Nearly There

In December 2022, the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) announced a new round of funding through the agency's  All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP)  for states to upgrade transit stations to meet national accessibility guidelines. A portion of this funding was  awarded to two Illinois agencies  - the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and the Commuter Rail Division of the Regional Transportation Authority, or Metra. Within these two agencies, five stations throughout the Chicago area -  three CTA stations  and  two Metra stations  - will undergo renovations to improve station accessibility and better accommodate increased ridership. Though the stations themselves will be modified for greater accessibility, it is unclear if the sidewalk conditions surrounding these stations are themselves accessible. And while sidewalks are not governed by these transit authorities, greater understanding of existing sidewalk conditions can aid both transit and city planning agencies in determining the best course of action for making public transportation more accessible.

This effort is part of a larger research study, funded through a National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities grant ( award #2125087 ). This study is focused on exploring ways to improve how cities collect and use data on pedestrian infrastructure accessibility. This effort is led by a team from the University of Illinois Chicago, the University of Washington, and Easterseals. We are supported by an advisory board of regional partners:  Access Living ,  Achieving Independence and Mobility Center for Independent Living ,  Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning ,  Metropolitan Mayors Caucus ,  Metropolitan Planning Council ,  Progress Center for Independent Living , and the  Regional Transportation Authority . The Project Sidewalk tool was developed by the  University of Washington Makeability Lab .

Over 30 million people in the US have at least one physical disability that impacts their ability to move around, and almost half of them rely on devices like wheelchairs, canes, crutches, or walkers. In the city of Chicago, more than 10%, over  500,000  people, have a disability. For people with disabilities, accessible sidewalks and pedestrian infrastructure support mobility, physical activity, and can improve overall quality of life. Additionally, investing in accessible infrastructure offers economic benefits, supporting  increased transit ridership and boosting local economies . Finally, there are legal incentives to support accessibility,  with cities around the country ,  including Chicago , facing lawsuits for not updating their infrastructure to meet accessibility requirements.

Despite laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities, many city streets, sidewalks, and businesses are still not easy for them to access. The  Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 , the  Rehabilitation Act of 1973 , and Title II of the  Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA) are all legislation that affect sidewalk accessibility rights.

The recently published ADA and ABA  Accessibility Guidelines for the Public Right-of-Way  (PROWAG) provide minimal enforceable standards for public right of way features including sidewalks, curb ramps, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals, to be usable and accessible for persons with disabilities.

Sidewalk accessibility requires barrier free paths between destinations. Missing damaged, poorly designed curb ramps and sidewalks, and a lack of crosswalks and pedestrian signals can all impact the safety and usability of sidewalks. Even when barriers are minimal, they can impact trip connectivity and safety for users with mobility difficulties.

Over the course of three months, four undergraduate students from UIC's College of Applied Health Sciences virtually audited sidewalks within the quarter-mile buffer around five stations using the Project Sidewalk tool. The students' initial interest was sparked by taking a Disability, Urban Planning, and Geography course with  Dr. Yochai Eisenberg  and learning about the importance of barrier removal in improving community participation for people with disabilities. The five stations used in this project were selected with the help of our partners at  Access Living . A quarter-mile radius was used, as this tends to be the ideal distance between transit stops and the intended destination. At the end of the auditing period, the students reviewed labels to get a sense of how accessible the sidewalks were.

The students were trained to use  Project Sidewalk  to identify and label accessibility issues as they audited around each station. Project Sidewalk is  a crowdsource + AI tool  that allows users to virtually map and visualize sidewalk accessibility data using imagery from Google Street View. Labeling standards are based on existing ADA  PROWAG  standards.

Project Sidewalk instructs users to locate and assess seven different features - curb ramps, missing curb ramps, obstacles, surface problems, crosswalks, pedestrian signals, and missing sidewalks. When labeling these features, users can select descriptive and condition tags, as well as write additional comments. Finally, users are instructed to determine a 1 to 5 severity rating for the features based on their overall accessibility, with 1 being the most accessible and 5 being the least accessible; pedestrian signals do not receive a severity rating. Use the arrows in the slideshow below to see an example of each label type and learn more about the impact of each feature on sidewalk accessibility.  An accessible version of the slideshow is available here. 

Five transit stations throughout Chicago will be undergoing accessibility upgrades to better meet the needs of riders. These locations were chosen for upgrades by the CTA and Metra as part of long-term, multi-phased initiatives to eliminate inaccessible stations from their lines. From the Northwest to the South Side, these five stations represent two lines: CTA Blue Line and Metra Electric Line.

Click on each point on the map or scroll down the StoryMap to learn more about each neighborhood.  A table version of the slideshow is available here. 

