They are never next to massive highway, not even in Stockholm.

But US is its own "special" category in the world and I hate to see Sweden become more and more Americanized.

On the other hand, why the fuck should I even care about it. The world will do what it will do. Mostly very stupid and insane things these days.

I read through this conversation and nah, you're pretty much only responding to the most minor part of each comment and ignoring the important parts

The point is that the highway, and therefore the train, run through the city. No one's arguing that this is an incredible setup but you're acting like the stations are in the middle of nowhere.

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

Welp, taking the train was heavily romanticised in GTA IV/V. Forgot how little traffic makes traffic noises in those games

The important part is that nobody seems to care. I'm more pissed from the general apathy.

Look, I'm a government employee, if nobody complains, it's fantastic but THIS is something that should have been complained about in the planning stage. I'm frustrated that nobody wants to make their lives better and then they complain after the fact. Make a damn ruckus BEFORE. The government do not mind buying land for infrastructure projects.

And that nobody seems to realise that cities comprise of the CBD, outer city, suburbia and peri-urban areas and a train should cover all those areas. It does seem odd that nobody seems to know how suburban rail generally works everywhere in the world.

They responded directly to your point implying that this station couldn't be serving a population center because it's by a highway and then you didn't address that and kept talking past them

Well you certainly aren’t wrong about Boise.

I wonder how that layout even happens. Are rails and highways planned together?

I guess here in Switzerland the rail lines are mostly much older than the highways, and that's why this doesn't feel familiar

Sometimes. Sometimes they create highways in the USA that have a huge gap in the middle so they can add more lanes in the future if needed. Those gaps can sometimes be repurposed for public transport. It's really just lobbyists that have pushed for cars since 1940 so the rich fucks can get richer by selling more cars. America has shit transportation so we can ensure the worst people in society get richer and richer.

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

state of illinoise

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

Nobody has responded in this thread about why the way this is built is good ([...]), offered solutions or agreed that it's just stupid and shouldn't be this way.

Isn't that refreshing? The video is only 22 seconds long. It's just enough context to show that the highway noise is indeed noisy there.

Most of us don't know what the requirements were when planning and designing this station. Most of us probably never had to plan/design these things. Too many people on the Internet speak with an authoritative tone despite being ignorant of the subject matter. I see no harm in letting a conversation be free of armchair experts.

https://youtu.be/uM5cGZRWUUw

What the fuck am i looking at 💀 The european brain cannot comprehend this