All student labels were reviewed and validated by the Project Coordinator using Project Sidewalk's validation interface. Only labels that were correctly validated were included in this analysis. Additionally, when assembling the final dataset, any labels that did not have a severity rating were excluded. While crosswalks and pedestrian signals are critical pieces of pedestrian infrastructure, this report focuses on the label types that can most impact sidewalk connectivity and pedestrian access. This includes curb ramps, surface problems, obstacles, and no sidewalks. The severity of each of these label types was also taken into consideration when determining the accessibility of the surrounding areas. Students only found 3 instances of a missing curb ramp; therefore, this label type is not included in the detailed neighborhood findings below but can be seen in the map displaying all the labels. The full dataset of labels is available for download in the  resources section below .

The map below shows all label types found within a .25 mile walkshed of each station. Click on each neighborhood or scroll down the StoryMap to learn about accessibility issues found in each neighborhood. Detailed information for each neighborhood can be found in the  Appendix .  A table version of the slideshow can be accessed here. 

Users take public transit for a multitude of reasons, and access to high-priority locations - like medical offices, grocery stores, and centers of education and employment - is crucial. For people with a physical disability, outdated pedestrian infrastructure and sidewalk barriers can make these trips unsafe or even impossible. The below route illustrates a pedestrian's route from the Belmont CTA Blue Line station to a nearby grocery store. While the majority of the route is free from issues, several surface problems and obstacles along the path reduce the accessibility of this route.

Click on each point on the map or scroll down to virtually walk or roll from the Belmont Blue Line Station to a nearby shopping plaza.  A table version of the slideshow can be accessed here. 

The sidewalks surrounding the transit stations included in this audit were found to have connectivity issues due to problematic curb ramps, surface problems, obstacles, and missing sidewalks. Several positive findings, including many high quality curb ramps, were noted. However, at least one surface problem or obstacle was found on nearly every street audited. These issues can impact the ability of people with mobility difficulties to make complete trips.

Severe and persistant accessibility issues were found where sidewalks met existing infrastructure, particularly along interstate I-90 and I-290. Sidewalks bordering these highways were given surface problem and obstacle labels, and were tagged as having vegetation growth, cracks, and grass, as well as being narrow. In some cases, particularly in Irving Park, permanent structures including trees and poles are built into the sidewalk creating impassible routes.

Another finding throughout the neighborhoods was construction related barriers. These temporary obstacles may be related to sidewalk or infrastructure improvement, but they can create dangerous and impassible conditions for users with disabilities. When considering accessibility upgrades, planners should consider how routes will be impacted and create accessible alternate pathways.

Creating accessible public transportation is essential to ensuring that users of all abilities can reach their destinations. Without addressing the connectivity issues caused by inaccessible sidewalks, the newly upgraded transit stations will be islands of accessibility. Through barrier removal and informed planning, accessible sidewalks will allow users to go from 'nearly' to all the way there.

Data collected through this project and Project Sidewalk can be used to make an impact on planning and infrastructure improvement within the community.

In the city of Chicago, aldermen are given an annual 1.5 million dollar  'Menu Money'  budget that is earmarked for infrastructure improvements within their ward. Using Project Sidewalk to visualize priority areas for accessibility upgrades can be a first step in guiding decision making through  participatory budgeting  and other improvement proposals.

Using crowd sourced data to visualize the barriers within your neighborhood can help propel your own advocacy goals to create a more accessible and connected community. See  Resources  for how to get involved.

Improving the quality and quantity of data surrounding sidewalk accessibility is an important step towards more inclusive public infrastructure. Sidewalk inventories exist, but lack detailed information about accesibility barriers. Our community partner, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) created an inventory of sidewalk availability within the Chicago region. This data can be a useful way to measure the presence of sidewalks and safety features, but does not fully map barriers that can limit accessibility.

CMAP's  Regional Inventory Map  uses aerial imaging and existing highway data to identify gaps in sidewalk presence, including around transit stations. Findings highlight the need to invest in infrastructure improvements in high priority areas.

Use the slider in the middle of the two images below to toggle back and forth between the CMAP Regional Sidewalk Inventory Map (left) and the Label Map from Project Sidewalk (right). These maps both show a section of the Hyde Park neighborhood that is adjacent to the 59th/60th Street Metra Station.

The teal lines on the CMAP map (left) show complete sidewalks on both sides of a street, purple represents sidewalk on one side, and the dotted turquoise lines are off street pedestrian paths. The Project Sidewalk label map has black lines to indicate a street has been fully audited and each colored dot relates to an accessibility feature that was labeled and validated by Project Sidewalk users.

Combining these existing inventories with data from tools such as Project Sidewalk can create a more comprehensive visualization of barriers that limit accessibility within pedestrian infrastructure to improve future planning.

 All data collected for this project are open to the public .  You can view the map with all the labels here , where you can also download each label as an individual shapefile layer.  You can download a CSV of the labels here . Contact Devon Snyder at dsnyde8@uic.edu with any questions about the data or if you have issues accessing anything.

The following maps and tables detail individual label types and severity ratings for curb ramps, surface problems, obstacles, and no sidewalk in all 5 neighborhoods. Representative images for each severity rating are also included.

Scroll down or click on each neighborhood heading in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. Click 'Show all Project Sidewalk Labels ' to see all neighborhood label types.